I was reading Imbibe trade magazine with interest the other day, in it there was an interesting piece discussing whether bars needed to have a theme or a concept to open with the appropriate amount of bells and whistles and accompanying PR glare – and whether then, this theme would prove a hindrance to its long-term survival.
Bearing in mind the previous blog about the Met bar, its recent re-opening, and whether it could survive without its ‘unique selling point’ (its door policy) I thought I’d take my ramblings a step further and consider why I like the bars I’ve drunk in over the years and whether a theme, a concept or a USP motivates me to keep on returning. Am I easily drawn in by a concept or am I a man of simpler tastes? And if the concept excites me, would I revisit or just have a one off experience.
Well straight off, I struck all my favourite hotel bars off the judging list, I love hotel bars for what they are and where they are located (a hotel bar in a hotel – duh) and the glamour that comes attached. So this counts the Connaught, American bar, China Tang etc out of the reckoning as their’ being a hotel bar is for me, a concept.
I thought about the bars that get me out of my locality of an evening (not an easy task these days) and some names came up; Callooh Callay, 69 Colebrooke row, El Camion, Nightjar – all bars that are either themed or have a concept to some degree. This made me sit up and consider that I guess that yes, for a venue to exist outside of a customer’s locale, a place that they would go to as a destination venue, you could argue that some sort of lure would be required to tempt the cab fare (all of these venues would average about a 45 pound round trip for me)
Next I looked at my favourite local establishments and things became clearer still; Montgomery place, Lonsdale House, Electric House – these bars all serve great cocktails albeit in places often overcrowded with slightly pretentious punters (a hook for some people?) Then I ended up where I often do of an evening for my favourite bar experience of all; sitting in the unpretentious surroundings of the theme free bar at the Portobello star.
As I was researching this piece I stumbled on the Time Out top 50 London bars. I was happy to see many of my favourite bars mentioned but noted these words written about the Portobello star
“The USPs at the Star are the confident renditions of both traditional and modern cocktails by the team of slick bartenders”.
Sometimes it seems, the best concepts are the most obvious.
