SUMMER COCKTAILS - ILLUSTRATIONS, NOIR ET BLANC

Head Barman, Christopher Gaglione, finishes his service at 1/40am, yet you continue chatting with him, unaware of the late hour because of your jet lag. He adjusts the back of his lapel pin which marks his belonging to Prince de Galles Hotel staff. Your heightened senses take note of the three-feathered wall sconces, « the emblem of the Prince having inspired this place », according to the bartender. You watch him put away the ten precious infusion carafes, « each one designed to contain 6 ¾ fluid ounces of the summer cocktails I designed », he tells you not without a certain professionnal pride. Tomorrow once again for six hours, the ten round carafes will flavor liquors and spirits from from around the world. Once again will their transparency show an aquatic ballet mixing petals, spices, citrus zests or aromatic herbs, a refreshing liquid choreography concocted differently for each customer. Perhaps tomorrow night you will come back tot try out a different style of these dances. But for right now it is the late at Les Heures, and the music is dying out, unlike the tasteof your Reverso cocktail, forever imprinted on your taste buds