(Bloomberg) -- Like Londoners themselves, London pubs, bars, restaurants and clubs tend to keep to their lanes, with a siloed approach to food, drinks and late-night fun. This compartmentalized strategy means restaurants often either have laid-back atmospheres, conducive to dining and casual drinks, or offer high-energy party vibes—rarely is there a meaningful combination of both outside the walls of big private members clubs.
Yet as London’s nightlife scene experiences a steady decline (three-quarters of UK nightclubs have disappeared since 2005, with more than 120 local music venues closing their doors last year alone), hospitality entrepreneurs have sensed an opportunity. Across the city, a new set of bars and restaurants are adopting a more transitional approach to their programming and service. By adding in the energy of entertainment such as live DJs, they can appeal to both diners and night owls, as well as potential patrons looking to keep planning to a minimum.
Take Decimo, the signature restaurant at the Standard in King’s Cross, which started “Sobremesa With …” in November. The late-night music series, featuring DJs in the 10th-floor space, comes included with dinner bookings and runs to 1 a.m. on Thursdays and 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The experience is inspired by the Spanish tradition of sobremesa, an activity that involves lingering at the table to chat and socialize after a meal.
“From the very get-go, we wanted to instill that into the culture,” says chef Peter Sanchez-Iglesias, who’s appeared on MasterChef and whose Bristol restaurant Paco Tapas has earned a Michelin star. “When it comes to the end of a meal, it’s always nice to be able to keep people around in the dining room. You don’t want everyone just to disappear and then a late night suddenly activates—it’s about how we transition into that late-night experience.”
According to Sanchez-Iglesias, the staff’s proactive communication on details of the coming DJ acts is also an important factor in ensuring diners stick around, and Decimo’s approach to its music intentionally helps inform customers of this shift: Vibrant jazzy grooves flow into more expressive beats as the night progresses. Specially installed mood lighting, which changes from warm white to late-night red, further underscores this transition. And then there are late-night tacos and desserts served from 10:30 p.m.
“Sometimes they want to have a bit of cheese and biscuits, have a conversation, maybe get up and have a dance,” Sanchez-Iglesias says. “And we want to be able to curate that whole experience.” Customers include art- and fashion-oriented crowds, local office workers, foodies, tourists and hotel guests—many of whom have the same desire to party somewhere after dinner.
Spontaneity, though, is typically a risky game for Londoners. With such a spread-out city, and with venues’ closing times varying greatly, keeping the night going has traditionally required a combination of taxis and/or multiple reservations planned in advance. Sanchez-Iglesias says he’s noticed that, since Covid-19, diners—and in particular those from Generation Z—are looking for more novel and meaningful late-night experiences that go beyond generic drinks in a crowded club and yet are convenient enough to avoid a planning headache.
An independent wine bar with an active turntable
And it isn’t just restaurants that have begun using DJs to entice Londoners to stay late. Bar Levan, a 30-seat natural wine bar in Peckham named after the late influential New York City DJ Larry Levan, is one of many independent bars with an active turntable in the corner, where a revolving roster of DJs plays until late on Fridays.
Co-owner Mark Gurney is a DJ himself and plays regularly at the bar, as well as other locations across London, including Fabric and XOYO nightclubs. He says he believes Levan’s dinner-into-late-night success is because local customers are now more discerning and less willing to attend bland venues.
“People are expecting more from their entertainment these days and maturing in their tastes,” Gurney says. “It’s not just about attending loud bars playing hip-hop anymore. We’ve seen the rise of generic bars, and there’s now power going the other way, where people are looking for something more unique.”
That may mean a packed group of local students, first-daters, young families and seasoned professionals comes initially for the natural wines and contemporary European plates—such as miso deviled eggs with nori and togarashi, or wild mushroom toast with confit egg—but ends up staying for another bottle of the Arndorfer Schlehe aromatic orange while the DJ spans disco, soul, house, jazz and reggae.
In addition to booking the live DJ talent for Levan, Gurney also curates multigenre monthly playlists, Strictly Bangers, for when one isn’t playing, likening them to his own live sets: “Programmed in a David Mancuso Loft party style—chilled and floaty at the start before picking up to a dancing fever peak, and then back down to chill.” They accompany Bar Levan’s monthly sold-out wine tastings, too.
With return-to-office having reinvigorated central London, Gurney says there’s space for more bars there modeled on Levan’s approach of transitioning from day to night spots via music. “There aren’t loads of places you can go to in central London that have got that kind of mix, especially doing interesting wine and food,” he says.
From upscale Punjabi dining to full-on party
JKS Restaurants, which owns Gymkhana, Hoppers, Bao and numerous other notable London spots, has taken a more high-octane approach to its new venture on the border of Mayfair and Soho. It blends fine dining with nightlife to grab high rollers and hedge funders fresh off of work, as well as tourists on shopping trips, keeping them well into the night.
Ambassy is located downstairs at Ambassadors Clubhouse, the upscale Punjabi restaurant that opened in August and is already buzzing with a mix of elegant dishes and street food—from guinea fowl changezi to bun kebabs. A wide-ranging all-day drinks list features a spice-infused Maharaja margarita and the Patiala Peg, a Punjabi twist on an old-fashioned. The two-venue-in-one approach allows for a whole-night-in-one entertainment package, a fun transition for guests once the dinner check has been signed.
Karam Sethi, co-founder of Ambassadors Clubhouse, says the 120-capacity space downstairs, with its animal-print walls and mirrored ceilings, isn’t for clubgoers, necessarily, as much as it’s just for fans of South Asian and Punjabi music. And, crucially, it provides a different late-night offering than nearby Mayfair clubs, such as Annabel’s, Oswald’s or 5 Hertford Street, which require memberships. Tickets can be bought in advance for those wanting to guarantee a spot, an especially prudent move ahead of any VIP DJ appearance, and the table bookings are redeemable against drinks during the evening.
So far the mix of customers at Ambassy has been broad, Sethi says, ranging from 30- to 55-year-old South Asian music fans to those simply looking to continue their night after a meal. “In my mind, visiting Ambassy after dinner completes the experience at the venue for the guest,” he says.
And if they come straight to Ambassy without a bite? Then there’s some chili cheese pakode and paneer bhurji potli samosa small plates to keep it going.
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