Prohibition
Our Prohibition Review
When Living Ventures opened Prohibition in Manchester around five years ago it was at the cutting edge of bar culture. The interior, which remains unchanged to this day, bore a resemblance to the dining hall of an 18th century vampire lord. All black with gilt-edged mirrors, chandeliers and plenty of private booths for some discreet blood drinking, or cocktail quaffing, as it turned out. It screamed sexy, opulent and exclusive. The Manchester branch was flanked by sister venues in Leeds and Liverpool.
The bartenders poured the concoctions with style in their black Prohibition tees, the crowd were among the city’s coolest as far as the Deansgate/King Street designer clothing types go and the music was in the soulful house and funk styles that denote a venue with taste.
Fast forward to 2010 and the venue has changed hands, now being under the guidance of The Living Room group, who also own the neighbouring Living Room bar and restaurant, which is also no longer owned by Living Ventures, just to clear up any confusion.
A few other things have changed: the music has taken a downturn. Cheesy funky house and naff shutter-shade urban grooves such as Akon set the mediocre tone. The crowd has evolved as well, into a set whose main criteria for being there seems only to be their age. There’s nothing wrong in being over 25 or 30 of course, but the door selection policy seems to be based around that and no longer whether or not the other demographic factors fit the bar’s image. In other words, some of the fellas in there these days aren’t as fashion conscious or as well-groomed as they used to be. The old standards have been dropped a bit. Some will say that it’s a good thing to be less snooty on the door, others will say, “where have the beautiful people gone?” Since this is Deansgate, we’d expect more voices to cry out the latter.
The upshot is that one of the city’s cooler haunts is now just another bar on the block. The bar staff are still skilled and hyper efficient, although their dedication to swift service means that they might mishear an order from an incoming customer while finishing off the order of the previous one, as we found out. The main thing is, if the music policy doesn’t look to the cutting edge and the underground a bit more, we don’t see any point in returning here. There’s no sense in having a distinctive bar interior and superior service if the entertainment belongs in The Printworks.
User Reviews
No comments yet.
