FILM Concept at Aria Hotel Budapest
Roll out the red carpet and indulge like a Hollywood a-lister at High Note SkyBar at Aria Hotel Budapest! Experience an eclectic menu inspired by legendary movies with their latest FILM concept.
INT. UPSCALE MODERN BAR. A man strides through a busy crowd and approaches the bar, pausing the tender before he has time to speak. “Medium dry vodka martini,” the man says with a stern yet commanding voice. “Shaken, not stirred”
From October, guests of Aria Hotel Budapest by Library Hotel Collection and its rooftop bar will find themselves fantasizing that they, too, can live the high life as superspy James Bond or famed actress Marilyn Monroe. The High Note SkyBar will be adopting the glitz and allure of Hollywood throughout winter based on some of the most iconic cinematic releases from across the ages of the silver screen.
The best way to feel like a celebrity for yourself is first and foremost through the venue’s specially designed gastronomic experience, which uses cinema’s most identifiable films as inspiration for the menus available at the bar. The various tipples available will offer a little something for any movie fan, whether that’s the champagne cocktail “French 7.5” that spirits away anyone that quaffs it to Casablanca’s iconic nightclub or the whiskey drink in a classic crystal glass that dons its own gray bathrobe that fans of The Big Lebowski will instantly recognize.
The Menu
There will be eight novel new cocktails in total, influenced by a varied mix of movies ranging from classics like Some Like It Hot and Our Man In Havana to modern favorites like Sex And The City and Casino Royale. But there’s more to the drinks than just these fun flavors: High Note SkyBar has also sought to experiment a little, using special gastronomical technologies and raw materials to craft something very unique. The drinks, for example, are acidified without the typical lemon or lime, while that Casablanca-inspired drink has been cleverly mixed with a reduced sweet wine and grape juice to create a champagne cocktail without using any champagne at all.
The bar food plays an integral part of the innovation, too, with eight dishes – six meals and two desserts – all created with some of Hollywood’s biggest releases in mind. The rich duck liver pâté is coated in gold leaf for the dish “24K”, with James Bond’s most recognizable villain Goldfinger inspiring the dish. Then there’s the “Cauldron Cake” dessert, an homage to the wizardry of Harry Potter and friends as guests mix test tubes of hazelnut praline, truffle, passion fruit and dark chocolate into their own dry-ice-misted potion cauldron. “Wilson” recalls Tom Hanks’s memorable role in Cast Away with a tropical slant that combines a coconut panna cotta with marinated prawns, lemon jelly, and a green curry sauce—all served on a FedEx delivery note.
The Experience
All this cinematic indulgence naturally has to be accompanied by a fitting setting, and it’s in this manner that Gold Key Award-winning Hungarian designer Zoltán Varró captures the golden era of cinema by decorating the space with a red carpet, director’s chairs, and make-up counters, with the rooftop environment dominated by the impressive sight of Budapest’s famed Basilica. And it isn’t only about the gastronomy, either. Aria Hotel, which was recently selected as the #1 Hotel in Central Europe by Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards, is exploring the FILM-concept with its specially themed Red Carpet package that will have visitors of the luxurious boutique hotel feeling like an a-list celebrity. This package includes two free cocktails per room at the High Note SkyBar and a 60-minute Pretty Wo/Man facial treatment at the award-winning Harmony Spa, which combines organic components of monoi and pomegranate oils with acai and goji berries to give a refreshed complexion that those attending a film premiere would dream of.
The Red Carpet package also includes a golden ticket to a weekly movie screening inside the hotel’s theatre. Each week a new and different cinematic classic will be screened in Teatro Aria, including the likes of Grand Budapest Hotel, Salmon Fishing In The Yemen, Love Actually, and some of the 16 films that inspired the gastronomic drinks and dishes of the rooftop bar.
Those hoping to bring a bit of glamour to their stay in Budapest will have until March to experience Aria Hotel and its High Note SkyBar’s FILM-concept.
High Note SkyBar Team
Chef: Gergely Kover
Pastry Chef: Zsuzsanna Szabo
Bar managers: Peter Gozon and Richard Mihaly