by Chrissy Iley
Airline travel used to mean pure glamour. I know that seems like a long, long time ago, and it was. It was in the days of the set they called jet, which was the equivalent of the super elite. Stepping on a plane to be as exclusive and exciting and as synonymous with wealth and fabulousness as a yacht in the south of France.
And I am not just talking about the days when you did not suffer instant claustrophobia of sitting in the seats and when at least some portion of the food was edible. I am talking about the Mad Man era, when Pan Am meant sophistication, enlightenment and a good time.
Now Boarding is a bar in West Hollywood, that is like stepping onto a film set. It’s a first class lounge, where the booths are Pan Am blue and inspired by an old school flight cabin.
A large mirror depicts flight routes and the old style flight attendants on the black and white photos exude chic. Walnut and blue are the colours of early 60s, air travel elegance. We have seen in Mad Men and Pan Am, the cocktails being delivered in flight; the cocktail menu takes inspiration from this.
My friend had an elegant whisky drink that was flavoured with peach, spicy and delicious. It had a curl of citrus and its colour said Negroni. We had a wonderful and knowledgeable cocktail barman and he advised me to order a D.B. Cooper.
D.B Cooper is a media epithet often used to refer to an unidentified man who hijacked a 727 just over Portland, Oregon, in 1971. This cocktail certainly hijacked me. It appeared a gorgeous baby pink because it used muddled watermelon but combined with the exciting twang of tequila and spiced up with Jalapeno so it was both innocent looking and dangerous. Sweet and spicy. HOT. And it goes down so extremely well.
I did try a couple of others on the list, including the Puddle Jumper, which is a tequila, ginger, lime affair. It is zesty and good but the D.B. Cooper is extraordinary. In fact it goes into my cocktail world top ten of splendidness.
The bar manager is Wil Figuerola who has worked consistently over the globe from London to LA where he created the Roger Room, which is generally thought to be rather first class itself.
Now Boarding did not give me any travel lust, rather the opposite. I’d much rather go to this bar and pretend I am going to meet Don Draper than wait endlessly in line at security and think about the knee defender. There are lots of rather good whisky drinks as whisky was very popular in that era and also because it is making a comeback, especially with the female whisky drinker. My friend had a whisky drink that looked like a frothy dessert but it was also elegant and I could not resist another D. B. Cooper.
The cocktails are priced at $9 until 8p and $14 until 2am. You can upgrade your liquor to a fancier version if desired but I felt upgraded enough. Now Boarding 7746 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood, www.nowboardingla.com.