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The Seattle Sessions

Features


Heralding a New Era of Cocktail Culture at Fairmont Hotels & Resorts

As the backdrop to the world’s most iconic and celebrated destinations, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts enjoys a rich history of mixology dating back over a century to the emergence of the cocktail culture at its renowned bars and lounges 

Over the years, its award-winning bartenders have helped invent, design and refine the cocktail, each with their own unique take or twist on the time-honored classics. This was the inspiration for The Seattle Sessions.

On June 1, 2015, a group of Fairmont’s top bartenders were brought together for the first time. The objective? To share knowledge, learn from each other and curate a menu of brilliant cocktails that embody the same impeccable quality and consistent flavor, no matter where in the world you’re enjoying them.

From this group of elite bartenders, two are currently Fairmont Tastemakers, bringing forth their individual talent and mastery of cocktail methodology. They include: Grant Sceney from Fairmont Pacific Rim and Nader Chabaane from Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth — each a master of the cocktail in their own right.

The group began the three-day intensive Seattle Sessions, which took place at Liquid Kitchen Studios, by identifying their top 12 cocktails. Then, they got behind the bar and mixed, muddled and stirred their way through countless iterations of each until 6 cocktails emerged, which would become to be known as “Classics. Perfected.”

Classics. Perfected. would become the core cocktails, available with the same quality ingredients, balance and extraordinary flavors at any Fairmont Hotels & Resorts in the world.

“We have truly begun to establish a new foundation for the core values that drive the selection of what is included on our cocktail menus,” said Tom Hogan, head craftsman at Fairmont Singapore. “It’s about fostering a cocktail culture that can be developed year-over-year and that will be used globally across the Fairmont collection.”

You see, The Seattle Sessions were about more than finalizing a superb menu of unforgettable cocktails; they were also about ushering in a new era of cocktail culture at Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, where bartenders would be seen as educators, craftsmen and cocktail historians.

“This approach and program is particularly invigorating because it will be the first of its kind to happen within an international hotel brand,” Hogan explains. “And, it will be genuinely focused on the educational aspects of spirits, cocktails and bartending as a craft and career.”

As we move into a new renaissance of cocktail culture, we invite you to get to know our Fairmont Tastemakers better. We’re sure they would be more than happy to serve you one of their Classics. Perfected.