Bar bill challenge costs pair £130,000

Two Russian businessman left fellow drinkers and bar staff stunned after embarking on three-hour drinking session, which cost over £130,000.

The pair went head-to-head at the Embassy nightspot in London’s Mayfair to see who could amass the biggest bar bill.

The multimillionaires had an entourage of around a dozen friends when the arrived at the venue and despite being joined by more people once inside there were still not enough to drink everything that was bought. There was so much alcohol – including vintage champagne – that around one-third of the bar bill ended up being poured away when the men left.

A venue spokesman told the Press Association: “Nobody could quite believe what was happening – the two clients seemed to be trying to outdo each other.

“One ordered five bottles of champagne, so the next one upped it to six, then to seven, and so on.

“It was incredible. The men didn’t end up drinking that much of it themselves – it was mostly consumed by the lady friends they had met inside on the night.”

The bar bills included 30 magnums of Cristal Brut Champagne, at £1,380 a bottle, 84 bottles on Dom Perignon, 12 bottles of Dom Perignon rose, several shots of 18-year-old Glenmorangie single malt whisky, Champagne-based cocktails and bottles of Peroni lager.

The rounds also included soft drinks – 44 cans of Red Bull and 14 bottles of water.

The Embassy spokesman added: “The men needed some help drinking what they bought.

“It was absolutely monumental. These kind of bar bills are rare, the sort of thing that happens once a year – and then we had two in one night.

“Even for Mayfair, the amount they spent was extremely high.”

He added: “The two men left in good spirits, they weren’t legless or anything like that.

“But they obviously couldn’t drink all they had bought – about one-third was not consumed.”

The bill included around £19,000 in service charges, of which the staff take a percentage.

“The staff will have done very well out of them,” the spokesman said.

He said the venue was happy to honour a request from the customers to keep their identities private. This is not the first time huge bar bills have been amassed, as db has previously reported.