The Luggage Room in Mayfair

An ode to a bygone era of hedonism, beauty and class, on entering Mayfair’s The Luggage Room you half expect to find Carey Mulligan draped in fur, pearls and feathers, propping up the bar. With its dimmed lights, secretive booths and jolly-yet-not-overpowering music, a Tuesday afternoon in this establishment quickly morphs into a Saturday night in the West End. Gatsby would most definitely approve!

Transformed in 2012 from the actual luggage room of the Marriott Hotel to this gem of a speakeasy, the doors to the new bar-about-town have been open for just three weeks. Even in this short space of time word has spread and along with hotel guests, Mayfair residents have also become regulars. With a series of attentive, amiable and attractive blonde waitresses, an innovative and exciting cocktail menu, and a highly knowledgeable and passionate bar manager, it is easy to see why.

Once seated in a leather-studded booth (styled perfectly by Fabled Interiors to 1920s luggage chic), a complimentary rum and fruit juice punch arrives which literally whets the palate as you are torn between the menu’s alluring “heritage with a twist” concoctions. Here, the staff is extremely helpful, asking what spirits you like, if you like bitter or sweet, long or short. In fact, they seem to know what you want before you even know you wanted it.

And so arrived the namesake Luggage cocktail (£12.50), an Airmail (£12.50), a Pretty in Pink (£12.50) and a Penicillin (£13.50). With a basil leaf bobbing delicately on the surface, the Luggage cocktail was fantastically moreish; hit first by the powerful herb and rounded off by gentle rose syrup, the drink made for a dual delight. Champagne-based and served in an elegant flute, the Airmail combined honey and lime to successfully trigger both the sweet and sour taste buds.

The Pretty in Pink delivered a potent mix of rum, martini, lime juice and bitters; one of these alone would set you up for the night. Finally the Penicillin, and with even the smallest sip, you are transported to a land of wood-burners, cigars and chimneys, broken only by short intervals of ginger, lime and honey. A Penicillin cocktail-a-day keeps the doctors at bay, one of the bow-tied and black-braced bar men joked. “In the morning,” he continued and smiled, “you will feel stronger!”

An exciting new venture in a fabulous location, The Luggage Room is deservedly proving popular. Glamorous, nostalgically atmospheric and with no members policy, after a dry January this is definitely the place to treat yourself, in what will have to be a very wet February.

Alice Audley
Photos: Alice Audley 

The Luggage Room, Grosvenor Square, London W1K 6JP is open Monday-Saturday 17:00 – 02:00. For further information or to book a table visit the bar’s website here.