This Caterer story about a proposed London bar targeting female customers is interesting. Called Kanaloa, it’s being developed by the people who launched Mahiki and Whisky Mist, two bling bars which regularly feature in the red tops thanks to numerous papped shots of squiffy celebs falling out of them.
The new place is to open in the Square Mile, an area traditionally dominated by very masculine bars and restaurants. As part of its female friendly policy, Kanaloa is said to offer free manicures, massages and make overs as well as free entry for women.
Perhaps the Caterer report has missed out the more salient facts but are free manicures and make overs what women really want from a bar? Maybe I’m being a bit metrosexual about this but it strikes me as being on a par with a boozer that advertises itself as providing beer, ball sports on the box and a ban on salads.
The free entry thing is even more ludicrous. That’s the sort of tactic employed by cattle market nightclubs with sticky floors and cocktails named after Sex In The City characters.
Mahiki and Whisky Mist are hugely fashionable and, presumably, very successful so I don’t doubt that Kanaloa’s owners know what they are doing. However, there must be better ways of making your restaurant or bar attractive to women.
Do any readers of the blog, male or female, have any suggestions?