Mystery bar number 28

File under: drink, nightlife, Wellington

This place is decidedly more upmarket than the previous mystery bar, which as I mentioned last week was the very studenty Urbane cafe/bar on the corner of Webb and Hopper streets. It's also new in a sense, because it's had a thorough renovation. The result still looks decidely retro, though, but whether that's by accident or design is hard to tell. They seem to have vaguely gone for Art Deco glamour, with lots of curves and chrome highlights, but the end result looks more like a slightly more tasteful version of the 1980s Deco revival. Only slightly more tasteful, mind you: the slowly changing colours of the lighting strip around the bar seemed tacky in the context of the otherwise restrained decor.

Not that the clientele seemed to mind. It's a very professional place, and the wine and cocktail lists seemed acceptable, so I was disappointed to note that my Martini had been shaken: they should know better. There's a view, though it's not as impressive as it must once have been, so it's easy to just sit back and look at the ceiling. And what a ceiling! The repeating white-on-white patterns of dots and squares (almost Thompsonesque) in the white acoustic tiles look like something a contemporary interior designer would concoct as a knowing nod to the 70s while maintaining a sleeker minimalist look. But I'm told that this is the original ceiling, which shows that is you leave a place untouched for long enough, it will eventually go through the cycle of fashionable to dated to laughable to ironic and back to fashionable again. I wouldn't go so far as to say the bar itself will become hip, but in one sense at least it will remain one of Wellington's top bars.