HEROES & VILLAINS

Inside the Satirical Brilliance of Scarfes Bar’s New Menu

There are interviews that feel like they end too soon—not because they’re short, but because the conversation is too rich, too lively, too layered to possibly fit into a single story. My meeting with Andy Loudon, Director of Bars at Rosewood London, and Kristis Ba, the Lithuanian-born Bar Manager of Scarfes Bar, was one of those rare moments. Thirty minutes could never contain two minds who think as fast as they create!

Scarfes Bar is already one of the most successful bars on the planet (2025 World’s 50 Best Bars: No. 31 and Top 500 Bars: No. 21), celebrated for its warmth, its wit, and its unmistakable sense of identity. So how do they do it? How do they run a team of only 20 bartenders, craft menus in a prep room the size of a London wardrobe, reinvent themselves season after season, and still manage to win our curiosity—and our return visits—every time?

One of the reasons: a new cocktail menu inspired by the razor-sharp satire of Gerald Scarfe. And like Scarfe’s own work, it’s bold, mischievous, and impossible to ignore.

Satire in a Glass

Heroes & Villains draws directly from Scarfe’s exhibition and book of the same name, transforming caricature into flavour. Satire, as Andy and Kris remind me, isn’t merely about humour—it’s about commentary. A playful mirror that exaggerates our realities to reveal deeper truths.

As a French observer, I couldn’t help noticing how naturally it resonates: we, too, are no strangers to satire — from Daumier to Charlie Hebdo, caricature is part of our cultural bloodstream. Perhaps this is one of the subtle ties between French and British sensibilities: a shared appetite for humour that bites and questions.

Every page presents a figure split into light and shadow, hero and villain, purity and distortion. Each comes to life in two cocktails that explore the duality of public persona—sometimes affectionate, sometimes wickedly playful.

Because, after all:

‘A cocktail either dies a hero or lives long enough to see itself become the villain.’

Twenty Serves, Ten Characters, Infinite Duality

The menu took more than six months to create, along with a library of new house-made ingredients. It reflects not only Scarfe’s artistic spirit but also the cyclical nature of the drinks industry itself: today’s hero ingredient can be tomorrow’s overexposed trend, and vice versa.

Guests navigate ten-character spreads. The main page reveals the “hero,” while a hidden pull-out page unveils the darker counterpart.

Here are a few highlights:

Paul McCartney

Strawberry Fields Forever — a Paloma-inspired serve with fortified strawberries, verbena, and CO₂.
Man on the Run — a rum-based Ramos Gin Fizz with peach, cherry blossom, coconut, and jasmine soda.

David & Victoria Beckham

Ninety 3rd — a champagne-kissed Pornstar Martini refined with Hendrick’s gin.
Diva — a lychee cosmopolitan with a playful lollipop flourish.

Charles Darwin

Natural Selection — a whisky highball with carbonated raspberries and evaporated carrot.
Evilution — a tropical whisky indulgence with pistachio orgeat and sour pineapple, served in a bespoke mug.

Rosalind Franklin

Double Helix — a Manhattan-style mix of whisky, fig, balsamic wine, and marzipan.
Never Wrong — tequila, basil, pandan and palo cortado in an elegant aromatic blend.

Isaac Newton

Inertia — a silky milk punch of toffee apple and salted calamansi.
Laws of Motion — a celestial take on the aviation, complete with a rice-paper butterfly.

The menu continues through Wilde, Christie, Shakespeare, Branson and Thatcher—with creativity that borders on theatrical.

The Method: Creativity with Guardrails

For Kris, everything begins with storytelling.

‘You look into why someone is seen as a hero or a villain, and you build the drink around that.’

For Andy, structure nurtures innovation:

‘The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.’

Each bartender is assigned specific serves. Mind maps replace improvisation. Direction is set early: spirit, flavour, purpose. This prevents the dreaded ‘menu takeover’ by a single trendy ingredient.

As Kris puts it:

‘We don’t want twelve drinks with strawberry.’

And crucially, they refuse the label of ‘twist.’

‘Inspired by a classic, yes—but it should stand as its own drink.’

The duo’s chemistry is evident: Andy, the idealist who champions ideas; Kris, the realist who grounds them in operational reality. Their creative friction is their secret weapon.

The Team: Built, Not Born

At Scarfes Bar, everyone starts in glass wash and then will alternate the floor, the bar, the preps and the glass wash.

‘It’s arduous. Scarfes Bar is busy. It requires character,’
— Andy

They hire for personality and emotional intelligence, not flair.

‘We’re shaping the next generation of this industry,’
— Kris

And the evidence is clear: in the past two years, every team member who left stepped into bigger roles.

The Art of Talking About a Menu

Explaining a 10-page satirical menu to a full bar requires finesse. Andy breaks it down like this:

10–15 seconds for the elevated pitch
A longer version if the guest shows interest
And a five-minute deep dive for those who truly want it

It’s about reading energy, intention and curiosity.

‘If someone says, ‘I want a Negroni,’ that’s it.
If they say, ‘something like a Negroni,’ that’s when you can be creative.’
— Andy

Kris refuses to impose memorised lines:

‘It has to resonate personally if you want to connect with the guest.’

The result is a menu with layers accessible to everyone—from the casual drinker to the cultural savant.

A Subtle Satire of the Industry Itself

Beyond Gerald Scarfe, Heroes & Villains gently mocks the industry’s own obsessions:

Rankings
Trend cycles
Prestige
The mania for validation through lists

It reminds us that today’s hero can become tomorrow’s punchline.

As Andy says:

‘If someone leaves and is still talking about the menu 30 minutes later—even negatively—we’ve succeeded.’

Because at the end of the day, hospitality is emotion.

‘People won’t remember the service… they’ll remember how you made them feel.’
— Kris

Why Heroes & Villains Matters

It blends satire, art, duality, technique, humour, emotion, and mischievous intelligence.
It’s clever enough for industry insiders, welcoming enough for cocktail novices, and universal enough to charm anyone who walks through Scarfes Bar’s doors.

Its true genius lies in allowing both roles—hero and villain—to coexist.
Just as they do in every person, every team, every night out, and every perfect drink.

It’s a breath of fresh air in a world where creativity feels confined by caution, political correctness, fake kindness, and the artificial filters of social media.

Yes, I’m a big fan of this menu — mainly for what it represents: real authenticity and a bold irreverence, the kind of courage that’s rare these days.

Because at Scarfes Bar, the only unforgivable character is indifference — and this menu refuses to let you feel it.

Bravo to the team! Always a pleasure to come visit!