Fireworks have started many a fine romance between people but it seems they can also do the same for cocktail bars.
No matter whether you have a taste for London, New York or Tokyo, the Katana Kitten takeover of the recently opened Fitz’s Bar in London was a blend of the casual with the traditional, heritage with the modern and the weird with the definitely playful.
“I saw some pictures on my Instagram of a man in New York with a hat with fireworks attached to it, making cocktails for people. I felt that I needed to know who that man was,” said the Fitz’s Head of Bars, Sean Fennelly (formally of Soho’s Milk & Honey).
And know him, he would, as the two bartenders from different ends of the globe, would combine their skill, their wit and their vision to create a night that was one of the hottest tickets of London Cocktail Week.
The event would also see an audience of some of the world’s best bartenders as professionals from across the globe had descended on London for the World’s 50 Best Bar Awards, the night before.
For Fitz’s Bar, it was the first time they had done a take-over like this “It was mad,” said Fennelly. “There were a huge number of International and American bartenders coming through the bar.
“And for a new bar like us, to have that calibre of people in the room is amazing. It’s unreal and we couldn’t have done it without these guys.”
Traditionally takeovers allow bars to throw open their doors to roving bar talent. Additionally, it enables the visiting bars to build an international fanbase but as Masahiro Urushido, from Katana Kitten, pointed out, it all came down to the venue. Once he googled Fitz’s, he saw “this gorgeous, historic, 5-star hotel in London”.
Fitz’s Bar, which is housed in the Kimpton Fitzroy London, combines timeless glamour with cheeky nods to the creative flamboyance of Bloomsbury’s bohemian past and present.
Alternatively, the award-winning Katana Kitten puts a cheeky, American dive bar-style slant on the traditional Japanese izakaya blending true bartending skill with a certain tongue-in-cheek irreverence.
Fennelly spoke of the bars similarities, saying that both bars had “a sense of playfulness within quite stoic environments”.
Urushido agreed, adding that at Katana Kitten “We’re a little different from traditional bars, we are more focused on how we can make it unique and a little bit weird.”
Weird or not, the event was booked out almost as soon as it was announced and in the words of one of the servers at Fitz’s as the night was about to begin, ‘we’re going to get slammed’.
The event allowed the bars to serve drinks as varied as Amaretto Sours and Yuzu Daisy’s to a Milk Punch and Shino Gin & Tonic.
The winning creation of the night was without doubt Katana Kitten’s infamous ‘Umami Situation’, an off-menu, theatrically prepared table side combination of sake, salted lemon and Atlantic prawn heads, which is washed down with Mezcal.
“We ended up having to stop serving it because we couldn’t keep up,” said Urushido.
Fennelly adds, “When your bar is sending out more shrimp heads than cocktails, you know you’ve deviated from the focus of the evening”
But no matter how busy they got, both men agree that it was an amazing night. And one they would like to repeat as Katana Kitten will return that favour and have Fitz’s Bar in New York.
“We will need to host this historic hotel bar in New York,” says Urushido. “And when we do, we’re going to have so much fun”.
