Queen's Park

What’s in a name? We named our bar after the Queen’s Park Swizzle, a cocktail created at the Queen’s Park Hotel, located in Port of Spain, Trinidad. The hotel enjoyed moderate success until 1920, when the purchase and consumption of alcohol in the United States was made more or less illegal by the 18th Amendment. Overnight, Americans who had the means to travel began to leave the country on weekend trips to the Caribbean, where they could drink legally. Hotel management hired now-unemployable bartenders from major US cities, who brought with them scores of regulars as well as decades of cocktail expertise. Tasked with coming up with a signature drink for the hotel, these bartenders took the wildly popular Daiquiri - made with rum, sugar, and lime - and put it on crushed ice, dressing up the drink with the addition of mint and a float of locally made Angostura bitters. A star was born - the drink was a sensation that endured throughout the years, with Trader Vic proclaiming it “the most delightful form of anesthesia given out today” in 1946. While the original Queen’s Park Hotel closed in 1996, our bar carries on the spirit of its namesake with incredible hospitality, lesser-known classic cocktails made with exacting precision and consistency, and décor that harkens to that grand hotel.