Grand Hotel San Pietro wins award at Taormina Cocktail Week

The Grand Hotel San Pietro won the Critics' Award by Campari at Taormina Cocktail Week 2026 , with its Belvedere Café project, the protagonist of the cocktail competition dedicated this year to the theme “Stories from a Book” .

For the second consecutive year, the Grand Hotel San Pietro participated in the event that brings together bartenders, professionals, and hospitality companies around the culture of mixology, contributing its Belvedere Café to one of the Cocktail Week events.

The theme of the 2026 edition invited participants to transform the pages of a book into an experience capable of engaging not only the taste buds but also the imagination. The team at the Grand Hotel San Pietro chose F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," building a cocktail around the novel that interprets its deepest themes: desire, illusion, transformation, and the tension toward something that always seems within reach. The result is "Hope Is a Lie," created by Bar Manager Marco Patanè , a cocktail in which mixing techniques, ingredients, and scenographic presentation become integral to the narrative.

"'Hope Is a Lie' emerges from a reading that generates a great vision, as happens with music inspired by a muse," says Marco Patanè . "It arises from a question: how willing are we to transform reality and perform with ourselves? It's a question that runs throughout 'The Great Gatsby,' amidst parties, music, prohibition, and hidden desires, and which finds its most powerful image in the green light glimpsed from across the bay: close, but unattainable."

The cocktail is a reinterpretation of the Falernum , reinterpreted through the "Qui-Learn-UM" concept, where ingredients tied to the cocktail tradition meet Sicilian influences, including almonds, ginger, lime, and traditional local specialties. Completing the drink are two rums crafted with flavoring techniques, echoing travels to South America, and a fermented and clarified pineapple element, which also becomes a metaphor for the pursuit of transparency.

The story continues in the presentation: the cocktail is served in a tall, slender glass reminiscent of a lighthouse, with a green sphere containing mandarin juice, recalling the famous light observed by Gatsby across the bay. The service is completed with Earl Grey poured over dry ice, introducing a mist inspired by the atmosphere of the Hudson River and recalling the protagonist's English experience. "Like a night of jazz, each aroma enters at its own pace. It's not a perfectly resolved melody, but a phrasing that remains suspended, similar to a syncopated melody," explains Patanè.

Alongside the cocktail, the tropical baba is also served, already evoked in the white rum, which thus becomes the concrete part of a memory initially hidden in the glass.

Finally, making the presentation even more immersive was a dance performance , inspired by the atmosphere of the 1920s, Prohibition and the parties described by Fitzgerald: the cocktail thus became the centre of an experience that involved taste, music and storytelling.

"Taormina Cocktail Week confirms its position as a highly valuable event for our industry, capable of creating authentic connections between professionals, companies, and hospitality businesses ," comments Luigi Bonomo, F&B Manager at the Grand Hotel San Pietro . "Being chosen as the venue for the cocktail competition makes us extremely proud and represents a significant sign of trust."

"The recognition our team has received ," adds Piero Benigni, Director of the Grand Hotel San Pietro , " makes us particularly proud and reinforces our commitment to presenting the Grand Hotel San Pietro as one of Taormina's leading hospitality establishments. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the entire team, who worked with great synergy and professionalism, leveraging the contributions of every single member."

The Critics' Award by Campari is the result of a collaborative effort involving Marco Patanè, Bar Manager; Domenico Coppolino, Assistant Bar Manager; Alessio Di Bella and Alessandro Raffa, Bartenders; Naomi Corallini, Demi Chef; and Lucia Marchese, Commis, who were involved in developing the concept, creating the cocktails, ensuring service, and ensuring the performance.

An award that celebrates not only the cocktail presented, but also the creativity, teamwork, and enthusiasm with which the Grand Hotel San Pietro has once again chosen to be a protagonist of Taormina Cocktail Week.