And So to So.Ho

There is a belief, to which I subscribe, that during times of economic hardship, people stop short of battening down the hatches and hiding money under the mattress. Rather than abstaining from a social life, people tighten their purse strings by downgrading their expectations and expenditure.

With the possible exception of five-star restaurants (there will always be some who succeed in recessional times), it follows that the rest of us will move from a 'top end' restaurant to a mid-market venue, from a style bar to a gastropub, and so on down the food chain until you eventually arrive at a Rat & Parrot (at which point you need to pack your bags and move to Wales).

Lee Chapman and Leslie Ash's restaurant next to Teatro members' bar must have been a victim of this social reshuffling, for after five years of feeding the rich and famous they've given up the ghost on fine dining and opened a non-members bar in its place. It makes economic sense - overheads are significantly lower in drinks-only businesses.

And so to SO.UK SO.HO - with punctuation providing an unnecessary nod to the age of the information superhighway, and 'Soho' to differentiate it from their original SO.UK site in Clapham.

The downside to this place is that you have to deal with a couple of bouncers at the door - nice chaps, by the way. And then you have the door whores to contend with, who will strike you in (or not) depending on the cut of your jib. My friends tell me that getting in is easy during the after-work cocktail hours, but after 11pm they're likely to have promoters running their own guest lists and charging for entry - £15 after 11pm when I visited.

I chose one of the Thursday promotional nights of Nick House - who compiles London's most eligible list of Z-list bachelors and bachelorettes - for my visit. I like House - the man, not the music style - but only because he laughs at my jokes and draws a posse of beautiful women paddling in his wake.

My first reaction to the bar was 'wow'. It is an unrepresentative Babylon among the otherwise moribund venues that comprise Soho - if, that is, you like being surrounded by young, beautiful and achingly fashionable Londoners.

They make a cool Cosmopolitan and a fabulous Old Fashioned (both £7.95) - and the food has an Oriental slant with dishes such as Thai fish cakes (£8.50) and mixed vegetables in a coconut and red curry sauce on a bed of noodles (£7.50). Service is a cut above the rest of Soho.

Will it work? Maybe, hopefully. Unkindly critics might suggest they can hear the sound of fingernails scraping the bottom of barrels when they hear of this departure from fine dining to a whole lot of fun.

I wouldn't be one of them.

SO.UK.SO.HO
93-107 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 5DY