The city: Pre-Club Bars
Posted on Wednesday, September 22 @ 00:00:00 PDT by poster |
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Edinburgh's club scene has engendered a rash of hip pre-club bars, complete with drinks promos, decks and resident DJs, where you can begin the process of metamorphosis from weekday wage slave to dance-floor diva.
Bam Bou (tel 556 0200, 67 South Bridge). Bam Bou is all - you've guessed it - bamboo and mock-oriental. You can get tanked on Japanese sake cocktails here, and snack on sushi and dim sum. There's drum'n'bass on Friday and hip hop on Saturday.
City Cafe (tel 220 0125, 19 Blair St). Dating from the 1980s, the City Cafe is Edinburgh's original pre-club bar, with an 1950s-American-diner retro look, excellent munchies, and a downstairs DJ spinning hip hop, R'n'B, ragga and funk.
Cuba Norte (tel 221 1430, 192 Morrison St). Swagger in, order a cuba libra and prepare to salsa. Cuba Norte provides a little touch of Latino levity in the cold, northern winters, dishing up good Cuban tapas, Havana cigars and hip-swaying salsa beats. You can hone your technique at one of the regular salsa classes.
Po Na Na (tel 226 2224, 43b Frederick St). This bar is one of a UK-wide chain, which makes the North African souk-style decor seem more contrived than imaginative. Still, the DJs play great party music and the place opens till 3am every night, so... rock the casbah, rock the casbah...
PopRokit (tel 556 4272, 2 Picardy Place). A shrine to chrome, steel and glass - even part of the floor is glass - PopRokit is style with a capital yessss. Full-length glass walls mean you can ogle the passers-by outside, that is if you can tear your eyes away from the beautiful people inside. Resident DJs pump out groove, funk and disco for the pre-club crowds.
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