Bertie’s Bar manager Luis Cobas talks about the special fizz of the Royal Garden.
If you work in a hotel bar you have to be enthusiastic – it’s not a job you can do if you’re not willing to work hard – and I’d say that my staff at Bertie’s are amongst the most enthusiastic in London. These days most hotel bars will close at 1 or 2 in the morning, but you’ll often find me still making cocktails at 4am. It would be easy for me to say “Let’s close the bar” when it starts to get a little quiet, but we know that there’s always a good chance that we could get some guests wanting a drink in the early hours. 
One of the main reasons for this is that the Royal Garden has always attracted a lot of guests from the entertainment world. There’ll often be a band coming back from a gig at midnight, maybe a bit later, and – like most musicians – they usually want more than one drink! It’s something that we’ve done for a long-time and something that all our guests, not just the rock stars, appreciate. Besides, hard work is not a problem for me – two days with no sleep is easy!
It’s not just our opening hours that set us apart from other hotel bars. Part of what makes Bertie’s so special is the friendly welcome we like to give guests and this has made us one of the most popular bars on High Street Kensington. Having worked at the hotel for nearly 40 years now, I’ve spoken to so many guests and one of the things they like so much about coming here is the relaxed atmosphere we provide. A friendly face, a good memory for the customer’s drink of choice or a friendly chat whilst you’re mixing a cocktail really make a difference and the management encourage us to make sure this sort of service is offered to everyone.
High Street Kensington by night
Perhaps the most rewarding element of my job is making sure that all my staff are able to achieve these standards of service. I might get someone to train who can’t speak more than a few words of English, but given the right training it’s not long before they’re better than me! It’s very rewarding to see them succeed and put a smile on our customers’ faces. Hotel bars have to be welcoming places.
Of course, as well as service, a good barman has to know everything there is to know about the drinks behind his bar – when it comes to cocktail making you don’t want to be checking a recipe every five minutes! Of course we offer every drink imaginable (and plenty that people make up on the spot!) so we’re can’t claim to know every drink off by heart, but most of the time people don’t go for anything too crazy.
We are currently running a half-price champagne offer
One of the most popular drinks for our customers is a glass of champagne. We currently have a half-priced offer on Canard Duchêne, which has proved popular with a lot of city workers looking for a bar on High Street Kensington as well as in-house guests and is a great way to start the evening in style. As for me, I’m more of a Bloody Mary fan, although my big drinking days are over now!