As temperatures plummet below freezing in St Petersburg, the Grand Hotel Europe has just unveiled the city’s first open air Ice Bar. Located on the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and Mikhailovskaya Ulitsa, the bar offers a luxurious selection of bracing drinks including Louis Roederer Champagne, fine Russian vodkas and mulled wine, as well as three different kinds of black caviar and oysters.
Sculptors from St Petersburg’s Ice Studio have painstakingly created a beautifully ornate Ice Bar, crafted from ice prepared last winter from one of the Shuvalov lakes near Ozerki. The elegant bar counter design with balusters is most attractive at night and complements the Grand Hotel Europe’s splendid baroque façade. As temperatures get even colder this winter, ice flowers will appear on the tables and waiters will be dressed in traditional Russian outfits with fur hats, jackets and gloves. The Ice Bar is planned to be open until 1 April 2006, subject to climate conditions.
Orient-Express Hotels Ltd acquired the majority share of the Grand Hotel Europe in February 2005. The hotel is an historical landmark dating from 1824, located in the heart of St. Petersburg, across from the Shostakovich Philharmonic, next to the Russian Museum and the Moussorgsky opera and ballet theatre and within walking distance of the Hermitage Museum and the Winter Palace Square. The hotel’s 301 rooms include 89 suites, 17 of which have terraces overlooking the Russian Museum in Arts Square. It has seven restaurants and bars that include the art nouveau splendour of L’Europe, serving French and European specialities beneath an original stained glass ceiling. A classic double room at the Grand Hotel Europe is priced from US$350/ £201.90 per room per night.
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Notes to editors:
The Ice Bar is open from 11.00 to 19.00 hours daily.
Orient-Express Hotels, Trains and Cruises (www.orient-express.com) is a hotel and leisure company providing luxury travel experiences for discerning travellers in areas of outstanding cultural, historic or recreational interest. Founded in 1976 when the company acquired Hotel Cipriani in Venice, Orient-Express owns or has investments in 49 businesses: 38 highly individual hotels, three restaurants, six tourist trains and two river cruise operations, located in 25 countries worldwide.
The company believes that discerning travellers will choose a famous individual property in preference to a chain brand, so none of its businesses is called Orient-Express except the fabled Venice Simplon-Orient-Express luxury train which operates through Europe, linking London, Paris and Venice. Orient-Express chooses to own or part-own its businesses, believing equity returns are greater than management fee income alone and continues to seek out unique properties with expansion potential and introduce new experiences, restoring romance, glamour and style to international travel.
*The sterling price guide quoted in the text is based on the exchange rate at the time of going to press, but the final price, payable in local currency, will depend on the exchange rate at the time of booking.
Downloadable high resolution photography of the Grand Hotel Europe is available at www.orient-expressimages.com.
For further information or images of the Ice Bar, please contact:
Fiona Duthie
Senior Public Relations Executive
Orient-Express Hotels
Tel: 020 7805 5069
E-mail: fiona.duthie@orient-express.com
www.orient-express.com
