Speeding Bullet

Camden ranks up there on the excitement stakes with the likes of Cowdenbeath and Haverfordwest - I've never been to either of the latter, but you don't have to visit these places to know that they exist.

Camden I've been to many times, sadly, and unless you're a Goth who enjoys breathing the air of urban decay, it has little to say for itself on the excitement front.

Things are changing painfully slowly on the style front. Made In Brasil, a fabulous cachaçeria, opened last year on Inverness Street boasting this country's largest collection of brands of the Brazilian spirit cachaça, and now there's the new Bullet, an ¸ber-cool style bar operation that is making a serious impact on the borough's otherwise lamentable social circuit.

Bullet opened late last year on the site of the former Verge music venue, and this semi-industrial interior of exposed brickwork, which is softened by nice leather Chesterfields and retro objets d'art, is already attracting an appreciative following from the new genre of Camden residents - young-at-heart professional bods who know a good thing when they see one.

It's the music and the louche, verging towards sexy, atmosphere that they come for. DJs dictate the pace at weekends with a mix of lounge music and funky jazz. An eclectic menu of live music is otherwise offered on an occasional basis, which means you might strike it lucky and find a seriously cool acoustic band performing or you might pitch up and wonder what the hell I'm talking about as you sit and endure the same CD being repeatedly played, as happened to me one night.

But I wasn't too bothered as the drinks list is almost interesting enough to make this place worth any number of visits. Putting the draught beers to one side (on the basis that no discerning toper should ever be seen consuming Kronenbourg), the bottled-beer selection demonstrates a happy predilection towards Belgian beers, with Brugs (a white beer), Judas (an 8.5 per cent ABV

monster of a beer), and Mort Subite (a delicious raspberry-flavoured 'champagne' beer) all at under £4 per bottle.

And the cocktails aren't half bad - a statement I never thought I would attribute to a Camden bar - given that the staff have to labour over a domestic ice-crushing machine and use cue cards to prepare them.

Despite this, a Cosmopolitan and a Mojito were perfectly made from premium-quality spirits, balanced in flavour and elegantly presented, and at £5.90 a throw they are probably just nudging the ambitious side of reasonable pricing.

Don't bother with the food, though: the Dips & Bits menu of pitta bread to dip in guacamole and the like is as boring as boring can be. But don't let these small irritants put you off, Bullet is currently shooting from the hip and hitting most of its targets, and I look forward to going back again.

147 Kentish Town Road, NW1 (020-7485 6040)

Bullet
147 Kentish Town Road, NW1