Paul Feig's top cocktail bars around the world

He's always viewed cocktails as the key to the glamorous adult world – in real life and his famously daring films. Here are the director's favourite cocktail spots, from Capri to Burbank.

Paul Feig – the perennially well-dressed director of Bridesmaids (2011) and A Simple Favor (2018) – has become almost as well-known for his love of cocktails as he is for his films.

"Try to find one of my movies where somebody's not drinking a martini," he jokes.

The BBC caught up with Feig as he prepared for the launch of Another Simple Favor, premiering 1 May on Amazon Prime Video. The film sees the return of Blake Lively's murderous, martini-swilling Emily and Anna Kendrick's prim Stephanie for more sensual backstabbing – this time against the opulent backdrop of Capri's Grand Hotel Quisisana.

Not so incidentally, the Grand Hotel Quisisana is also home to one of Feig's favourite cocktail bars.

But for Feig, beautiful cocktails are more than a silent film character; they are the "greatest perks" of the adult world.

"I didn't like the power dynamics of being a kid," explains Feig. "I've always been obsessed with the culture of cocktails; the look of cocktails, the glassware, the mixology. It is all, to me, so beautiful."

Feig believes that cocktails should always be a special moment, even if partaking at home. "You should be wearing the right thing and have the right glass," he says. "So much stuff in our culture now is for kids or trying to stay young which is fine. But being an adult is awesome. It's got its hard parts. That's why you need cocktails."

And when he's jet-setting, Feig keeps the special occasion going, seeking out the world's top cocktail bars.

"I do a little research," he says. "I always want to find the nicest one. I have an obsession with hotel bars... but I'll do my research and ask people; find out what they recommend as far as what I'm looking for."

And Feig is looking for something specific. 

"It has to be very beautiful," he says. "Beautiful wood and beautiful appointments; the way they display the bottles; bartenders who are absolute professionals. I look for a good aesthetic experience with knowledgeable bartenders." 

Having an adult-style tipple, he notes, can also get you a front-row seat to a new city's culture. "Having a drink definitely tends to loosen me up," he says. "I think it connects you with the group of people that might lead you to other things that you are looking for; nice restaurants and cool places to shop. I love finding the cool places to shop. I love all that stuff."

Here are Feig's favourite very beautiful, very grown-up cocktail bars around the world.

Feig's favourite cocktail on-and-off screen is forever the martini – so he holds his bartenders to a high standard. "Honestly, I'm very prejudiced about that," he admits. "If they go 'gin or vodka?' I'm always, like, 'I said a martini, I didn't say a vodka martini.' It's so fluid now with people having vodka or gin martinis. But I'm a purist. I do hold that against a bartender occasionally."

But Feig never has cause to judge when he visits the historic DUKES Bar, located in London's upscale St James's neighbourhood.

"It's a very small bar. It looks like grandma's living room," he says of the cosy space outfitted with heavy club chairs; opened in 1908. "I wouldn't be surprised to see people from Parliament walk in there. It's got that vibe. They have a dress code, which I love. And it's where Ian Fleming discovered the martini, supposedly. So, it's got a little James Bond DNA on top of it."

For Feig, what truly makes the DUKES experience is the personable and highly knowledgeable staff – led by Alessandro Palazzi, who Feig calls his "cocktail hero" and a "really close friend". 

"What they specialise in is martinis that don't touch ice, so they're the coldest martinis you can get," says Feig. "They bring out the frozen glasses, the frozen bottle of gin. They take vermouth – which is not frozen – but they put it into the glass, swirl it around just to coat the edges, and then they dump it out on the floor, so you just have the very thin coat. Then right from the frozen bottle, they pour in the gin. So it's freezing cold; there's no excuse for [a] martini that's not ice-cold."

Feig notes that because the martini never touches ice, it's undiluted: "They limit you to two, because you'll pass out if you go beyond that." Feig also applauds Palazzi's "great" vespers and "amazing" Manhattans. "You can get whatever you want, but that is the temple of the martini."

Website: www.dukeshotel.com/dukesbar.html

Address: 35 St James's Pl, London SW1A 1NY

Phone: +442074914840

Instagram: @dukeslondon

The Grand Hotel Quisisana is located on the island of Capri, which Feig and his wife, Laurie, have visited "religiously" once a year for the past 30 years. "Capri is my favourite place in the world," says Feig. "Even when we're not staying at the Quisisana, we go there for drinks because I love the bar inside."

Built in 1845, the Grand Hotel Quisisana sits at the start of the bougainvillea-draped, luxury-boutique-lined Via Camerelle, catching the tourist overflow from Piazza Umberto I. The hotel's marble lobby leads to opulent, Vietri-tiled guestrooms. Just past the lobby is Quisi Bar, which serves all manners of apertifs, and whose splendid street-level terrace has entertained royalty, politicians and artistic luminaries from Oscar Wilde to Jackie Kennedy.

"The best part is sitting out front, especially on that patio," says Feig. "Everything in Capri comes past there.…  and you will people watch. It's just magical. You become a real Caprese local when you're sitting up there."

When in Capri, Feig – who built hotel rooms on the set of Another Simple Favor to resemble those at the Quisisana – veers from his usual martinis and opts for a spritz; Aperol or limoncello. And he particularly enjoys the Italian custom of the early evening aperitivo, where bar snacks like olives, finger sandwiches and crisps are served along with the drinks. 

"It's, like, 'oh, here – eat!',” says Feig. "I wrote in my cocktail book, 'Should you serve food at your cocktail party?' And yes, unless you're a monster, don't serve people cocktails with no food! It's that Italian ethos." 

Website: https://www.quisisana.com/s

Address: Via Camerelle, 2, 80073 Capri NA

Phone: +390818370788

Instagram: @quisisanacapri/

When not travelling the globe for work (and martinis), Feig is often in New York City where he has a residence on the Upper East Side – and firm favourite neighbourhood cocktail joints.

"Bemelmans [Bar] is an institution," he says, "It's in the Carlyle Hotel, which is one of the most famous hotels of opulence [in] the Upper East Side in New York."

Bemelmans, originally opened in 1947 and beloved for its Art Deco decor, epitomises "old" New York for Feig. "I love history. I love old bars," he says. "The wall's been painted by [Austrian American writer Ludwig] Bemelmans. He did all the artwork for [the children’s book series] Madeline. Back in the day, he painted all the walls with his cartoons, and so that gives it this real New York history."

Like Feig, visitors to the bar will find themselves transported by the childlike murals on the walls – uplit against mahogany tables and rich leather tufted booths – as they enjoy elegant cocktails and live jazz.

But how's their martini?

"They make great martinis there with a side car, which I love," says Feig. "There's a whole thing going on now in martini culture of bartenders coming over when you're halfway through a martini and bringing out a new cold, frozen glass and transferring what's left of your martini, which I think is so brilliant. Why don't we do that all the time?"

Feig is also a fan of the Bemelmans' waitstaff. "I've befriended many because I've been going there for so many years," he says. "It always was hard to get in. But then there was a period about two years ago where a lot of young influencers discovered it and then it went nuts. But I've been coming there so long I kind of go, 'Hey. It's me.'"

"It's New York to me; the best of old New York," he adds. "It's one of those places where you feel like you've walked into a New Yorker cartoon, basically."

Website: https://www.rosewoodhotels.com/en/the-carlyle-new-york/dining/bemelmans-bar

Address: 35 E 76th St, New York, NY 10021

Phone: +12127441600

Instagram: @rosewoodthecarlyle/

"Oh, I love The Polo Bar so much," says Feig fondly. "It's new old New York."

The eponymous cocktail bar helmed by fashion designer and philanthropist Ralph Lauren is on New York City's East 55th Street just off Fifth Avenue, one of Manhattan's swankiest shopping streets. "It's got the Ralph aesthetic," says Feig. "It's all wood and mirrors and paintings everywhere, and leather. And then, if you go up the stairs in the back, there's a parlour where you can sit in front of a fireplace, and there's a bunch of tables in there to have cocktails." 

At The Polo Bar, the bar staff prepares a stirred martini. 

"Unless you ask them to shake it," notes Feig. "I'm a personal fan of stirred martinis, because so many bartenders pride themselves on shaking a martini to death, which is the worst way to do a martini, as far as I'm concerned, because it just clouds it up with ice chips. The glassware is all Ralph Lauren glassware, so if you order an old fashioned or whiskey, it comes in a beautiful old fashioned Ralph Lauren glass with the polo horses on the front. Even the stirrers are little polo mallets. The attention to detail is so spot on, and the way that the bottles are displayed; they're uplit from beneath, so they glow." 

And after enjoying perfectly stirred martinis, guests can retire downstairs to The Polo Bar Restaurant. "The food is fantastic," says Feig. "It's all very American food. They make an amazing hamburger, but it's served so beautifully. But the cocktail bar really is the linchpin of the whole thing. It's all very mature and very aesthetically fantastic." 

Website: www.ralphlauren.com/global-polo-bar

Address: 1 E 55th St, New York, NY 10022

Phone: +12122078562

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/poloralphlauren/

Burbank, California, is Feig's other hometown in the United States – and it's also home to Smoke House, a restaurant and bar for which Feig's love has been well-documented.

"Smoke House is quintessential Americana," says Feig. "I have a love of dark wood and red leather, which is what bars used to be in America for a long time. In Europe where you drink, there's windows and there's light. In America, you drink in the dark. I think it's our American puritanism."

For Feig, the Smoke House's moody interiors evoke the glamorous heyday of the Rat Pack: "Frank Sinatra and Vegas… everybody's cool, everybody's in tuxedos and suits and gowns. The Smoke House is a time capsule of what that was."

But Feig notes that for all the bar's celebrity cache – it's located across the street from Warner Brothers, Universal and Disney Studios – he loves that the crowd is surprisingly down-to-earth. "It's got a very populist crowd in there," he says. "So it's got this great vibe of being old timey, but also very welcoming and not exclusive, which is lovely."

The bar area hosts live music the second half of the week and visitors can enjoy the restaurant's famous garlic bread and hot wings. "I'm a buffalo wing fanatic. They've got great ones there," says Feig. Most importantly, they serve a "great" martini: "They have really good bartenders who, if you ask for a dry martini, they know how to make a dry martini."

"It's just fun," adds Feig. "It's really not pretentious but brings along the old-fashioned fun of adulthood."

Website: www.smokehouse1946.com/

Address: 4420 Lakeside Dr, Burbank, CA 91505

Phone: +18188453731

Instagram: @smokehouse1946/

BBC Travel's The SpeciaList is a series of guides to popular and emerging destinations around the world, as seen through the eyes of local experts and tastemakers.

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