Who says nothing blooms in the desert? Four Seasons’ annual 100-Mile Cocktail program encourages bartenders companywide to create cocktails made solely from ingredients found within a 100-mile radius of its respective properties. In desert Las Vegas, however, this poses something of a unique challenge. Thankfully, Nevada’s first legal distillery since Prohibition, Las Vegas Distillery, has plenty of hometown spirits: specifically whiskey, gin, moonshine, vodka and Rumskey, which as you may guess is a delicious combo of rum and whiskey. At the Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas, bar manager Sanjiv Gupta used the rum and whiskey hybrid as the base for his garden-to-glass cocktail, the Las Vegas Sunset.
Offered at Press, the hotel’s new lobby bar, the Las Vegas Sunset consists of the Las Vegas Distillery’s Rumskey, local honey, farmers-market produce and a housemade strawberry-rhubarb shrub (a vinegar-based fruit syrup) served over hand-crushed ice and garnished with brandied cherries. It’s as every bit as attractive as the new space where it’s served.
The Press lobby bar, which opened on May 3, welcomes early-risers with gourmet coffee and espresso drinks, fresh pastries, free newspapers — the old-fashioned kind or via the Press Reader app — and complimentary Wi-Fi. But when the bar transitions into night, with a menu consisting of original cocktails, reinterpreted classics, house juleps, wines by female winemakers (like Ashley Hepworth from Joseph Phelps Vineyards in Sonoma County), sweet nightcaps and Gupta’s locavore libation, you can settle in for some relaxing time on the sprawling outdoor patio, which features pool vistas and cooling misters.
Now’s the time for a Las Vegas Sunset — both of them.
Photos Courtesy of Kin Lui/KinLui.com and Four Seasons
