The SLMan Hot List: April

The Connaught Bar in Mayfair has been a World’s 50 Best Bar for 13 consecutive years (taking number-one spot multiple times). Its beating heart is virtuoso mixologist Agostino Perrone, known as Ago, who has led the bar for over 15 years, earning international accolades including World’s Best Bartender and Best International Bar Mentor along the way. His new book, The Connaught Bar: Recipes and Iconic Creations, takes readers behind the scenes, presenting 100 elegant cocktails – both contemporary and classics – with clear instructions on how to make them at home. Created with the help of Maura Milia (Connaught Bar manager) and Giorgio Bargiani (assistant director of mixology, who received this year’s International Bartender of the Year award at Tales of the Cocktail), the book opens with an intro by one of the world’s best chefs, Massimo Bottura, followed by the recipe for the famous Connaught martini. The striking hardback also includes 12 non-alcoholic cocktails.

Visit Shop.The-Connaught.co.uk

Civil War is a dystopian action film written and directed by Alex Garland, author of The Beach and the director behind Annihilation, Ex Machina and Men. Starring Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Jesse Plemons, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Nick Offerman, Civil War is set in the near future. It follows a team of journalists travelling across the US during the rapidly escalating Second American Civil War, which pits the American government (led by Offerman as the president) an separatist ‘Western Forces’ led by Texas and California. We’ve seen the trailer a few times at the cinema and this looks like one of 2024’s more interesting blockbusters.

Visit Picturehouses.com

This month, cult NYC perfume brand DS & Durga launched its first UK-exclusive scent, available only at Liberty. Aside from being a self-taught perfumer, David (DS) is a musician and lifelong fan of Britpop and British rockstars, in particular David Bowie. Drawing on the album artwork for Ziggy Stardust (in which Bowie wears a Liberty print silk shirt) for inspiration, he reckons Wear At Maximum Volume smells like “cosmic rock gods draped in Liberty silk prints and heady fumes”. Notes include mandarin, pepper, amber, Brixton moss, patchouli and, indeed, Liberty silk.

Visit LibertyLondon.com

abc kitchens is the new restaurant by revered French chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. It opens on 4th April at The Emory in Knightsbridge. Designed by the late Richard Rogers, The Emory is London’s first all-suite hotel and the latest opening by Maybourne, the group behind Claridge’s, The Connaught and The Berkeley. In short, you know it’s going to be special. Vongerichten’s original abc kitchen has been a fixture of New York’s dining scene since 2010. It’s where he casts aside traditional meat stocks and creams to focus on the intense flavours and textures of vegetable juices, fruit essences, light broths and herbal vinaigrettes. The menu at the London outpost will include some New York signatures: think crab toast with green chilli, dill and lemon aioli; crispy fish tacos served with aioli and cabbage-apple slaw; and char-grilled beef tenderloin with chimichurri and lime.

Visit The-Emory.co.uk