Open to every Tom & Dick

We can take it as given that proprietors are the only real beneficiaries when they launch a members' bar.

It makes the balance sheet look healthy when a few hundred gullible punters part with wads of cash for the privilege of seeing the same people in the same place on a regular basis - a lifestyle usually reserved for prisoners. This is probably the reason so many of them fail, often leaving said punters with no claim on their investments.

When Tony Blair eventually (if ever) gets round to sorting out our licensing hours, there'll be even less demand for such places. In the interim, my advice is to give them all a wide berth.

Harry's Social Club is the latest venture to go the way of so many members' bars, but Tom & Dick's (rhyming slang for 'sick'), in a smart stuccoed Notting Hill street, has taken its place. The PR assures me that, although a membership policy might be considered in the New Year, it is currently open to every Tom, Dick or Harry who wants to pitch up.

This twofloored bar is a haven of conviviality in an area where workaday Paddington meets confident Notting Hill. Gustav Klimt prints adorn the walls, and the furnishings are an eclectic mix of groovy fittings that wouldn't be out of place in a Moroccan souk. Low, funky, Moroccan/North African music is gentle on the ear and conducive to conversation and romance.

The price of drinks, however, compensates the new owner for the lack of membership fees. Draught beers (Kronenburg, Hoegaarden and Guinness) are pitched at £2 per half pint, and bottled beers (Grolsch, Budwar, Beck's and Stella Artois) are between £3 and £4.

The Italian wine list also has some healthy mark-ups, with a pinot grigio at £18 and the Valpolicella Vapantena Venetoat 2000 at £27. Cocktails, at £7 each (£9 for champagne cocktails), include the staple Martinis, and very good Mojitos, Caipirinhas and Negronis.

The food menu lists made-for-sharing mezze plates, such as the fatoush salad (tomato, cucumber, radish, spring onions, lettuce, purslane, parsley, sumach) served with Lebanese bread, hummus and pitta, and plates of chicken marinated with sumach and onion and wrapped in unleavened bread. I figured the Tom & Dick's club sandwich would be the house speciality and opted for this. It turned out to be a white-bread sandwich containing cold chicken pieces, spicy potato, tomato and lettuce. Disappointing, yes, but a dollop of wild chicory with lemon juice on the side was inspired.

Tom & Dick's is bringing something new to an area that has otherwise become the cliche of cool. This is a fabulous venue where you could happily hang round all evening getting gently sozzled. It will be a disaster if this place adopts a membership policy - for the venue, and for us.

Tom & Dick's
30 Alexander Street, W2 5NT