Velvet by Salvatore Calabrese,
Corinthia London
Velvet is Salvatore Calabrese’s bar at Corinthia London, a room of deep red velvet, low light and live music, set just beyond the hotel’s great Baccarat chandelier. Behind its counter sits a new stainless steel underbar, made to fit a structure that could not be changed.
Client
Corinthia London
Location
London
Our scope
Underbar
Completed
October 2022
Interior design
David Collins Studio
In partnership with
Salvatore Calabrese
Photography
Michael Franke
The brief
In 2022, Corinthia transformed its former bar, Bassoon, into Velvet, with a new interior by David Collins Studio. More than 600 metres of velvet, celadon panelled walls, convex mirrors and a marble fireplace give the room the intimacy of a private members’ club, and the original bar counter and bartop were to remain at its centre.
We were asked to replace the underbar without altering the bar carcass or bartop. Every unit had to be drawn to the tolerances of an existing structure and installed around joinery that would stay exactly as it was. Corinthia also wanted new refrigeration in the backfitting, finished so that it would belong to the room rather than stand apart from it.
The time we had was short. Our first drawings were issued in August 2022, and the bar was installed that October, ready for Velvet to open.
The Calabrese approach
Velvet draws on a partnership with Salvatore that goes back to his first bar, Salvatore at Fifty, in the Fifty St James private members’ club. We have since worked together on Salvatore at Playboy and on bars for Corinthia and Rocco Forte Hotels, and over those years two ideas have run through everything we design together.
The first is the Calabrese Sink™. Developed with Salvatore, it lets a bartender clear peel and spent fruit in a single movement, without turning away from the guest. The second is his belief that a bar is better served by a few well equipped bartenders than by many working in each other’s way.
Salvatore speaks of the music of the shake, the idea that the making of a drink is part of the experience itself, and the underbar exists to protect that theatre so that nothing interrupts it.
Designing the workstation
Salvatore’s guiding principle is that a forward facing bartender should reach every ingredient for a cocktail within three steps. We treated the underbar as a piece of choreography built around that rule, mapping where the ice, bottles, garnishes and tools needed to sit so that every reach falls naturally to hand and every movement is economical.
Along a run of 4.8 metres, insulated, adjustable ice wells sit beside inset speed rails, garnish rails and Calabrese™ shaker sinks. The panels, cabinets and shelving below are built entirely within the footprint of the original bar, so the new underbar sits as though it had always been there.
The Calabrese™ shaker sink, set beside the preparation board
A cocktail station with insulated, adjustable ice well and champagne holders
Refrigerated garnish drawers concealed beneath the ice chest
Laser cut gratings along the raised service rail to include Salvetore's branding
Cold storage is placed where it is needed rather than where it is easiest to install. Bespoke refrigerated and freezer drawers sit directly beneath the ice chests, and a custom three drawer unit keeps garnishes cold within arm’s reach. On the back bar, bottle coolers and glass frosters are framed by new support panels, shelving and a cabinet, all wrapped to match, so the refrigeration reads as part of the joinery.
The smaller details follow the same thinking, from the laser cut gratings in the service rails to a stainless steel back of house with its own Calabrese Sink™, cabinetry and wall shelving, where preparation and clear down happen out of the guest’s view. It is a bar built to be worked at the highest level, in a room where none of that work should show.
“The bartender needs to be forward facing and able to reach all ingredients to make a cocktail in three steps, and the operational layout is vital to allow this to happen.”
Salvatore Calabrese