A “high end” cocktail bar that wants to sell takeaway drinks has applied to open on a residential Mayfair street.
The premises, which currently has no name, will trade as a small bar focusing on “heritage, craft and tradition”, according to an application before Westminster City Council.
To get in, guests will have to be met by a host at the bar’s only entrance and will be shown to a table.
Alcohol will be supplied by waiting staff only. The bar will only have 40 covers and a very limited capacity for standing for roughly six people.
The Bruton Place venue is also set to offer beers, wines and soft drinks and bar food will be available. The premises will not operate as a restaurant, the application shows.
The application includes a request to sell alcohol off site to facilitate events “where a corporate customer would purchase pre-made cocktails for an event” or for a small number of customers to use at tables located outside.
The applicant, Ametora Leisure Group Limited, has also promised to install a noise limiter and that recorded music “will generally be background in nature”.
If approved, the bar will run from midday to midnight Monday to Thursday and until 12.30am on a Friday and a Saturday night. The bar is set to close at 10.30pm on a Sunday.
Westminster City’s Environmental Health team said the application in its current form “would have the likely effect of causing an increase in public nuisance in the area and may impact on public safety”.
One objector said Bruton Place was becoming over-commercialised and said the late night hours are “completely inappropriate” for residents. They’ve asked for a hard stop at 11pm Monday to Saturday.
Another said the proposed opening times exceeded the typical hours of others businesses in Bruton Place.
They wrote: “Whilst Bruton Place is within the Central Activities Zone, it is very much a neighbourhood street where a careful balance between the operation of successful businesses and protection of existing residents’ amenity is a constant challenge. It is not Soho.”
Westminster City Council is reviewing the application during a Licensing Committee meeting on Thursday, July 31.
Adrian Zorzut is a Senior Local Democracy Reporter covering Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and the City of London. A contributor to Harrow Online, his reporting focuses on local government, housing, planning, transport and public policy, helping residents understand the decisions and issues affecting their communities.
