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Employees Only

A slice of the Big Apple in BCN

24.04.18

The latest pop-up cocktail bar and restaurant to take over Banker’s Bar at Barcelona’s Mandarin Oriental is Employees Only. A recreation of the New York based cocktail bar (the original is located at 510 Hudson St., Manhattan) with the same cocktail selection and food served there Late Night Menu, with the unmistakeable flavour of the Big Apple. Organised like a prohibition era ‘speakeasy’ with a specially constructed entrance for the occasion, accessed from the lobby, to get customers into the mood.

The golden age of New York’s cocktail culture was the meeting point of the arts, business, high and low society. Today that culture continues to set the standard the world over.

  • Employees Only BCN

    Steak tartare served with crostini and green salad

  • Employees Only BCN

    Triffled cheese bikini with parmesan fries

  • Employees Only BCN

    Chicken schnitzel with sour cream, mashed potatoes and red cabbage


    Till May 19th the Employees Only team, specially brought in from New York, will be welcoming guests and locals with the authentic cocktails, gastronomy and service of one of the most. A team that includes Eric Lincoln, one of the New York cocktail bar partners, Julia Jaksic, chef and Ulysses Vidal, the head barman who has come up with a selection of drinks that include both classics and contemporary inventions, such as Pernod Ricard España (Absolut Elyx, Plymouth Gin, Monkey 47, The Glenlivet, Havana Selección de Maestros, Tequila Avión and Chivas 18) or the Yankee Notions, a cocktail “similar to a Manhattan but with homemade apple cordial and a very unusual presentation”, in the words of Lincoln.

  • Employees Only BCN

    Common Sense, one of the Employees Only cocktails

  • Employees Only BCN

    At first Blush


    The gastronomic offering is based on classic American cuisine but seasoned and influenced for European tastes. Julia Jaksic, an American chef of Croatian origin and head chef of Employees Only in New York, is responsible for that gastronomic fusion. Dishes such as the steak tartar special, from the bone marrow ‘montaditos’ with Bordelaise sauce or the waffle fries served with paprika; but there will be no shortage of traditional lamb chops and bacon with salsa verde, or the sandwich with truffled melted cheese and parmesan fries. And of course this wouldn’t be authentic without the desserts that include the mascarpone and toffee cheesecake, or the roasted apple "Tufahija" with walnuts and scented yogurt clove.

  • Employees Only BCN

    The theatrical setting of Employees Only

  • Employees Only BCN

    Ulysses Vidal (left) with fellow barman

  • Employees Only
  • Banker’s Bar,
  • Mandarin Oriental,
  • Pg de Gràcia 38-40
  • Barcelona