Taste the Metaverse: Maison Assouline’s cocktail inspired by the digital world
Best known as a publisher of opulent coffee table books on topics including culture, art, fashion, luxury goods and travel, Maison Assouline, nestled in the heart of Piccadilly, is a self-proclaimed “bastion of elegance”.
Its London flagship is located in a century-old bank building, designed by the Cenotaph architect, Edwin Lutyens. With its high shelves and higher ceiling, the store – dotted with whimsical objet d’art – has been a magnet for discerning bibliophiles for more than 20 years. It offers a refined blend of modern tastes and old-world charm.
And so does its in-house cocktail venue; Swans Bar. The bar is named after one of Maison Assouline’s books, “Swans: Legends of the Jet Society”. Like its namesake book, the bar recalls a time when foreign travel was the preserve of a cosmopolitan elite, but it does so organoleptically, with a series of inventive cocktails, inspired by the destinations explored in other Maison Assouline titles.
For instance, there is the “Bali Mystique”, which evokes warm Indonesian nights with a blend of Fresh Monkey (an unaged spirit from the makers of Monkey Shoulder whisky), cherry eau de vie, palm sugar, and kopi luwak (the infamous coffee made from beans partially digested by Asian palm civets). Or you could imagine yourself on the white sand beaches of the Caribbean with the “St Barths Freedom”, a mix of rye whiskey, banana rum, Manzanilla, brown butter, and pineapple soda.
But with the recent publication of “Metaverse Dream”, visitors to Swans Bar are no longer restricted to drinks inspired by locations that exist in the real world. Happily, the book does not simply examine the eerie, anodyne space created by Mark Zuckerburg, instead it offers a more expansive vision of the emerging digital environment. “Metaverse Dream” explores the dawn of an age of virtual travel, where – through the medium of virtual reality – new worlds will be created every day, and people will travel to them without leaving home. It presents images from the emerging frontier, illustrating the metaverse as it is now, and providing suggestive glimpses of what may yet be to come.
Last year, the former Bols Bartending World Champion Gabor Onufer was hired as Swans’ bar manager, having previously worked at Boutiq’Bar in Budapest, and The Fumoir at Claridge’s. Since joining Maison Assouline he has developed Swans’ backbar, and established an on-site lab, where his team produces their own syrups and other ingredients, drawing attention from lovers of fine spirits and cocktails alike.
Making cocktails inspired by travel books isn’t as simple as throwing together regionally appropriate ingredients. “We are hugely influenced by our surroundings at Maison Assouline and, of course, Assouline’s incredible books,” Onufer explains. “As soon as we have a chance to peek inside new titles and read through the pages, the images and stories inspire us to come up with ideas – a palate of locations and a journey of evocative flavours which transport our clientele to exotic locations around the world, while enjoying their time with us at Swans Bar.”
Developing a cocktail to represent the metaverse forced the team to think more abstractly. “This was an exciting challenge,” says Onufer. “And one which we relished – because, of course, there are no immediate flavours associated with the metaverse and digital world. It therefore inspired some unusual flavour pairings, including buchu and melon, Scotch and eucalyptus. We also topped the cocktail off with a QR code, which guests can utilise to take a dip into a virtual Assouline experience. A lot of fun!”
With such a diverse list of apparently unrelated ingredients, the recipe looks like something that could have been randomly produced by an AI. However, the unexpected combination of flavours are neatly balanced, and the experience of drinking it reveals a sophisticated understanding of flavours that chatbots do not yet possess.
• Taste the Metaverse Dream at Swans Bar: https://www.maisonassouline.com/swansbar