WHILE BAR THEMES... can run the gamut, and new cocktails make cameos, and fresh looks are incorporated into a space, and specials rotate through the menu, this much is true: A bar has a way of staying put. Visit any hotel with a bar one year, and you can pretty much expect to find the bar in the same spot, just off the lobby, even if a few of the martinis has changed. But every so often something rather whimsical weaves through a hotel company, and The Traveller Bar at various Loews properties is just that out-of-the-ordinary occurrence. The destination's name isn't about catering to traveling guests, though of course it does that. Rather, this is a bar that travels — italics quite necessary — and it is currently passing through Southern California. After a sojourn at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel it is making for the Loews Hollywood Hotel from Sept. 7 through Oct. 4, 2016. So, how can a bar, a substantial walk-in space, go places? It's...
A VINTAGE ELEVATOR CAR, one that can be moved (with, of course, considerable effort). The stylish space offers a quartet of old-school stools, a zinc-topped bar, and a register from way back, the kind with the push-down buttons and window-encased numbers. There are eight drinks to choose from, and they spring, with some modern inspiration, from books that go way, wayyy back. Libations include a Gin Fix, a Daiquiri, a Revolving Door, and a few other fancy-pants sips from a century ago, give or take. Where will it go next? The Traveller Bar has a date at Loews properties in San Francisco and San Diego, followed by a stay in the Southwest.
