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Bruno Mars is undeniably smooth. The R&B crooner is smooth-dressing, smooth-talking, with smooth rhythms in his back pocket he's known to pour over again and again until he gets them just so. But on his never-ending quest to mix the perfect throwback jam, Mars took a detour to pour over something special this summer — an exclusive rum bar on the Kohala Coast in Hawaii.
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This luxurious waterfront watering hole, otherwise known as the SelvaRey Rum Bar, is an intimate beach bar with a front row seat to the pano ramic ocean view overlooking Fairmont Orchid resort's privatePauoa Bay. Popping up just in time for summer, the bar was designed with Mars' input, and crafted to specifically showcase a "timeless tropical luxury aesthetic". Mars is also SelvaRey's co-owner, one of the only celebrity rum brands out there right now. With all the star-studded faces backing high-end spirits, my first thought was why a rum bar? And why now? One sultry-voiced commercial could make bottles fly off shelves, and SelvaRey nightclub parties and DJing sessions could feel right in line with the Ciroc-core vibes of oth er celebrity liquors.
SelvaRey Rum BarPrice: $Fairmont Orchid Resort
You might recall that with the An Evening with Silk Sonic album release, Mars created nine different SelvaRey Rum cocktails to pair with each song on the album's track list. The Panamanian single-estate distilled rum was created in 2014, but Mars quickly became a co-owner after its first launch, and brought his own meticulous eye for detail and creativity to the brand.
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The white rum is actually a blend of three and five-year-old rums, and after being charcoal filters, the rum is aged in bourbon barrels. It also received the highest rating for any white rum in the history of prestigious trade publication, The Tasting Panel, with a score of 94 Points. That distinction alone certainly gives it a head start on beating out the pack of big names with bigger checkbooks who want some skin in the spirits game. But is there anything that can make celebrity alcohol stand out these days besides being pretty great?
SelvaRey Rum Cocktail at SelvaRey Rum Bar Fairmont Orchid
SelvaRey RumAs much as we don't want to shower the clout-endowed with even more clout, admittedly, many celeb spirit offerings are yes, actually that great. Bob Dylan's Heaven's Door is a well-regarded, award-winning series of whiskeys, and I admittedly had a bit of a personal c risis when I tasted how good Post Malone's Maison No. 9 Rosé was. But the waters of liquid gold are undeniably saturated — depending on your definition of "owned", at this time, there are around 60 spirits and liquors at least backed by a celebrity (you can search for them in the GrapeStars app), from the old guard of Ryan Reynolds' Aviation Gin, to Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul's recent post-Breaking Bad Dos Hombres Mezcal venture.
Celebrities gravitate toward the alcohol industry for a number of reasons — some spirits like tequila have quick turnaround times on production, even with a unique flavor profile and distillation process. The beverage industry is also undeniably profitable, with online sales from alcohol delivery apps having flourished since the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent study estimates that by 2025, alcoholic beverages will surpass $2.2 trillion in global market size. So it's understandable why plenty of celebrities want a taste, but also why it's so easy to become desensitized when you're on the other side of the bar.
"The thing about SelvaRey is that it's a great product with or without me," Mars said in an interview with Rolling Stone. "It was an award winning rum before I helped get the word out. Try it and tell me it's not the best rum you've ever tasted! To me, that's the secret."
Bruno Mars at SelvaRey Rum Bar at the Fairmont Orchid
SelvaRey Rum BarPrice: $Fairmont Orchid Resort
Mars was clearly invested not only in the flavor of SelvaRey specifically as a rum brand in a sea of star-studded tequila, but in the aesthetic vision. When asked about striking the balance between just an attractive-looking bottle and a great taste, Mars said it was about creating a match for each other. "When I first tried SelvaRey, I was transported and inspired by the Rum itself. I saw it was possible to elevate the rum drinks I loved. After I got to know the founders and came on board, we created a look that matched the taste. We want people to experience tropical luxury with everything SelvaRey puts out."
Even with a surprisingly good spirit, that's not why everyone buys celebrity-backed booze. "Experience" is the key word here — we want to live like Bruno lives, get lost in the "tropical luxury" vibes, and not just feel like we're pounding back meaningless shots while the summer sweat sticks to our backs. Diddy once referred to Ciroc Seltzer in a Forbes interview as "aspirational", something that could match the upscale "sexiness" of seeing and being seen a t a beach or pool party.
Smartly, Mars created something experiential with SelvaRey Rum Bar first, and taste-focused second. It helps when you already have a pretty great li quid in hand, but this unique bar is also part of Fairmont's recently launched Beyond LIMITS series: a curated collection of luxury experiences available at Fairmont locations across North and Central America (including a "Tea Noir" soiree, a dinner series where you eat completely in the dark, and a Tongan beach club).
Being very hands-on in the process of creating the pop-up experience, Mars said that the location of the bar — right on the beach — was chosen so the space and atmosphere could be a reflection of what SelvaRey is all about. "That was the most important thing. At the end of the day, it's all about fun. If I'm not having fun, it's not worth it. Rum is the same. When was the last time you saw someone in a bad mood holding a piña colada?!"
Bruno Mars SelvaRey Rum Bar The Fairmont Orchid
SelvaRey Rum BarPrice: $Fairmont Orchid Resort
Some of the Beyond LIMITS events are more "boundary-pushing" than others (there was previously an underwater ballet), but with a physical space, Mars elevated a luxurious-tasting spirit into a luxurious-feeling moment. There's a lot of talk about "quiet luxury" these days, and not just in fashion. You can even see these elements reflected within the design of some of collaboration partner Fairmont's most recently renovated properties. The Fairmont Century Plaza, for example, is a complete reimagining of the Los Angeles landmark, with sleek neutral tones, cavernous lounge spaces, and a spa that feels as if the MET Museum had consulted on Succession. But Mars has always been about the brighter, louder versions of the finer things in life. "Spirits and luxury are meant to be about celebration and enjoyment with others. That's what SelvaRey represents, and the bar offers people the same thing."
At the bar, the music is upbeat, the drinks are sweet, and the emerald green and gold accents everywhere feels royal. Throughout the process of crafting and opening the space, Mars has been shown to be someone who's truly cracked the code on how to have a celebrity liquor brand — be a huge fan of a distillery's work, let the production team do their thing, and use your star power not to position yourself as a spirits expert, but to show how the drink can facilitate an elevated, communal experience (i.e. let the good times roll). Like with cocktail development, in some ways it's less about the organic taste of the spirit itself, and more about what kind of feeling you want someone to have while drinking it. The goal was to craft SelvaRey into a "vacation in a glass", and the rum bar décor to emulate "tropical luxury". A little exoticized? Perhaps. Was it successful aesthetically? Absolutely. As the world of celebrity spirits expands, more famous folks could do some good ditching the shameless-feeling promotion and take a page from Bruno's book.
As the golden sun descended into the ocean waves and we stood beachside sipping on Weekend at Bruno's (a cocktail which the menu says goes down smoother than the sunset), I shot a text with some photos of the bar to my father. A huge Bruno fan (who refers to him exclusively as the one lyric he can always remember, "smoother than a fresh jar of Skippy"), most celebrity spirits are not even on his radar when he makes a Total Wine run. He wasn't there to sip on any SelvaRey the artist was serving up, listen to the reggae rhythms playing at the counter, or even smell the salty air. But from just one look at the bar and its cocktails, he had a single impression: "smoooooth."
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