Loews Hotels guests now have a new option for that oh-so-popular old-timey cocktail. The company has debuted a four-seat, experiential speakeasy-style offering—appropriately dubbed the Traveller Bar, as it rotates between 24 Loews properties across 19 cities, popping up for approximately monthlong stints in locations including Chicago, Seattle, Santa Monica, and Hollywood. The concept is the creation of Mark Weiss, Loews’ senior vice president of F&B, who looked to Chicago-based design and fabrication firm 555 International to craft the mobile space, channeling the 1930s and the golden age of cocktails.
For inspiration, 555 founder James Geier’s bar references “libraries and apothecaries of old and Victorian-style greenhouses,” he says, with dark oak paneling, a zinc surface, and leather-topped barstools. Antique lamps and string lights hanging above offer a subtle glow, and the bar, itself internally lit from below, is surrounded by a handpainted fluted-glass enclosure framed in black bronze. A collection of bottles and vintage cocktail books graces the illuminated backbar shelving.
The entire system is constructed in modular pieces so it can move between hotels. “The bar is two sections, there are multiple sections to the backbar shelving system, and the surrounding enclosure is made up of a truss system and panels that can all be broken down,” explains Geier, who worked with the firm’s engineers to create a hollow aluminum frame with a powder-coated finish that mimics an old iron structure but is still light enough to transport.