Royalton's Forty Four Bar to Open Sept. 20

The opening date for Forty Four, the revamped lobby bar at midtown Manhattan's Royalton Hotel, will be Sept. 20. As for the menu composed by the so-called Cocktail Collective—Richard Boccato from Dutch Kills and Painkiller in New York City; John Lermayer from the Florida Room in Miami Beach, and Woodward in Boston; Simon Ford, a former London bartender, and now a global cocktail ambassador employed by Pernod Ricard USA; Willy Shine, one of the founders of Contemporary Cocktails, a prominent cocktail consultancy based in New York City; Misty Kalkofen, who tends bar at Drink in Boston; and Eric Alperin, head bartender at the Varnish in Los Angeles—that's still be worked over, but expect something soon. After all, once that sextet settles on a list, they will have to teach the drinks and their methods to the Royalton's union bar staff, which may prove a tricky task. Union bartenders don't alway possess the same fervor for fancy drink-building that today's young mixologists do.