Conran's Havana nightspot

Sir Terence Conran, who first persuaded us to furnish our homes with Habitat and then later with his eponymous home stores, has in no small part been responsible for the renaissance of eating and drinking destinations over the past decade or so.

When I reviewed Mezzo back in 1995, it was, apparently, the 'biggest restaurant in Europe', boasting a capacity of some 350 covers and with tables that were turned over at breakneck speed during the course of busy evenings.

Those were the heady days when the post-Thatcherite economy seemed confident enough to suggest that mega-venues were the way ahead. And indeed they were, for a brief moment in time, but the fickle finger of fashion soon started pointing towards smaller, more intimate affairs, leaving many of the bigger venues sparsely populated and lacking atmosphere.

The kinetic nature of Conranwould never see him lag behind, and with Mezzo now a distant memory, two new venues have taken its place: Meza, a Spanish bar and restaurant on the upper-ground floor of the building; and Floridita, a Cuban bar and restaurant on the lowerground level (which I will be reviewing next week).

Just a few doors down from Mezzowas the Mezzo cafe and flower shop, which has also gone, to be replaced with La Casa del Habano, a cigar bar that is a joint venture between Conran and Havana Holdings, the latter being a recently established company founded to import and purvey the very best of all things Cuban.

La Casa del Habano is a cool-as-you-like, contemporary bar with dark wooden panels, soft leather seats, newspapers hanging from sticks on the wall, and a splendidly stocked bar serving as exciting a range of quality daiquiris as you're likely to find anywhere in the world.

But cigars are what this place is really about, and the relatively peaceful, elegant surroundings are already attracting healthy numbers of cigar aficionados enjoying a good pull on something long, fat and flavoursome (I can't rid my mind of the image of what Monica Lewinsky might have got up to with former President Clinton in that White House incident).

All the major Cuban brands are present - Cohiba, Partagas, Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, Fonseca, Sancho Panza, H. Upmann and Diplomaticos - and are available for off-sale from the giant walk-in humidor in what used to be the flower shop.

But, for those fascinated with the cigar-making process, a nice Cuban woman has been employed to roll cigars (no thighs involved, sadly) from fresh leaves, according to your taste. It's fascinating to watch, but only time will tell whether this is a luxury (or a gimmick) that will make long-term economic sense.

The food menu was extremely limited on each of my visits. There were bits of bread, tiny portions of Spanish omelette, an egg sandwich and nothing much else, which calls into question why anyone would want to visit this place in the early mornings, at lunch or at dinnertime. A fuller menu is promised, but they need to get on with it if this place is going to take off.