A year on from the financial crisis, the denizens of the Square Mile are getting the champagne flowing once moreAs workers up and down the UK sat at home last week worrying about whether they would still have a job in a month's time, a raucous crowd of hedge fund managers and investment bankers at the Whisky Mist nightclub in Mayfair pulled yet more vodka out of their huge ice bucket and called for the waiter to bring another bottle of Dom PĂ©rignon, served with a sparkler.A year ago, it looked as though the City's big spenders had finally been humbled.
Blamed for the worst recession since the second world war, many City workers stopped flashing the cash in fear of public outcry, and the bars of the Square Mile fell silent.
However, as the seeds of economic recovery start to sprout, it appears that ostentation is back.
In London nightspots last week, the City's finest were spending with a swagger.Bankers who just a few months ago were said to be struggling to pay their children's school fees and the rent on their swanky pads were, on Thursday night, enjoying watching the scantily clad dancers in Whisky Mist's exclusive VIP room.As City workers once again prepare for corporate excess, and investment banks such as Goldman Sachs get ready to pay record bonuses, new bars, restaurants and nightclubs are springing up around the office tower blocks in the City and Canary Wharf to feed demand.According to the latest edition of Harden's London Restaurants, 20% of all the new openings in the year to August were in the City and Canary Wharf.
"The East End and the area around it is the new restaurant frontier at the moment," said Peter Harden, co-editor of the guide.The number of new launches in London as a whole during 2009 was 8% higher than a year earlier, at 121 against 111, while the number of closures, at 64, was the lowest since 2000.Nick House, who owns Whisky Mist and Prince Harry's favourite nightclub, Mahiki, plans to open a high-end Polynesian-themed "tiki" bar in the City next month.
He hopes that exotic drinks such as Dead Man's Chest, brought to your table by "a full-blown voodoo funeral procession" from the bar, will persuade City workers to part with their cash."[My business partner] and I have both worked in the City and we felt there was a real need to create a sense of escapism and fun in an area that historically hasn't had the benefit of high-quality bars and nightclubs," said House.The club, which is called Kanaloa, will in particular target female workers, with complimentary in-house manicures, massages and makeovers.House is just one of the businessmen taking advantage of the current attractive rents in the City and the resurgence in conspicuous consumption.
In September, Simon Parker Bowles and two associates opened a sister restaurant to the long-established Green's of St James's.
Tucked away in the former head offices of Lloyds Bank in the heart of the City, the new Green's is packing out both its bar and restaurant every day, selling scores of bottles of Laurent-Perrier champagne.Mark Harris, brand development director at Green's, said that he was surprised by how busy the place had been.
"I thought the average spend might be £40, but we are full every lunchtime and the average spend is £50 onwards.
We are going through lots of champagne and had to get Laurent-Perrier rosé champagne on tap."He added that he had seen the traditional long business lunch coming back.
"When I first started 13 years ago we had people having lunch at 12pm who didn't leave until 8pm.
Then it died off.
The downturn meant that no one could be seen to be spending money but the trend's starting to come back now.
More people are back on the bordeaux and the cheese boards."What's more, as Christmas approaches, Green's, alongside many other City haunts, is getting lots of bookings for office parties.
This is a stark contrast to the situation last year, when banks battened down the hatches in the face of angry public reaction.It was reported recently that Lloyds Banking Group, which is part-owned by the taxpayer, is spending £2m on Christmas parties for its staff across the UK this year.
However, it appears that companies are making some concessions to the harsh economic climate.At Green's, Harris reported that although more Christmas parties are being planned than last year, firms are still being careful because they don't want to be seen to be blasé about costs."After pulling back last year they want to be doing something this year," he said.
"But they are more reserved.
No more vintage champagne.
I think they need to be more careful.
It's getting the balance [that's important].
Krug on ice is sending the wrong message."A spokesman for Lloyds said: "We very much appreciate the financial difficulties many households face because of the current financial climate.
Like many other major organisations, we continue to take a sensible and prudent approach to colleague-related activity."Separately, as the City starts to party again, doctors are reporting that cocaine use is on the rise.
Neil Brenner, medical director of The Priory psychiatric hospital in north London, told a group of MPs that cocaine use among City workers was increasing despite soaring unemployment and dwindling wages elsewhere in the economy.
"I still think this is a real problem in the City," he said.Don Serratt, chief executive of the Life Works rehabilitation centre, said that he had witnessed a 25% increase in the number of people from the City seeking treatment for alcohol and cocaine abuse in the past few months."It has a lot to do with the current economic environment," said Serratt.
"Either they have been made redundant or [they have] fears around being made redundant or fears around lowered income because many of these people have high personal overheads."
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