Dollar grand

Pity the poor posties at Mount Pleasant sorting office: their favourite pastime, after several rounds of deliveries, was to enjoy several rounds of the sharp stuff in the workaday Penny Black pub opposite.

Having reached what many might describe as the pub's unnatural atrophy, a new venue has emerged bearing a name you might expect to find on a roadside diner along a barren stretch of an American highway. One can almost imagine its red-neck customers chewing tobacco and hollering, 'Bring me them there fried green tom-a-does!' I can almost hear country music in the background - play on, play on.

Sadly, it isn't thus. And when you hear that the man behind $ Grills And Martinis is the irrepressible Robert Newmark, you'll appreciate that this place would have more than just a touch of class. For Newmark be the man who brought us the destination venues of Mondo and Freedom in Soho, The Hill in Belsize Park and, according to my records, still includes the proprietorship of Notting Hill's Beach Blanket Babylon.

Newmark's predilection for the unique fusion of urbane glamour tinged with urban decadence has never been more evident than at $ Grills And Martinis. It is wholly unrecognisable from old - so much so that even its address has changed from the Penny Black days when the pub was registered at 106 Farringdon Road. Perhaps the nice posties at the sorting office had a hand in this, perhaps it doesn't matter.

The ground floor, a camply accoutred, brasserie-style operation offers all manner of honest-to-goodness, simple and reasonably priced dishes of salads, steaks, burgers and fish dishes. And the basement bar (open evenings only) is an equally promising affair offering punters an almost over-thetop, industrial-style interior of exposed brickwork softened by mildly kitsch furnishings. The best --and sexiest - seats in the house are to be found in the comfy vaulted booths, where you can imagine all manner of high jinks and shenanigans taking place.

In case anyone has just landed from Mars and never strayed across these pages before, I love my Martinis. And these Martinis are top dollar. I can't tell you (sad old soak that I am) how stratospherically uplifting it is to have a conversation with a bartender who offers me my Martini 'straight, smoky or dirty' (see How To Make: A Dirty or Smoky Martini, right), before getting on with the tantalising porn-style chat such as which vermouth he wanted me to use.

I opted for a bone-dry Ketel One Martini with Noilly Prat dry vermouth - my favourite vodka Martini. It was fabulously crisp and dry. (The bone-dry bit means that the Martini glass is coated with vermouth and then shaken clean --a sweet Martini would see a more substantial amount of sweet vermouth mixed with the drink.)

I followed this up with the optimistically named (given the deplorable and inclement nature of the weather at the time of my visit) Summer Garden - Plymouth gin with chopped cucumber, apple juice and lime cordial. It was another roaring success and £6.50 a throw seemed extremely good value for money.

My date on my first visit to this place was unsuccessful on two counts: she was a ditzy, blonde PR girl - people should never go out with ditzy, blonde PR girls - and she seemed incapable of having fun in an environment that I felt was riddled with opportunity. Next time - and there will be a next time - I will choose a more suitable drinking companion.

2 Exmouth Market, EC1 (020-7278 0077) Mon-Sat 5pm-1am

Sun 5pm-10.30pm