Scalar Lounge - Munich

If I were to take leave of my senses and open a bar, this is what I would do; model it on a sixties film like In Like Flint or The Men from U.N.C.L.E., add some tanks of brightly coloured tropical fish, slap in lots of slightly off-beat characters and assemble a bunch of totally relaxed barkeepers. And then I'd be the owner of the Scalar Lounge.

This place is cool, and better than that, interesting to look at. The best seat is the alcove with the fish tanks (the bar is named after the Scalar fish), but it's usually reserved for some other dude. If you are feeling rich you can actually sponsor the fish tanks by paying for the fish food for 6 months and have your name lodged underneath. It costs about Euro 50 and I think it gives you reservation rights to that cool little alcove.

The bartenders are great. They know how to mix a great Martini and the Bloody Mary's (featuring chilli-flavoured vodka) are excellent. The guests are cool and wear a lot of black. Music ranges from Elvis to Saturday Night Fever to Shirley Bassey, always chill level volume, so conversation isn't a problem. This is the place where we mixed the first Schicki Micki cocktail - red bull, champagne, vodka, slice of lime, martini glass with encrusted sugar. Our bartender, the improbably-named Huckleberry Kojak, gave us a discount since it was a prototype. Love it.

Review © 2001 Christopher Larmour & Damien Fournier, Groovy Munich

Seitzstrasse 12, Lehel
Tel. 089 215 796 36