Tea Time at the Rosewood Hotel London

Afternoon tea at the Rosewood Hotel features edible artworks inspired by famous London-based artists.
Vanilla-filled, salted caramel chocolate cubes inspired by graffiti artist Banksy’s iconic Balloon Girl.
The dazzling Mirror Room restaurant.
The interior of the restaurant features floor-to-ceiling mirrors and lounge seating.
The Scarfes Bar’s Charlie Chaplin cocktail.
The David Beckham cocktail with flavours from Spanish herbs and roses.
The Rosewood’s Scarfes Bar is named after the British caricaturist Gerard Scarfe.
At the bar, guests can sip cocktails in velvet armchairs surrounded by shelves of antique books.

Consuming culture.

Writer Maria Elena Oberti

Situated on the fringes of the British capital’s Covent Garden district in a historic Edwardian structure dating back to 1914, the five-star Rosewood Hotel London opened in the fall of 2013 following a lengthy $141-million renovation and the refurbishment of the original building’s belle époque charm. Today, the venue flaunts a polished pizzazz, a sort of contemporary coolness that floats between the timeless and trendy, serving old-school English sophistication with a modern-day twist. But it’s not just a deft fusion of past and present that sets it apart. It is the Rosewood’s restaurant and cocktail lounge that really have people talking—especially since the addition of two creative new menus.

The Rosewood London’s dazzling Mirror Room restaurant has recently introduced an art-inspired afternoon tea featuring an exclusive selection of edible artworks inspired by famous London-based artists such as Banksy, Alexander Calder, Damien Hirst, Mark Rothko, and Yayoi Kusama that are nearly too charming to eat. Developed by executive pastry chef Mark Perkins, these delightful desserts bridge the gap between British tradition and contemporary culture. Among the culinary masterpieces on offer is a Kusama-inspired milk chocolate mousse and passion fruit crémeux encased in a polka dotted yellow glaze, and vanilla-filled, salted caramel chocolate cubes garnished with a miniature imprint of graffiti artist Banksy’s iconic Balloon Girl.

If drinks are more your speed, the Rosewood’s Scarfes Bar (named after British caricaturist Gerald Scarfe) also pays tribute to the arts with its new Caricature cocktail list. The menu, developed over eight months, transposes the spirit of Scarfe’s iconic sketches into liquid form, with drinks inspired by the celebrities he captured—expect the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, and even Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in your glass. For example, the David Beckham cocktail tastes like Spanish herbs and roses, while the Margaret Thatcher is a whiskey-based drink marked by an intense infusion of porcini mushroom, with a hint of Malbec reduction and fiery galangal chili. In short, power and poise in a cup.

Rosewood Hotel London, 252 High Holborn, London WC1V 7EN, UK.

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