/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/53996211/facebookcharleshardwick.1490908032.jpg)
In the space formerly known as the Landmark Rooms — before that, The Four Seasons — and now simply The Grill (with The Pool to open later this season), Charles Hardwick has been hired to join the bar team at the restaurant (slated for an April debut). He’ll be working behind that Philip Johnson-designed rosewood bar, with a dramatic sculpture of brass tubes overhead — except “cleaner” and “better lit” than it was in the Four Seasons era.
Hardwick comes by way of Betony, La Chine at the now-closed Waldorf-Astoria, the infamous Surf Lodge in Montauk, and — from way back — Mercer Kitchen, Pravda, and the late Blue Owl. He also has his own beverage consultancy, drinkmarkt.
Chances are, he’ll be making variations on the martini — some frozen — poured from Christofle crystal decanters into conical-shaped glasses as opposed to coupes. Expect classic cocktails with subtle updates. “Drinks will skew strong and dry,” Robert Simonson wrote, “in the postwar style.”