Abacus Bar, Bank

Guilty Pleasures are now a ubiquitous part of London’s nightlife. You know the drill. Take a once-famous nightclub, dress it up in ironic décor, and play music that you might love and even own (Toto, Foreigner, the Kids from Fame), but would never admit to. (Well certainly not to anyone that you were trying to impress.)

And in the City of London’s bar world, there is one place that is without doubt a ‘guilty pleasure’. Everyone I know has been at least once, and too a person, they’ve enjoyed it. But you’ll never hear them shouting it from the rooftops. In fact, people are embarrassed to mention it, and when pushed, claim hitherto unknown friends have dragged them there. Or they were in desperate need of a late weeknight drink. Or they got lost…

That certain bar is Abacus, located right in the hub of the City next to Bank station. So what is it about this place that makes the loud amongst us suddenly meek?

Looking at it objectively, Abacus has plenty to offer. At street level is a cocktail-cum-lounge bar where the mostly suited-and-booted male clientele chat in that uniquely City way, where their eyes focus on everyone except the person they are with. And downstairs is the bar/nightclub which with its charts-led soundtrack and cocktail-infused happy hour, creates an atmosphere that is festive to say the least.

So what’s the issue? Well, there aren’t many bars quite like Abacus. Actually, I correct myself. There are plenty of bars like Abacus in the North or the outer areas of Greater London, just not in the City. Because Abacus, along with the departed (and much-lamented) Prohibition, were bars designed with one objective. Euphemistically, it could be described as a place where people go to meet each other, but in reality, it's what Americans call a ‘pick-up’ bar. That’s right, most nights of the week from Wednesday onwards, Abacus is rammed full of (mostly) single people, drinking half-priced cocktails and dancing with abandon.

The dress is mostly office wear, although women occasionally indulge in a party dress and what seems like a gallon of the latest celebrity-branded perfume. The men, who are equally indulgent on the after-shave front, step out in the latest that Top Shop or Hugo Boss have to offer (depending on their age, of course).

The bar staff are friendly and ultra-efficient, especially at happy hour time, while the bouncers and waiting staff are all charm. Which is something that you can’t say about Abacus’s rivals. This is just as well, as the recent holiday season saw what is an always-bustling bar get even busier as hordes of post-Christmas drinks City workers gravitate there to strut their stuff.

So Abacus might not be to everyone’s taste, but it serves its purpose in providing a fun and flirtatious venue very well.

You might note that in this review I haven’t given my normal interiors description, or gone into detail about the food or drinks on offer. In fact, I haven’t really acknowledged that I’ve even been to Abacus. It is a guilty pleasure after all