Here today, gone tomorrow, bars have a reputation for short-term success. But a few have the ability to ride the times and keep on top of the game.
Ten years ago, I was sitting in The Groucho Club one late summer's evening discussing with a now well known haute couture designer, the new wave of drinking culture that was enveloping the capital, arguing that London really had never been so exciting. Up until that point, drinks were very much a secondary element of the overall experience - wine was simply white or red, beer came only in a pint glass and vodka was whatever paint-stripper the barman chose to pour. But in the nineties, we were on the cusp of a cocktail movement. New-world wines were making the Chardonnay and Shiraz as commonplace as the Bordeaux, while new conceptual drinks like Red Bull were seriously shaking up the market, broadening people's drinking landscape and challenging us to think about drinking as more of a lifestyle. Slowly, what was behind the bar appeared to be taking over the focus of the night. People were whispering rumours of late night bars that were open into the wee hours, where glamourous glitterati rubbed hips with the international jet-set over Manhattans and Martinis. They, along with The Groucho, were the places everyone wanted to be seen and their popularity seemed untouchable to all but the most cynical.
Of course, everything has a lifespan, we cynically agreed: fashion is dead in a season, and a fashionable bar - well you wouldn't want to bet the house on it would you? We both concluded that fashions simply can't last and those bars, which today were the subject of snaking queues, would quickly turn to yesterday's news as would the drinks that were being quaffed within. Of course, in most cases we weren't far wrong. Mondo, Saint, Titanic, Riki Tik... all have fallen by the wayside having once been celebrity favourites of their day. Many others have turned from exclusive A-list excellence to godawful tourist tat. The Gin Sling became the Sea Breeze became the Bramble became the Vanilla Mojito...
But it's not all doom and gloom. Today, another ten years hence, I am back in the same leather couch of the same Groucho, and ordering from the menu a Red Bull, a drink whose ability to transcend fads and trends seems to symbolise the aspirations of nightlife culture. It has history and heritage and has attained almost timeless appeal. Fashionable works for a while, but every owner, manager and promoter hopes and strives for one thing ultimately - and that is to be the next classic. Because the classics, while small in number, exist on a plain far superior to fashion. Dotted amongst the sprawling community of one-off wonders that populate the bar world, a few classics really have stood the test of time, riding the cyclical waves to achieve immortal credibility. The Groucho is one of those timeless classics. Through the years it has always been at the top of its game, its members' list comprising the same names that populate the pages of the celebrity press together with the successful and powerful in the world of media.
Nowadays, octogenarian founder members sit comfortably alongside young achievers and its long-term future would appear to be set in stone. Embassy is another long-time winner - or more to the point, its ever-present Rock 'n' Roll proprietor, Mark Fuller, who ran the original Embassy twenty years ago with equal success. This most recent incarnation of one of London's most famous clubs, now with a fine dining restaurant that counts among the capital's very best, and glitzy nightclub in the basement, is a rare constant in the oscillating world of the fashionable. Another face that has always been associated with bar and club supremacy is Jake Panayiotou who ran original celebrity hot-spot, Browns for a decade before moving on in its hay-day. His last few years at the helm of the Wellington Club in Knightsbridge have seen the age-old members' club climb to yet new heights. But it's not only members' clubs that can battle through the ages unscathed. Music-led venues such as Medicine Bar in Islington, Bar Rumba, The Cross, Bar Vinyl and The End have all proved their mettle, while the likes of Hanover Grand, The Gardening Club and Iceni have collapsed into the annuls of 'hip' history.
So, what is it that sets the one-hit-wonders apart from the immortals? What makes a classic? Three characteristics seem to pump through the veins of all the long-term winners.
"Quality, choice and adaptability," says Cas, The Groucho's pre-eminent bar manager, as he deftly shakes up cocktails from behind the bar. "You have to offer a quality experience in the drinks, the music, the food and the people. You must give customers what they want and you have to adapt to the times." Subtly underlining the point, my Red Bull silently arrives at the table on its own tray, dressed with a single, perfectly folded napkin.
Can staying power really be so simple to achieve? With twenty years of success behind The Groucho, the club is quite an authority on the subject, but it was Darwin who concluded that "the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting to their environment." Sounds pretty familiar to me and, let's face it, you can't argue with Darwin.
HERE TO STAY
Our selection of bars that we think will still be doing it in ten years time...
MAYFAIR: Embassy
An all-round club for the all-round socialite, Embassy offers food on a par with Michelin starred restaurants, drinks that are as good as any great cocktail bar, a basement club and a guestlist that could double as a who's who of London.
COVENT GARDEN: The End & AKA
One of the capital's most respected dance music venues, with Mr C behind its success. Music is always ahead of its time and drinks are a world away from most dance music venues.
KNIGHTSBRIDGE: Wellington Club
With over 100 years of history, The Wellington has been reborn as an exclusive hangout for the city's hippest. Lounge bar and club rolled into one and popular with the pap's and the press alike.
WEST: Woody's
On the banks of London's longest canal, Woody's has become accepted as the members' bar for the music industry. Three floors of food drink and dance with a collection of the best music and cocktail mixologists in the country.
ISLINGTON: Medicine Bar
It was the bar that put Islington on the 'credible' map. One of the original DJ bars that has been made a home to the clubbing community of the 1990s.
CAMDEN: Bar Vinyl
Reputedly the first DJ bar in London, Bar Vinyl combines a record shop with the only bar in Camden really worth its salt. The bar is minuscule, but the offering is enormous and the future is vast.
SHOREDITCH: Home
One of the originators of the Shoreditch movement, Home made its mark before all of the others and continues to hold its own. It has moved from a scraggly basement bar to a slick, but funky cocktail bar and restaurant and continues to define the times.
SOHO: The Groucho
A favourite media hangout, The Groucho is like a party in your own front room with the kind of people that anybody would eat their own right arm to have turn up at their party. Now with a more modern bar on the first floor to complement the leather and wood ground floor classic, it is a members' bar that suits all and bound to see in another twenty year term.
HOXTON: Zigfrid
A newcomer to the Hoxton set, Zigfrid is most likely to be here in ten years. Brainchild of leading bar designer, Paul Daly, it appeals to the more creative Hoxtonians and since the district is a hotbed of creativity, it's proving pretty popular.
FITZROVIA: Social
A collaboration between bar gurus The Breakfast Group and music gurus, Heavenly Social, this backstreet concrete bunker of a bar offers some of the best DJ-led and live music about. Now with sister venues in Islington and Nottingham, Social is destined for a big future.
Jeremy Mascarenhas has been editorial director of the seminal London Bar Guide magazine [http://www.londonbarguide.com] for 10 years. He is also global editor of The World Bar Guide, an online guide to the best bars in the world http://www.worldbarguide.com, publisher of The Big Directory (a bar industry bible) and a freelance drinks marketing consultant. He has worked with most of the leading drinks groups including Red Bull, Moët Hennessy, Diageo, Brown Foreman, Budweiser, Asahi, Tiger Beer and Grand Marnier. Through his publishing company Scene It, as well as the London Bar Guide, he has published guides to Sherry, UK nightlife, cocktails, Japanese restaurants, the much lauded London Restaurant Guide and much more besides.
