We're all about getting boozy, but we never thought we'd have to skip the lifting of a glass and just take a deep breath to get buzzed. That's the concept behind a new bar in London called Alcoholic Architecture. Located in the city's Borough Market, the bar was created by architecture firm Bombas & Parr, and allows patrons to get drunk just by breathing. Wait, what?
Sam Bombas, one of the architects behind the project, explains to Fast Company that their concept is to explode drinks to the scale of architecture inside a fully immersive alcohol environment. That means there's a room where you walk into a cloud of breathable cocktails made using humidifiers that saturate the air with spirits.
Inside the whimsical watering hole, the aerosolized booze will enter your bloodstream not just through your lungs, but your eyes, getting you drunk 40 percent faster. It's a heady mixture, so patrons must wear poncho-like suits to protect their skin from absorbing the airborne cocktails too heavily or quickly. That's probably also why barkeeps warn you to "breathe responsibly" and your limit your time inside the cloud to 50 minutes. We're thinking guests will happily comply, what with the 140 percent humidity (a.k.a. hot as hell air) in the room.
The neon-lit bar is situated next to the U.K.'s oldest gothic cathedral and takes some of its design inspiration from that era, featuring candelabras, glass chalices, and stained glass windows. But that gothic influence also comes through on the menu, which highlights spirits made and used by monks such as chartreuse, benedictine, "buckfast" fortified wine, and trappist beer.
This method of "drinking" is a little mind-boggling, but completely piques our interest—so we can't say we agree with Ron Swanson on this one:
However, we've still got a lot of questions: Can you taste (or should we say smell?) the drinks while you're literally inhaling them? Doesn't the alcohol make your eyes water? Is the air thick and hard to breathe, like in a sauna? But really, did they completely jack this idea from Parks and Rec?! Guess we'll have to book flights and reserve seats online to find out.
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