Bank of Italy

Opening a bottle with… Jeremy Selman

Quizzed on how best to assimilate a new culture, travel writer and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain once uttered the famous line: “Drink heavily with locals whenever possible.” I never met the man, but still I miss him and his deft writing. The Opening a Bottle series is about getting pickled with people far cooler than I am, in whatever city I’ve washed up in.  An old bank, complete with deep underground vaults, is an objectively cool place to build a hotel. I remember the buzz around the Ned’s ambitious opening in London in 2017, hiding a clandestine cocktail bar within the original Midland Bank strongroom.

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