Black, White and Gold: How Art Deco Shaped the Cocktail Bar
Lacquer, brass, mirrors and a curve of polished wood. Nearly a century after it was born, Art Deco is still the style most of us picture when we imagine a glamorous cocktail bar. Here is why it works, and how to borrow it.
By Martin Hale · · Updated · 5 min read
The cocktail and Art Deco grew up together. The style took its name from the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, the same decade in which American bartenders, pushed out of work by Prohibition, carried their craft to London, Paris and Havana. The bars they worked in were being designed in the new style. A century later, the association is still so strong that "Deco" is almost shorthand for a serious drink.
What Art Deco actually is
Art Deco is a decorative language rather than a strict architectural school. Its signatures are easy to list:
- Geometry: sunbursts, chevrons, stepped forms, fans and zigzags.
- Luxurious materials: lacquer, exotic wood veneers, marble, chrome, brass, glass and mirror.
- Strong contrast: black and white, black and gold, deep jewel tones against cream.
- Streamlined curves: especially from the 1930s, when the style absorbed the look of ocean liners and trains.
All of these suit a bar. Mirrors double the light from a back bar full of bottles. Lacquer and polished metal reflect candlelight. Geometric patterns give a small room rhythm without clutter.
The hotel bar as a stage
The great Deco-era bars were often in hotels, because hotels had the budget and the clientele. Hotel bars were designed as rooms for being seen in a flattering light, and the style delivered exactly that. Rich materials signaled quality, while low, indirect lighting kept everything intimate. Our piece on what makes a great hotel bar looks at the service side of the same tradition.
Chanel and the black and white room
One of the most recognizable modern examples of the style in New York was the bar inside The Surrey on East 76th Street. Its designer, Lauren Rottet, drew on Coco Chanel and the 1930s: black and white finishes, glossy surfaces and walls of leather stitched in a quilted diamond pattern, a clear echo of Chanel's quilted handbags. We tell that bar's story in our history of Bar Pleiades.
What made the room work was restraint. A strict two-tone palette is calm. It lets the glassware, the drinks and the people provide the color. It also photographs extremely well, which, years before social media, already mattered to magazines.
Light is the real material
If you take one lesson from Deco bars, make it this: the most important material is light. The best rooms use many small, warm, low sources rather than a few bright ones. Typical tricks include:
- Backlit shelves that make bottles glow.
- Table lamps or candles at seat height, so faces are lit from below and the side.
- Dimmable, warm bulbs around 2,200 to 2,700 kelvin.
- Mirrors placed to bounce light without creating glare.
Overhead downlights, especially cool white ones, are the fastest way to make a bar feel like an office.
Bringing a little Deco home
You do not need a hotel budget to borrow the style for a home bar. A mirrored tray, a few pieces of etched or cut glassware, a brass or chrome shaker and a single warm lamp go a long way. Choose a palette of two or three colors and stick to it. Store the bottles you use most on display and the rest out of sight. Our guide to home bar essentials covers the practical side.
New York, the Deco city
Few cities wear Art Deco as well as New York. The Chrysler Building, completed in 1930, with its stainless steel crown and sunburst arches, remains the style's great monument. The Waldorf Astoria on Park Avenue, opened in 1931, put Deco lobbies, bars and ballrooms at the center of the city's social life. Hotel bars of that era established the template that many luxury bars still follow: a dark, intimate room off a grand lobby, with a long bar, low seating and a bartender in a white jacket.
The elements, one by one
| Element | Deco approach | Modern tip |
|---|---|---|
| Color | Black, white, gold; deep greens and blues | Pick two dominant colors and one metal. |
| Materials | Lacquer, marble, brass, chrome, exotic woods | One luxurious material used generously beats many used timidly. |
| Pattern | Sunbursts, chevrons, fans, stepped forms | Use pattern on one surface: floor, ceiling or a single wall. |
| Glass | Etched and mirrored glass | An antiqued mirror behind the bar adds depth and softens light. |
| Furniture | Curved banquettes, club chairs, low tables | Comfort first; guests stay longer in good seats. |
Common mistakes
- Theme-park Deco. Too many motifs turn a room into a costume. Restraint is what makes Deco elegant.
- Cold lighting. Brass and lacquer look wonderful in warm light and cheap in cold, bright light.
- Hard acoustics. Glossy surfaces reflect sound. Balance them with upholstery, rugs and curtains, or the room becomes loud.
- Forgetting the glassware. A beautiful bar serving drinks in thick, generic glasses misses the point. Coupes and etched rocks glasses are part of the design.
Designers to look at
If the style interests you, look at the work of the original Deco designers such as Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann, and at contemporary hospitality designers who reinterpret the period. Lauren Rottet's studio, which designed the black and white room at Bar Pleiades, is one example of a modern designer using Deco ideas without copying them.
Deco at home
You do not need a renovation to bring a Deco feeling to a home bar. A mirrored tray, a pair of brass or chrome lamps with warm bulbs, a few etched coupes and a dark wall color will do most of the work. Keep bottles you love on display and hide the rest. Add one strong geometric object, such as a sunburst mirror or a fan-shaped vase, and stop there.
Why the style endures
Art Deco was the design language of optimism, speed and modernity, and it emerged in a period that also gave us many of the classic cocktails: the Hanky Panky from the American Bar at the Savoy, the daiquiris of Havana and the dry martini as we know it. When a modern bar chooses Deco, it is choosing a story about that golden age. As long as people drink stirred cocktails from coupes, that story will keep being told.
Sources and further reading
Questions and answers
Why are so many cocktail bars Art Deco?
Art Deco emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the same era as many classic cocktails, and its mirrors, lacquer and warm light suit intimate bar rooms.
What colors are typical of Art Deco bars?
Black and white, black and gold, and deep jewel tones such as emerald and navy set against cream or brass.
