One of Bali’s finest bars, The A Bar at Aperitif Bali recently released its Cocktail Anthology, an illustrated booklet dedicated to the beverage traditions of the 1930s and the colourful foreign artists and academics who were drawn to Bali for its ethereal beauty and exotic way of life.
Cocktail Anthology consists of eponymous drinks named after expatriates of the time like American anthropologist, Margaret Mead who chose the highland village of Bayung Gede for her work. Mead documented 200 photographs from 1936 to 1939 where she vividly captured the everyday lives of the men, women, and children of her adopted village. As an author and academic, Mead was in her element calling Bali life “a rhythmic, patterned unreality of pleasant, significant movement, centered in one’s own body to which all emotions long ago withdrew.”
The Austrian novelist Vicki Baum, author of Love and Death in Bali (1937) and Canadian composer Colin McPhee, known for his ethnomusicological study of the island, each have a drink honoured in their name as well as the lauded Mexican illustrator, Miguel Covarrubias, considered one of the most important 20th-century modern artists. American bombshell Marilyn Monroe found a place on the menu, hers, a mix of Vanilla Vodka and Galliano.
Cocktail Anthology would not be complete without German primitivist, painter, composer, musicologist, and curator Walter Spies. Settled in the colonial Dutch East Indies from 1923, Spies influenced the direction of Balinese art through Pita Maha, an artist cooperative that provided guidance to local Balinese painters. He eventually built a Balinese-style house and studio in Ubud in 1928.
Cocktail Anthology provides playful descriptions for a variety of artisanal spirits like “Boulevardier” and “Truffle Hunter” along with an assortment of aged Negronis, martinis and highballs and what The A Bar’s head mixologist Panji Wisrawan calls “Mockritif,” a fizzy union that coats the palate in a velvety smooth texture. The 20-page booklet is available at The A Bar.
The owning Syrowatka family designed the bar to capture the panache of the past by serving elegant cocktails as well as to house one of the country’s most impressive collections of globally sourced spirits, wines, and cigars.
About Apéritif Restaurant and Bar
The multi-award-winning restaurant is admired for its uncompromising fine dining, an unexpected and unrivalled elegance for highland Ubud. Neighboring the Viceroy Bali resort in a lush Ubud valley, the evocative interior is where Chef Nic Vanderbeeken and his team serve their signature degustation menu. Inspired by the diverse culinary traditions of Indonesia’s Spice Islands, the tasting menu is further influenced with the polish and perfection of modern European cooking techniques.
Apéritif is appreciated for its spacious luxury, the 60-seat restaurant opulently decorated in marble, dark woods, and bronze elements that rekindles the convivial atmosphere of yesteryear dining traditions. The restaurant is often called a living snapshot of the island’s colonial history with a space showcasing authentic period photographs that depict the last Dutch – Indonesian Viceroys of Bali and Yogyakarta. The dining room’s captivating interior has been the setting for numerous events and groups who relish its period décor.
