Oscar

A strange little bar, really, with tables crowded together like mushrooms but with the hectic civility of the grown-up media crowd that stays at the hotel or at least comes to drink here. Though nicely rowdy in a conversational way, it's not the sort of place you'll have to endure stag and hen nights meeting for a few lager tops and a round of the Birdy Song, so it's a pretty safe bet for a drink with someone you'd like to see again.

So, it's for precisely that reason I took someone here on a getting-to-know-you type date and found that the young and chatty bar staff were genuinely enthusiastic and as knowledgable about their mixology as anyone of that age can be expected to be. So, no real problem there. However, though I'm hardly an old fart myself at thirty-four, I've found after many years and who knows how many thousands of pounds' worth of cocktails (I really don't want to think about it too much) that really great cocktail bartenders are usually of a maturity that appreciates the difference between simply mixing a drink to formula and actually creating one afresh for each customer.

We were seated at the bar which wasn't in itself a problem, being in close proximity to the next drink and the copious bar snacks but became somewhat less than comfortable as people were forced to jockey against us as they ordered drinks. Fewer bar stools might solve this; or swifter table service.

The only other fly in the ointment (apart from the eye-wateringly high prices - around £10 a cocktail) was a symptom of what was otherwise one of the bar's best points. The friendly, talkative bar staff give the place a zing that's lacking in other, more staid hotel bars. However, their puppy-like overenthusiasm did begin to grate when they wouldn't leave me (ok, my date, mostly) alone. There are times when a good bartender knows when to talk and when to leave well alone and I would have expected a place taking over £100 from me for a few drinks and snacks to tutor its staff in the art of discretion. Paying for the privelege of an entire bar team hitting on one's date is not usually the hallmark of a top night out. In this case, there was no damage done but I could see this really ruining someone else's evening.

So, expensive and relatively upmarket, due mainly to its clientele and an approach which doesn't try too hard. But please, someone, have a word with your bartenders before someone's boyfriend punches one of them on the nose.
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David K
Tuesday, April 20, 2004