Cocktail Bar of the Week: Alexander Bar

“One good thing about this recession” said architect Robert Silke last night, enjoying his annual month long builders’ holiday, “is that it opens up great buildings, like this one, at realistic rentals. In the boom, this would have been a Pam Golding office” indicating the Wildean fin de siècle interior of the Alexander Bar on the corner of Strand and Loop Street, Cape Town.

Alexander Bar

Owned by partners Edward and Nicholas, whose second names are both Alexander, “they have picked up people all around the world” so the bar has been optimized for successful dating. It’s faintly Germanic, in a Berlin Alexanderplatz sort of way, and you could almost imagine Herr Issyvoo making an understated entrance, flicking a blonde quiff. “We tried to get the Bean There premises on Wale Street, but the roastery beat us to it” said Edward. Bean There used to be a mortuary, so perhaps psychically speaking at least, the Alexanders are better off in their current location, close to the Cape Sun where Robert used to do his homework as a schoolboy.

Edward, Robert and Nicholas

The bar itself is square “corners are prime positions”, the down lighting comes with bronze reflectors “optimized for Caucasians. If you’re tanned you can easily become a silhouette.” Like Berlin’s KitKatKlub, telephones are a feature and you can dial a table or listen to the BBC World Service, if you get bored. “Do what you want, but stay in communication” indeed. At the opening night, patrons born in the nineties were given a crash course in how to use a rotary dial, as they battled to figure out the Bakelite technology.

Edward runs his computer programming business upstairs and prefers Chardonnay to cocktails, although the wineries of Franschhoek failed to find favour. “That Graham Beck coastal cellar has to be the ugliest in the Cape” said one architect, so we had a couple of Cassis Tinis cocktails – Vodka, Cranberry and Crème de Cassis with a glace cherry – R50. Nicholas is a screenplay writer, so the place is designed as an after show space that closes at 1am.

A square bar maximizes corners

One hour before Clarke’s Bar and Dining Room on Bree Street, although when Luke Krone and I were looking for a drink at 11:30pm on Saturday, Clarke’s was closed and we had pink gins (slush puppies more like it) at &Union with Simon Wibberley. Perhaps the entire staff contingent of Clarke’s were acting out Maids in China at the MCQP party at the CTICC – they certainly have enough tattoos.