It’s only a little slip of a bar, tucked into a quiet corridor at the top of a grand staircase connecting the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel’s raucous Lobby Lounge and elegant Botanist restaurant. But don’t let the bar’s calm, caught-in-the-middle facade deceive you. The team that won an Exceptional Cocktails Award from Michelin has now garnered Michter’s Art of Hospitality Award 2023. The adjacent glass-encased cocktail lab — avant-garde when the bar opened in 2017 — creates mad-scientist infusions and extractions of uncommon clarity and delicacy. The VIP Cocktail Experience, for which a six-course tasting menu is driven by the high-concept drinks (and served at a private table behind velvet curtains), is one-of-a-kind. And last spring, when an international guest series kicked off with New York’s Katana Kitten, Botanist Bar was at the forefront of a collaboration wave that has become a momentous trend.

Drink: A CRISP AND CLEAN BOTANIST MARTINI, WITH COASTAL GIN, HOUSE VERMOUTH AND SEABORN TINCTURE.