For decades, a great cocktail bar was inseparable from its address. If you wanted the drinks, you went to the bar. Now, increasingly, the bars themselves are hitting the road, setting up inside hotels and resorts for weeks at a time — sometimes for an entire season. On the Tuscan coast, Sky Kong has made that idea its own. Perched on the rooftop of Hotel Principe Forte dei Marmi, the seasonal residency brings Patrick Pistolesi’s Drink Kong from Rome to one of Italy’s best- known seaside destinations. The internationally minded bar has spent the past several years helping push Italian cocktail culture onto a much larger stage.
Drink Kong Brings International Mixology to Forte dei Marmi
For the second year running, Sky Kong has settled in alongside 67 Sky Lounge for the summer, effectively giving Pistolesi’s Rome operation a seasonal outpost by the sea. The drinks are unmistakably Drink Kong. Pistolesi has long been drawn to flavors that cross borders, and the menu moves easily among yuzu sake, umeshu, mezcal and Japanese whisky, with wasabi, cacao, house-made cordials and citrus adding layers of spice, bitterness, acidity and texture. The combinations can be unexpected, but the drinks remain tightly balanced — surprise comes through flavor rather than spectacle.
Seasonal cocktails sit alongside some of the drinks that have helped define Drink Kong over the years, while the alcohol-free selection is given the same attention to technique and construction as the rest of the list. That may be the simplest way to understand Sky Kong. A cocktail bar once gave travelers a reason to seek out a particular city and a particular address. Here, the destination comes first — and the bar follows you on vacation.
The article first appeared on Coqtail – for fine drinkers. Order your copy here
Images courtesy Principe Forte dei Marmi
