Prague’s Bugsy’s Bar embraced the last twelve months as YEAR*007, a festival of sorts, where they created four quarterly menus featuring cocktails and drinks from Ian Fleming’s novels and films inspired by his character. This was no coincidence, as the first edition of “Casino Royale” hit the UK bookshelves on April 13, 1953.
On the evening of February 8th, the bar team reviewed the success of each drink. Over 5,000 cocktails were served, with Negroni (1,479 servings) taking the top spot – ironically, a drink that appears only once in Fleming’s works, in the lesser-known short story “Risico.” Vesper landed in second place with 614 servings, a cocktail not for everyone due to its dryness and unique blend of two bases and Lillet (not vermouth, as noted in “Skyfall”). Third place was taken by Barracuda, a drink named after the predatory fish that often troubled Bond but is not featured in the literary or film canon.
A surprise hit was the Charlie Chaplin cocktail, with 274 servings using over 13 liters of sloe gin from Dlabka Distillery, an amount that would typically last a standard bar over ten years. The sloe gin liqueur captivated guests just as the legendary comedian was one of the founders of United Artists, who first saw potential in Fleming’s “Dr. No” in 1961 and signed a film deal with producers Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli.
PHOTO: Alex Miksovic’s book “One Cocktail is Not Enough,” published by GRADA Publishing.
