The Last Civilized Hour
How Bar Culture Preserves Elegance in Modern Nightlife
At the very early stage of my teenage years — apart from the idea of wanting to look like a grown-up individual by dressing in classic attire; the other vision I was so fond of — is ‘sitting at a bar, drinking a cocktail and listening to live jazz’.
For a mere teenager back then, that experience — the night spent alone, sipping a drink discreetly and watching the scene of ‘culture’ that I, at that time, had not articulated so well why I was drawn to it so much…
But the more I experience life, the more I absorb media — the more I can see the intersection between these… films, books, and shows. Whether Mad Men when I was 22, or classic 007 starring the man ‘Sean Connery’ at 23 years old — now half a decade has passed, and all the media I adored always led down the same ‘road’ that leads to the mid-century period.
As once elaborated in this editorial of mine — the era represented the last era of virtue that the 2020s seem to have discarded or somewhat ‘forgotten’. The idea of holding elegance as the ‘standard’, not optional; the interaction with grace and manner during encounters and conversations; or even the atmosphere that still allowed people to sit, think, and stay with themselves without being diluted by the bombardment of algorithms all the time.
However — among all the forgotten rituals and entities that once gloried during the mid-century, there’s one scenario that still breathes and holds its little corner for me — and likely you — to be able to tap into the essence of that era:
‘The Bar’
I still remember the first time I walked into the place so-called ‘Crimson Room’ when I was 20. I dressed in a poorly fitted oversized plain beige jacket, black slim-fit low-waist slacks, and dark brown horsebit loafers — to be honest, I would rate my ‘style’ very low — but in terms of the ‘courage’ to finally actualize the vision I had envisioned for so long, from a bar scene in New York in White Collar or Pierce Brosnan in a 1980s power suit as shown in Remington Steele — that was the ‘moment’ to remember.
Back then, my perception of ‘nightlife’ and ‘drinking’ culture was like most teenagers living in the new millennium — an outrageous, wild, and intense alcohol consumption with loud R&B music setting a vibrant atmosphere — but that night made me realize, or eventually tap into, another version of nightlife.
One that cherishes composure, intention, understated elegance, and a deliberate way of living.
A very few places where elegant attire and old-world virtue are still ‘accepted’ to be integrated with modernity — and certainly a place where nightlife, either in a big metropolis or a small town on any continent, will always have one.
The thing is — behind the tons of liquor on a shelf, the warm-lit interior — what’s the appeal of this ‘culture’? Why is it considered a transportation to a bygone era, without the need for a time machine?
