The Connaught’s art-filled Red Room serves the world’s finest wine
The new Red Room bar at The Connaught, London, showcases exceptional wines, and artworks by female artists Louise Bourgeois and Jenny Holzer
The opening of a new bar at The Connaught hotel (also known for its restaurants) in London’s Mayfair is quite an event, especially as the existing Connaught Bar is heralded as the best in the world. This autumn, the Red Room will be the first new bar unveiled at the hotel in over a decade and will focus on wine.
The Red Room is named in reference to the red-hued artworks displayed within the space, a collection of pieces in various mediums by four female visionaries: Louise Bourgeois, Jenny Holzer, Trina McKillen, and young pioneering Vietnamese artist,
Tia-Thuy Nguyen.
Guests can find the bar nestled within the hotel, accessed, rather thrillingly, through a velvet curtained doorway from the Champagne Room. The space revealed beyond the curtain has the intimate feel of a collector’s living room – a relaxing sanctuary in which you may contemplate an important art collection whilst sipping some of the world’s best wines.
The Connaught hotel’s wine cellar features more than 3,000 labels and over 30,000 bottles, and this extraordinary collection is showcased by the Red Room, which offers a carefully considered and highly impressive wine list overseen by the hotel’s director of wine, Daniel Manetti. A revolutionary Coravin system (which allows wine to be poured without removing the cork) makes it possible to serve rare and exceptional wines by the glass (including a 1994 Petrus, the world’s most famous Merlot).
The wine is decanted and served from marble trolleys, custom made for this purpose in the same red-veined Italian marble as the Red Room’s striking fireplace. Designed by Bryan O’Sullivan in a palette of pinks, creams, and pastel green, the interiors are softly decadent, with a pink onyx bar as a focal point, and a constantly evolving collection of ceramics and jewel-like objets d’art.
No detail regarding the enjoyment of wine has been left unattended, from the seating to the Murano glassware and a bar menu created to complement the wine list. Guests may choose from a selection of charcuterie, British cheeses, and small plates, including carpaccio, chicken oysters, and kale tempura, and replete with these delights, they are also able to explore The Connaught’s famous wine cellar.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
INFORMATION
The Red Room opens 29 September 2021, the-connaught.co.uk
Melina Keays is the entertaining director of Wallpaper*. She has been part of the brand since the magazine’s launch in 1996, and is responsible for entertaining content across the print and digital platforms, and for Wallpaper’s creative agency Bespoke. A native Londoner, Melina takes inspiration from the whole spectrum of art and design – including film, literature, and fashion. Her work for the brand involves curating content, writing, and creative direction – conceiving luxury interior landscapes with a focus on food, drinks, and entertaining in all its forms
-
‘Concrete Dreams’: rethinking Newcastle’s brutalist past
A new project and exhibition at the Farrell Centre in Newcastle revisits the radical urban ideas that changed Tyneside in the 1960s and 1970s
By Smilian Cibic Published
-
Mexican designers show their metal at Gallery Collectional, Dubai
‘Unearthing’ at Dubai’s Gallery Collectional sees Ewe Studio designers Manu Bañó and Héctor Esrawe celebrate Mexican craftsmanship with contemporary forms
By Rebecca Anne Proctor Published
-
At The Manner, New York has a highly fashionable new living room
The Manner, a new hopsitality experience by Standard International in the heart of SoHo, triples up as a hotel, private residence, and members’ club
By Hannah Walhout Published
-
Celebrate Día de los Muertos at one of London (and the world’s) finest Mexican restaurants
Día de los Muertos will arrive at KOL in Marylebone on 2 November, with a collaborative menu including dishes from the chefs behind Endo at The Rotunda to The Connaught, wrapped up with a mezcal fiesta
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Mark’s Club’s interior refresh brings British countryside charm to the heart of Mayfair
Located in a classic Mayfair townhouse, Mark’s Club unveils its new interiors, from greenhouse extensions to a new open-plan layout full of trinkets and charm
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Frogs legs to fromage: Café François is London’s newest French canteen, serving up all the classics with a contemporary global twist
The founders of Mayfair's Maison François have opened a new addition, Café François. The Borough-based canteen offers an array of French classics from dawn to dusk
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Dramatic and immersive, Dosa dishes up Korean cuisine with a moody flair
The Mandarin Oriental Mayfair welcomes Dosa, a new Korean restaurant by Akira Back
By Melina Keays Published
-
Yauatcha’s bespoke mooncakes mark the start of delicious celebrations for Mid-Autumn Festival
Yauatcha, London’s Chinese dim sum teahouse, celebrates Mid-Autumn Festival (17 September) with three flavours of limited-edition mooncakes
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Why bread is back on the menu
Gone are the days of carb-avoidant diets dominating restaurant menus. Food Critic, Leonie Cooper, celebrates the return of pillowy, inventive bread as London's stand-out dish
By Leonie Cooper Published
-
Birley Chocolate hits the sweet ’n’ chic spot in London’s Chelsea
The new Birley Chocolate shop, a sibling to Birley Bakery, is a confection of colour as delicious as its finely crafted goods
By Melina Keays Published
-
The London tequila bars well worth a shot
Our resident spirits writer Neil Ridley explores London’s best places to enjoy the finest agave-based spirits
By Neil Ridley Published