Ninetyeight Bar & Lounge

Long a private members club, those who look decorous or intriguing enough will now be ushered down the vertiginous spiral staircase to proprietress Kath Morrell’s magical underground kingdom-cum-cocktail bar. A set of all-white interconnecting rooms forms the backdrop to an OTT magpie mix of exuberant baroque, glitz and gee-gaws - hilarious kitsch collated over the past two decades: stone leopards prowling through a forest of potted palms, lit ultraviolet, anyone? House signatures(£9) are, by contrast, deadly serious, although the prevailing frivolity percolates these too. Hence, off in the clouds, sky-blue gin and lavender-infused vodka vesper poured over white angel hair candy ‘clouds’. Infusions also figure heavily elsewhere: e.g. good old-fashioned Sunday roast (Karlssons Gold vodka infused with rosemary and oregano and served with a hint of orange). If outlandish molecular mixology isn’t your bag, there’s a range of fine wines, champagne and bottled brews. Sunday tea parties set to a BBC Light Programme soundtrack where vintage garb is mandatory are new to as the curtain goes up on this clandestine curiosity on Curtain Road.