Silver Lyan is the first bar from the renowned Mr Lyan outside of Europe, and landing firmly on their American feet, the team have created a cocktail destination that celebrates cultural exchange through drinks. Every menu at Silver Lyan is a thematic exploration, meticulously researched over three to four months, spotlighting real-world stories that inspire their selection of unique and delicious cocktails.

Upon entering, guests are welcomed by the warm glow of plush orange and red velvet furnishings, paired with low red marble tables that create a cosy and communal atmosphere. The bar features a clever design by Jacu Strauss and Lore Studios, preserving the building’s storied history while introducing a modern elegance. Divided into several intimate nooks, each space offers guests a sense of privacy, enhanced by the strategic placement of red velvet curtains and mirrors that soften the industrial charm of the original vault walls.

One of the standout features of Silver Lyan is the reimagined vault, adorned with vintage women’s sports trophies – a tribute to the treasures once housed within. The intimate eight-seat bar, crowned with a naturally aged zinc top, exudes a welcoming patina and is a focal point thanks to its warm glowing panels.  

The cocktail menu at Silver Lyan is where the magic truly happens – the menu tells stories and uses a narrative structure to divide the offerings into categories, alongside “Silver Classics” – a mainstay that features beloved drinks from the bar’s history. 

Due to the story-first approach, meaning the bar team tackle drink creation from the unusual perspective of starting with the narrative and then retrofitting a cocktail to tell this, the drinks often incorporate unexpected ingredients like shrimp, emu necks, or bee larvae, all chosen to enhance the underlying story. Cocktails come in a wide variety of styles and use techniques such as fermentation, smoking, and infusion to play with flavours. However above all, the team at Silver Lyan prides itself on balancing intentionality with fun; drinks are crafted to be enjoyable. 

The ambiance is enhanced at the bar by a curated playlist of new-wave, disco, and electronica, regularly updated to keep the energy fresh and engaging. With local DJs featuring on Thursdays and special events that celebrate diverse musical styles, Silver Lyan offers not just a drink, but a complete sensory experience.

Behind the scenes, the wider hotel has many clear policies when it comes to taking care of the staff, ensuring diversity, equity, and inclusion for all team members. The Riggs Hotel hosts specific events for LGBTQIA+ staff and allies including Pride happy hours and fundraisers. Within the Silver Lyan team specifically – two-thirds of the leadership team is LGBTQIA+ and they take specific steps to make sure members of the community feel as comfortable as possible – ensuring the team are aware of and using each other’s preferred pronouns. Training is key too – to equip the team with all the tools they’ll need and this stretches the extra mile to include best practices for guest communication, including how to read guests, make thoughtful recommendations, and adapt their existing standards of service to a guest’s specific needs. They also work hard to ensure speed of service – aiming for 8 minutes or less no matter how busy the bar is, so all bartenders train extensively in round-building, speed, and metric double-jiggering to ensure accuracy. 

As a business, they promote exclusively from within, and provide tailor-made, peer-to-peer training and mentoring to ensure team members feel supported in their career development. In a close-knit team – three senior members of staff have been there since the bar opened in February 2020.