December 12, 2010
1886 @ The Raymond
Pasadena’s Raymond Restaurant has gotten just a bit hipper and chicer with the recent opening of it’s 1886 Bar. Housed in what used to be the caretaker’s cottage of the old Raymond Hotel property, the restaurant has been serving upscale food amidst Pasadena architectural history for years; now it’s serving equally decadent and period appropriate cocktails too.
1886 is the latest brain-child of Aidan Demarest and Marcos Tello (of First and Hope, Edison fame) who created the drink menu featuring cocktails inspired by the turn of the century history of the building. The bartenders serve classic, neat cocktails with whiskey, bourbon and gin bases that differentiate this bar from the more trendy-mix-anything-try-anything-type watering holes. One bartender described 1886 Bar as “The Varnish of Pasadena.”
Fall into the luxurious padded suede banquet and sip a drink with throwbacks to Pasadena, like the Orange Grove Cocktail or the Rose Parade Punch, a drink that mixes roses, cucumbers, gin and soda.
