Cosmopolitan Saloon
We stopped in at the Cosmopolitan Hotel this past weekend and noted that the saloon is now open for business, with an intriguing assortment of allegedly historic cocktails. You can get a Ricky (made with pressed lime juice, sugar water, and soda water), a Fizz (lemon, sugar, and soda water), a Daiquiri (pressed lime juice and sugar water), a Sour (egg white, sugar, pressed lemon), and other concoctions. For each, you choose the alcoholic component (Corralejo Plato tequila, Pikesville rye whiskey, Oxley English dry gin, Tito’s handmade Texas vodka, Matusalem Plating rum, or Woodford Reserve Kentucky bourbon). These cost $10 or $11. Flights of mezcal, tequila, Jack Daniels, and Heaven Hill whiskeys are $16.
I’m not sure when some of the other items on the menu were invented, but among those that caught my eye were Lady Seeley’s Violette Fizz (made with Oxley gin, St. Germain creme d’Yvette, lemon juice, sugar, and soda water), the Sazarac Cocktail (Sazarac rye whiskey, absinthe, and Peychaud’s bitters), and the Rum Raymos (Bacardi 8, Dr. McGillicuddy’s vanilla liquor, egg white, cream, pressed lemon, soda water, and orange flower water.) All these are dispensed at an imposing walnut and pine 1870s-era wooden bar imported from Silver City, Idaho that perfectly suits the hotel’s restored glory (apparently the original disappeared long ago).
I didn’t get to taste a drop; we were on the run to dinner at Cafe Coyote and an airport pickup. But I did tour the building several weeks earlier with a San Diego Professional Tour Guide Association group, just days before the grand opening celebrations. Most fun
Wooden tub in one of the hotel rooms
was the opportunity to poke our noses into the 10 boutique hotel rooms, now restored with antique furniture, mirrors, and other accessories, along with reproductions of wallpaper and window coverings from the mid-19th Century.
I found myself lusting to stay in one that commands a view of the plaza (as several do). If there’s any better way to travel 150 years back in time, I’m not sure what that would be. And what a colorful time it was.
Actually, the second story (which housed the hotel) wasn’t built till 1869 by Albert Seeley, the local stagecoach operator (who wanted a place for his customers to stay). The original building first took shape as the home of Juan Bandini, a civic leader and rancher who at one time was married to the daughters of two of San Diego’s most important Spanish Californio families. I love the stories about some of the parties that played out on the patio. Bandini often hired musicians, and couples danced the Mexican national dance (el jarabe), among others, for days.
The old...
...and the new
I’m not sure how much dancing the new place will see. But certainly more than a few toasts will be raised.
