Susie Rushton: Raising the bars

Whisky Mist. Great name for a bar. Cheeky, and evocative of a certain oak-panelled, ersatz masculinity. "We want to attract bankers in their forties", was how co-owner Piers Adam described his ideal clients back in June, shortly before bankers became otherwise engaged considering their career options. Fortunately, in lieu of the bonus boys, It-girls now throng to this ground-floor boîte at the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane.

Last week Kimberly Stewart – one of the myriad rock offspring currently keeping the party pages of London Lite busy – reportedly couldn't pay her bill on leaving, and tried to pay with her watch. (Let's wildly guess that Kim, like most celebs, isn't used to picking up a tab.) Another hotel, St Martin's Lane, was the scene of hard partying by Kate Moss and Allegra Versace during London Fashion Week; at the end of the evening Moss saved herself the bother of going home and simply booked a suite upstairs. But these aren't just tales of famous girls getting drunk: it is historic record of the paradigmic "big night out" of the moment, ie getting wasted in a swish hotel bar.

In the Eighties, Londoners behaved badly in wine bars, and in the Nineties we "threw shapes" in cavernous clubs. But in the Noughties boom-years we quite fancied drinking premium vodka in posh hotels – venues that were formerly the hang-out of prostitutes and lonely businessmen. The Met Bar started it, of course, but even now Claridge's Bar, and Brown's Hotel, are pit stops for a crowd that spans celebrities, baby royals and out-of-town wannabes. Last week on Wardour Street I walked past the fit-to-bursting bar at the Soho Hotel and straight into a deserted pub next door.

In the fame-for-all age, everybody wants to slip behind the red velvet rope – and the sub-members' club vibe of a hotel bar offers just that. It is the premium economy night out, if you will. Unapologetically expensive and more female-friendly than pubs that vibrate to the roar of Setanta Sports, the price of glamour is a round of £12 G&Ts and a ban on denim.

Yesterday Gordon Ramsay opened his first London hotel, the York & Albany, and with it not just another restaurant but an exclusive gastro-bar too. But as the age of affordable luxury draws to a close, credit finally dried up, will the party soon move elsewhere?

A reality check, kind of

Forfeiting a night at the Canary Wharf Hilton bar on Saturday, I caught Lipstick Jungle, the glossy new shagging-and-shopping comedy from the pen of the Sex and the City creator Candace Bushnell. Behold! Nico Reilly, played by Kim Raver, pictured, and her friends are Manhattan women who combine jobs, families and regular blow dries! Nobody sat on the subway for hours or was kept awake by a car alarm, but compared to Sex and the City, this was gritty realism.

Interesting? Click here to explore further