View all newsletters
Latest in Luxury - Sign up to our weekly newsletter
  1. Travel
  2. Hotel News
June 10, 2024updated Sep 20, 2024

Sabrage Goes Mobile With This Champagne Butler Service

For its 120th anniversary, The St. Regis New York’s Champagne Butler Service is hitting the streets of NYC on Vespas.

By Toby Louch

The finest special occasions are marked by Champagne. Be it popping a bottle for your birthday, celebrating a sporting victory, a wedding or perhaps a big purchase, there is usually a bottle or two of champagne hanging around. How you decide to open said bottle, all depends on how fancy you’re feeling. You could choose the sedate approach, using a towel with minimal sound from the cork. Or, take a more extroverted angle, launching the cork from the bottle (better to be outside and not pointed at anyone). For maximum style points, why not pull out the trusty saber and decapitate the bottle with great pomp and circumstance? Of course, not everyone has a saber lying around, which is exactly where The St. Regis Mobile Champagne Butler Service comes in.

This year, in celebration of the iconic New York haunt’s 120th anniversary, The St. Regis New York is launching its Mobile Champagne Butler Service, which is set to bring the hotel’s traditional sabrage anywhere in the city.

Ideal for adding the final touch to any celebration, an expertly trained St. Regis Butler will arrive via a branded Vespa that’s fitted with a Champagne-laden wicker basket. The butler will give a brief history of the storied ritual, before ceremonially lopping off the top of the bottle with what is essentially a Napoleonic weapon of war.

Champagne butler service
Customers can also learn the skill themselves with a sabering lesson / ©St. Regis

If customers are inclined, the Champagne Butler Service can also deliver sabering lessons, allowing them to get to grips with 19th-century bottle etiquette.

“As we celebrate our 120th anniversary at Manhattan’s best address, we are thrilled to offer our sabrage ritual as a mobile experience for the first time in the hotel’s history,” said Octavia Marginean-Tahiroglu, general manager of The St. Regis New York.

“As we toast our own milestone, we also want to toast the milestones, parties and occasions happening across the city with this special champagne service.”

Caviar
Puffed potato and caviar with citrus dust / ©Yann Nury NYC

Not wanting New York City to keep all the fun, exclusively for the summer season, The St. Regis Champagne Butler Service will also be heading east with a special Hamptons package. Here, customers can select their preferred champagne, so the service will be priced on request. In addition to the bubbles, a selection of food pairings will be provided by Yann Nury NYC, one of the most highly regarded culinary agencies in the Hamptons.

Sabering and St. Regis go hand in hand. The tradition started in 1904 when John Jacob Astor IV celebrated the opening of the iconic NYC hotel by sabering a bottle, it’s still how new St. Regis hotels are christened to this day.

Available for occasions throughout New York City, the St. Regis Mobile Champagne service can be booked by the Mobile Champagne Butler hotline.

Content from our partners
A Unique Lifestyle, Curated Just for You at Ocean Reef
Explora Journeys Takes You to the Heart of the Monaco Grand Prix
The Best Luxury Hotels Throughout Spain's Regions

marriott.com

Select and enter your email address Be the first to know about the latest in luxury lifestyle. Get the latest news on hotel openings and in-depth travel guides. Get insider access to exclusive promotions and special offers from our luxury partners.
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how Progressive Media Investments may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thank you for subscribing to Elite Traveler.

Websites in our network