The Square 15 Berkeley Square, Bristol (0117 921 0455)
Oh, I love Bristol. It's all cool and buzzy with urban edge but it's also pretty and has walk-about-ability, and people like Neneh Cherry and Tricky came from it. One e-mail to Cocktail Girl's friend Eliza, who decamped to Bristol 18 months ago, suggested that The Square appeared to have a lot going for it.
Such as?
Well, it's a haunt for a host of local B-minus-list celebs, which are Cocktail Girl's very, very favourite type of famous person. You've got your Holby Cities, your Massive Attacks (though apparently not much any more on account of them owning a rival bar in Bristol), Bristol City footballers, their girlfriends, sporadic McGann brothers, Nick Moran and Piers Adam.
And?
You could, if you chose, stay at the Berkeley Square hotel (which is on top of the bar) and thus gain automatic access to The Square, but Cocktail Girl opted instead for the rather more of-the-moment Brigstow, which is 10 minutes away, and lovely, and has a plasma screen TV in the bathroom.
Is The Square a kind of provincial Soho House?
Not entirely. It lacks the gloss of the House, or indeed pretty much any members' bar Cocktail Girl has ever visited. It's in a basement, down some not-entirely fragrant steps, and it's got some Local (read: dubious) Art on the wall, and some fabric draped over the ceiling, and it's all a bit scuffed around the edges.
It's got character, then?
Yes. And also characters. Although the word is that no more than 400 of the town's credibles and desirables have made it on to the exclusive member's list in the two years since it opened, Cocktail Girl clocked quite a lot of people handing over a couple of quid at the door, and gaining access. So it was a mixed-up bag of people who definitely qualify as motley, though in a very twenty- and early thirtysomething fashion. The staff were uncommonly lovely though.
Was it ghastly?
Not remotely. In fact, it was all a bit debauched and rowdy. None of your metropolitan self-consciousness prevailed, so people just got really drunk, danced loads, flirted hysterically. The competent Cosmos and Caipirin has flowed. And after managing to maintain an air of amused detachment for about, ooooh, 20 minutes, Cocktail Girl joined in, as is her way.
· Rooms at the Brigstow start at £75 a night for a double. The Brigstow Hotel, Welsh Back, Bristol BS1 4SF (0117 929 1030)
