Remember the heady mid-nineties of Brit-Pop, when somehow people like Ginger Spice, Liam Gallagher, and Tony Blair seemed cool, funky and so, so Metropolitan?

The bar of those heady days was the Met Bar, in the Metropolitan Hotel, and it seemed to embody the times. I.e., virtually nobody could get in - not even hotel guests for gawds sake - and when you eventually did, you found it was a tiny room full of people laughing loudly, while looking around furtively to see if anyone actually was famous.

It's been a long while since those heady days, and while The Met Bar ticks along nicely, the rest of the hotel is trying to regain its cool with a more egalitarian event on Thursday and Friday evenings. The Lobbyists takes place from 6-9pm and is perfect for a posh, post-work drink and a bite to eat, before you head off somewhere else.