“CHERISHING THIS CHARMING CELEBRATION”
PROFILE BAR 1ST BIRTHDAY- THURSDAY 15TH JULY
BAR REVIEW
It hardly seems a year since we found ourselves soaking up the amazing launch of Profile’s new venue on Wardour Street, the move marrying up with sister Lo-Profile club below and making for much more of a one-stop shop rather than a trek across from the bars old home on Frith Street. It would be fair to say that we never really connected with the old place, not just finding it a little too far off our beaten track, but the mish mash of rooms, not to mention the lofty prices on drinks, always tended to mean we gave it a wide berth. In Wardour Street however, the Profile team have certainly found much more favour, the American diner style & bright black & yellow colour scheme that was a little difficult to adjust to at the beginning, now much more of a pleasure to the eye and given the fact that we often opt for its relaxing & inviting atmosphere to soothe away the stresses & strains of a working day or warm ourselves into the weekend in its clutches, missing out on its 1st anniversary celebration would have been far too rude a prospect.
Having been laid down with a nasty back injury for far too long, yet another day absent from our duties whizzing around London’s roads, our misfortune turned out to be a bit of an advantage as we were in pole position to make it into Soho nice & early and in time for Profile’s birthday bash kick off at 6 p.m. But it has to be said that, when it comes to social engagement time keeping, we are appalling, often turning up later than agreed or planned and tonight was going to be no exception, our tardiness & getting ready meaning we didn’t actually arrive on Wardour Street until what we thought was a fashionably late 8 p.m. However, there we were wrong as all the gAylist glitterati had been in situ long before us, in fact it felt a bit like we were the last to arrive, although our stroll towards Profile’s entrance was t greeted by a throng of friends that included Alessandro Londra, Dee Crooks, Paul Heron, Roni Inan & Sylvia Rebel, all taking a nicotine break breather from the knees up inside.
But inside we were bound, being greeted at the door by a smart & smiling partner in fierceness, Lexi, pronouncing our arrival with a big peck on the check & an equally welcome spoken acknowledgement of “Ratchy” (that’s one of our many nicknames), we then engaging in delightful conversation about this that & the other, as well as comparing facial hair statuses, our bum fluff attempt at a beard pathetic against the more manly designer stubble look of our fierce partner. So intense were our devotions to Lexi, that the scantily clad & sexy Gaydar (owners & sponsors of Profile) go-go dancers who were delighting passers by outside with their enticing & erotic moves in the window, barely caught our eyes, indeed even the shimmering smile of one of the boys didn’t really make much of an impact (were we still thinking of the lovely Luke from Matinee l?!). Instead and with some very welcome complimentary drinks vouchers in hand, we set about making our way to the bar to charge our yet to be filled glass.
Here we faced a veritable wall of people attempting to do the same, the usual issue of cocktail drinks concocting slowing down the service somewhat, although our late(ish) arrival had meant that we had missed the worst of the rush, so it wasn’t long before we had both a refreshing Pimms as well as a glass of champagne in hand, the latter courtesy of D.J. pal Nick Evans, who like many of our companions for the night had chosen a neat spot away from the frantic bar service area. And what a collection of people we were delighting in, as our arrival buddies of Ale, Paul & Roni were added to by a cheerful Danny Shubert, a very tanned Jamie Head, a bubbly Mikey D, and a beaming JC Christopher, not to mention a import of what seemed to whole Q.X. sales force, each & every one of our celebrating crew making the most of the brilliant atmosphere, the ever presence of photographer Chris Jepson completing our picture of prolific Profile-ites, the man himself taking plenty of pictures for posterity and no doubt for use in the popular press (let’s hope not a shot of us, please Chris!).
With the fantastic backdrop of marvellous music being played out by special guest D.J. Tony English, who was accompanied on percussion by David H, like the Matinee party on Sunday, Profile’s birthday bash was becoming a little bit like a who’s who of the scene, but with the refreshing & lightly alcoholically tainted Pimms going down a treat, we were well into our stride savouring the scintillating & sophisticated social splendour we found ourselves within, wafts of canapés floating by held delicately in the air by a wave of wonderful waiters, all dressed to the their high nines & looking the part for this special evening of celebration. In amongst the crowd we managed to grab the momentary attention of General Manager Rosella who was busy marshalling the whole affair and tending to the Gaydar top brass, while our favourite bar man, the gorgeous Philippe, was doing his bit to keep the party on a reasonable straight & narrow, although with the booze bursting over on some people that was always going to be a difficult affair.
Mind you, on momentarily casting our minds back a year, our role in the drunken partner task was so much easier to bear this time round, as clubbing pal Joel, with whom we attended the Profile opening, was absent 12 months on and our other pal, Stephen, who had arrived to join in on the party, was confined to soft drinks on health grounds and seemed not quite himself, our somewhat one-way conversation eventually losing steam, our cougar loving friends thoughts clearly far way, his focus on other things. But nothing was going to get in the way of our enjoyment & merriment, yet more of those now sort after red drinks tickets finding their way into our grip, a cheeky Jamie Head using us like his own private bar man to recharge his & others glasses, well how could we refuse such a cool cucumber of a character and with super speedy treatment from a muscled bronzed & smiling bar man on our slimmer side of the servery, the pleasure was all ours.
Now the party was in full swing and even though we had effectively missed the early bird goodie bag handouts, plenty more suddenly seemed to be making their way into people’s grasps, both Jamie & Paul sporting their goodie gifts, Mr Heron delighting in the fact that the combination of x-rated films and toiletries in his bag would allow for, no we can’t repeat what he said, although suffice to say his comments raised more than an eye-brow or two (you get the drift we are sure!). With pal Stephen clearly having itchy feet to move on however, plans to attend the other birthday bash of the evening, Shadow Lounge’s 9th, were put on hold and eventually dumped in favour of pandering to his needs, but even he wasn’t going to stop us from soaking up the last few more minutes of our stay, a now off duty Lexi trading fierce dancing moves with us as Mr English’s delightful music moved & grooved the place and yet more familiar faces wafted by our spot, including the beautiful Ben Kaye and the vivacious Valerio Narcisi. But not long before the stroke of eleven & giving up a kind invite to continue the cavorting downstairs in Lo-Profile, we made our exiting excuses to our chorus of celebrators and pointed our body compass in a southerly direction, skirting The Shadow Lounge which was beckoning, rather to vroom to Vauxhall for Minty’s Industri, reflecting on a super social splash of an evening and cherishing the charming celebration in the hands of Profile Bar.
In the 12 months Profile has been in existence on Wardour Street, it has seen its fortunes wax & wane, like many venues, having to ride the storm of economic difficulties that have even impacted on a previously safe bet of a social pink pound scene. However, the quality food offer and the sumptuous surroundings, not to mention the convenient proximity to clubbing sister Lo-Profile, have clearly been winning factors in maintaining Profile’s position within the market, added bonuses of SuperMartXe pre-parties & Sunday special events propelling its popularity & securing its standing within the select stream of socialising within Soho. With the continual backing of Gaydar, the deployment of D.J.’s on major evenings and all the hard work of the management team are doing to address to tardy bar service speed reputation will, no doubt, see Profile only go from strength to strength and with both the recent Pride night & now this pulsating party under their belt, the future is certainly looking bright for Profile in their strikingly black & yellow kind of way and they will be getting our support for sure. (DISCO MATT)
PROFILE BAR 1ST BIRTHDAY- THURSDAY 15TH JULY
BAR REVIEW
It hardly seems a year since we found ourselves soaking up the amazing launch of Profile’s new venue on Wardour Street, the move marrying up with sister Lo-Profile club below and making for much more of a one-stop shop rather than a trek across from the bars old home on Frith Street. It would be fair to say that we never really connected with the old place, not just finding it a little too far off our beaten track, but the mish mash of rooms, not to mention the lofty prices on drinks, always tended to mean we gave it a wide berth. In Wardour Street however, the Profile team have certainly found much more favour, the American diner style & bright black & yellow colour scheme that was a little difficult to adjust to at the beginning, now much more of a pleasure to the eye and given the fact that we often opt for its relaxing & inviting atmosphere to soothe away the stresses & strains of a working day or warm ourselves into the weekend in its clutches, missing out on its 1st anniversary celebration would have been far too rude a prospect.
Having been laid down with a nasty back injury for far too long, yet another day absent from our duties whizzing around London’s roads, our misfortune turned out to be a bit of an advantage as we were in pole position to make it into Soho nice & early and in time for Profile’s birthday bash kick off at 6 p.m. But it has to be said that, when it comes to social engagement time keeping, we are appalling, often turning up later than agreed or planned and tonight was going to be no exception, our tardiness & getting ready meaning we didn’t actually arrive on Wardour Street until what we thought was a fashionably late 8 p.m. However, there we were wrong as all the gAylist glitterati had been in situ long before us, in fact it felt a bit like we were the last to arrive, although our stroll towards Profile’s entrance was t greeted by a throng of friends that included Alessandro Londra, Dee Crooks, Paul Heron, Roni Inan & Sylvia Rebel, all taking a nicotine break breather from the knees up inside.
But inside we were bound, being greeted at the door by a smart & smiling partner in fierceness, Lexi, pronouncing our arrival with a big peck on the check & an equally welcome spoken acknowledgement of “Ratchy” (that’s one of our many nicknames), we then engaging in delightful conversation about this that & the other, as well as comparing facial hair statuses, our bum fluff attempt at a beard pathetic against the more manly designer stubble look of our fierce partner. So intense were our devotions to Lexi, that the scantily clad & sexy Gaydar (owners & sponsors of Profile) go-go dancers who were delighting passers by outside with their enticing & erotic moves in the window, barely caught our eyes, indeed even the shimmering smile of one of the boys didn’t really make much of an impact (were we still thinking of the lovely Luke from Matinee l?!). Instead and with some very welcome complimentary drinks vouchers in hand, we set about making our way to the bar to charge our yet to be filled glass.
Here we faced a veritable wall of people attempting to do the same, the usual issue of cocktail drinks concocting slowing down the service somewhat, although our late(ish) arrival had meant that we had missed the worst of the rush, so it wasn’t long before we had both a refreshing Pimms as well as a glass of champagne in hand, the latter courtesy of D.J. pal Nick Evans, who like many of our companions for the night had chosen a neat spot away from the frantic bar service area. And what a collection of people we were delighting in, as our arrival buddies of Ale, Paul & Roni were added to by a cheerful Danny Shubert, a very tanned Jamie Head, a bubbly Mikey D, and a beaming JC Christopher, not to mention a import of what seemed to whole Q.X. sales force, each & every one of our celebrating crew making the most of the brilliant atmosphere, the ever presence of photographer Chris Jepson completing our picture of prolific Profile-ites, the man himself taking plenty of pictures for posterity and no doubt for use in the popular press (let’s hope not a shot of us, please Chris!).
With the fantastic backdrop of marvellous music being played out by special guest D.J. Tony English, who was accompanied on percussion by David H, like the Matinee party on Sunday, Profile’s birthday bash was becoming a little bit like a who’s who of the scene, but with the refreshing & lightly alcoholically tainted Pimms going down a treat, we were well into our stride savouring the scintillating & sophisticated social splendour we found ourselves within, wafts of canapés floating by held delicately in the air by a wave of wonderful waiters, all dressed to the their high nines & looking the part for this special evening of celebration. In amongst the crowd we managed to grab the momentary attention of General Manager Rosella who was busy marshalling the whole affair and tending to the Gaydar top brass, while our favourite bar man, the gorgeous Philippe, was doing his bit to keep the party on a reasonable straight & narrow, although with the booze bursting over on some people that was always going to be a difficult affair.
Mind you, on momentarily casting our minds back a year, our role in the drunken partner task was so much easier to bear this time round, as clubbing pal Joel, with whom we attended the Profile opening, was absent 12 months on and our other pal, Stephen, who had arrived to join in on the party, was confined to soft drinks on health grounds and seemed not quite himself, our somewhat one-way conversation eventually losing steam, our cougar loving friends thoughts clearly far way, his focus on other things. But nothing was going to get in the way of our enjoyment & merriment, yet more of those now sort after red drinks tickets finding their way into our grip, a cheeky Jamie Head using us like his own private bar man to recharge his & others glasses, well how could we refuse such a cool cucumber of a character and with super speedy treatment from a muscled bronzed & smiling bar man on our slimmer side of the servery, the pleasure was all ours.
Now the party was in full swing and even though we had effectively missed the early bird goodie bag handouts, plenty more suddenly seemed to be making their way into people’s grasps, both Jamie & Paul sporting their goodie gifts, Mr Heron delighting in the fact that the combination of x-rated films and toiletries in his bag would allow for, no we can’t repeat what he said, although suffice to say his comments raised more than an eye-brow or two (you get the drift we are sure!). With pal Stephen clearly having itchy feet to move on however, plans to attend the other birthday bash of the evening, Shadow Lounge’s 9th, were put on hold and eventually dumped in favour of pandering to his needs, but even he wasn’t going to stop us from soaking up the last few more minutes of our stay, a now off duty Lexi trading fierce dancing moves with us as Mr English’s delightful music moved & grooved the place and yet more familiar faces wafted by our spot, including the beautiful Ben Kaye and the vivacious Valerio Narcisi. But not long before the stroke of eleven & giving up a kind invite to continue the cavorting downstairs in Lo-Profile, we made our exiting excuses to our chorus of celebrators and pointed our body compass in a southerly direction, skirting The Shadow Lounge which was beckoning, rather to vroom to Vauxhall for Minty’s Industri, reflecting on a super social splash of an evening and cherishing the charming celebration in the hands of Profile Bar.
In the 12 months Profile has been in existence on Wardour Street, it has seen its fortunes wax & wane, like many venues, having to ride the storm of economic difficulties that have even impacted on a previously safe bet of a social pink pound scene. However, the quality food offer and the sumptuous surroundings, not to mention the convenient proximity to clubbing sister Lo-Profile, have clearly been winning factors in maintaining Profile’s position within the market, added bonuses of SuperMartXe pre-parties & Sunday special events propelling its popularity & securing its standing within the select stream of socialising within Soho. With the continual backing of Gaydar, the deployment of D.J.’s on major evenings and all the hard work of the management team are doing to address to tardy bar service speed reputation will, no doubt, see Profile only go from strength to strength and with both the recent Pride night & now this pulsating party under their belt, the future is certainly looking bright for Profile in their strikingly black & yellow kind of way and they will be getting our support for sure. (DISCO MATT)
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