Calabrese leaves Playboy Club for Hong Kong

World renowned bartender Salvatore Calabrese, responsible for some of the world’s most expensive cocktails, has announced his departure from London’s Playboy Club, revealing plans to open a new bar in Hong Kong.

Calabrese with a pair of ‘bunnies’ outside Salvatore’s Bar at the Playboy Club in London

The bartender, who has for the last five years headed up the Salvatore’s Bar at the Playboy Club, confirmed the news via his website, revealing his intention to focus instead on a new venture in Hong Kong.

“You’ll appreciate that after four decades of late nights in London, and after running bars in casinos and fancy hotels I’m ready for something different”, said Calabrese in a statement. “That doesn’t mean I’m stopping, oh no. Maybe a smaller, more intimate home for my frighteningly strong Direct Martinis – arguably my legacy to London. Or maybe a home focused on my other love, the Negroni.

“Either way, I feel no less evangelical about my mission to spread the good word of classic cocktails. After having opened bars In Los Angeles and Las Vegas during my time at Playboy, I’m also heading east, with a new bar opening shortly in Hong Kong.”

Calabrese’s cocktail prowess is well known, particularly when it comes to breaking world record. In 2012, he entered the Guinness Book of World Records creating the world’s most expensive cocktail. Salvatore’s Legacy cost £5,500 and was made from liqueur and Cognac dating to the time of the American Revolution and Captain Cook’s claiming of Australia. His record was later broken by Australian bartender Joel Heffernan and his The Winston cocktail, which cost £8,200.

“From breaking records, with the world’s most expensive cocktail (using ingredients collectively 800-years-old) to breaking bottles (I will never forget the crash of that 18th century £150,000 bottle of cognac as it smashed on the floor), to hosting half of Hollywood and wall-to-wall music stars, I feel like I’ve achieved something of note for London’s incredible night-time scene”, said Calabrese of his time in London. “At one point I had every single one of the world’s most beautiful supermodels in my bar.”

More recently, Calabrese crafted the “world’s oldest Martini”, made from Park & Tilford New York gin and orange bitters, both created in 1900, and Noilly Prat vermouth circa 1890, at his bar in Las Vegas, Bound by Salvatore Calabrese.