3 New Burlington Street,
Mayfair,
London,
W1S 2JE
0872 148 0914
The ViewLondon Review
Moroccan-themed Mayfair newcomer, offering bargain happy hour cocktails (£3 a pop), fusion finger food (often with a middle-eastern slant) and a late licence for media darlings with no boss to answer to at 9am.
Number 3, tucked away on a formulaic, unassuming office strip off Regent Street, is the sort of characterful find that's ideal for impressing a central London lunch date.
The pleasantly slouchy, slightly naff interior (imagine a Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen designed souk) is a welcome aberration in the postcode that boasts fusty old dogs such as Claridges and The Dorchester.
The manager Nick (an ex-girl band manager with a peroxide crop and enviable joie de vivre) seemingly took a staple gun, a job-lot of chintz and a gram of speed and set to tarting up his bar.
The result is eclectic ethnicity - fire-effect fabric drapes, hammer-beaten mirrors, wrought ironwork - with humorous touches of provincial garden centre and Greek kebab takeaway.
Fittingly, the lunchtime crowd is more Red Stripe than pinstripe, chowing down on Chef Mirko Lacchinis (previously of Mayfair's Harris Bar) menu of quickie business food and snacks - global-larder pilfering tortilla, focaccia and mezze being amongst the best on offer (dishes at around £4).
But by night Number 3 comes into its own, the R'n'B, house and tech-disco cranked up louder than the decor for a largely gay crowd of local TV and post-production afterworkers with the occasional private party for the likes of MTV.
Current promotions include Friday's Playtime, promising Jackin' house, tech disco and tribal funk for the freaks, the geeks, the dykes, the bikes and Japanese tourists? and Saturday's Geisha Lounge, with party grooves, R'n'B, soul and disco classics.
And much more is promised on the club front. The downstairs venue, previously infamous Mayfair sweat-pit Samantha's, is due to reopen within the next few months, purged of its disco glitterballs; but hopefully not of its hormone-fuelled history. Definitely one to watch.