It's suppertime at Conran's

Oh to have been around in the Sixties when London's supper clubs were the place to be seen, where It girls rubbed up against gentlemen criminals, politicians and learned members of the judiciary.

The story of Cabaret Club hostess Christine Keeler's affair with government minister John Profumo is one of legend - it brought about the minister's resignation and contributed to the eventual demise of the Conservative administration of the day.

Supper clubs, sadly, fell out of fashion and, although there have been a few attempts to revive the genre in the intervening decades - the Embassy in Mayfair springs to mind, as does the shortlived Stork Club near Regent Street - they have, by and large, contributed little to London's dynamic social scene.

Until now, that is, and the arrival of Floridita, a new bar and supper club on the lower-ground floor of Conran's former Mezzo restaurant - below Spanish bar and restaurant Meza.

Conran is still involved with this venue, though in a felicitous relationship with some of London's most experienced bar practitioners - Nick Strangeway, who was responsible for Ché in St James's, and Ranald Macdonald, proprietor of the Boisdale bars and restaurants in Victoria and Bishopsgate.

The result is Floridita, a Cuban concept based on the legendary bar of the same name in Havana, where Ernest Hemingway famously sought solace in his daily daiquiris.

Here in London, our own Floridita is an exercise in unrestrained glamour, with shiny, shimmering decor and more than a touch of class about the place. As I descend the wide, sweeping staircase, my eyes and ears are drawn towards a Cuban band performing on stage.

There are a few confident punters strutting their stuff on the dancefloor. All around people are tapping their feet to the beat, some seated at smartly napiered cocktail tables surrounding the dancefloor, others cocooned in wellupholstered booths, and more in an attractive, almost secluded lounge area at the back of the venue. The rest are milling around the bar area. Everyone is smiling.

I doubt there's a better range of daiquiris and Cuban cocktails anywhere in London (frugally priced at between £6.50 and £7.50) - I doubt if Cuba itself could parallel this scintillating and applaudable drinks menu.

Try, as I did, working your way through the house daiquiris (numbered one to five) to experience the diversity and depth of flavours, or ask advice from one of the small army of topflight bartenders who have been employed to service this place.