TALLINN - The smell of cigarette smoke cut through the clean air like a line of spice in a delicate dish. It lasted only a moment. A waitress tore across the room and informed the surprised smoker that he had to step outside. Until that moment, I'd hardly realized why I felt so comfortable at Tallinn's newest bar, Up Up. I was perched on a corner couch, gin and tonic in hand, listening to the same soft mix neo-house music played in every upmarket lounge bar on the planet. The room had that "new bar smell" 's it had only been opened for two hours, after all.
After getting a hint of cigarette smoke, my senses realized something here was different. I scanned the tables for ashtrays 's none. I looked around at the other drinkers 's none were exhaling dark streams of smoke. I'm not a smoker, but out of sheer curiosity I hailed down the nearest staff member. "Can I smoke here?" I asked.
"We're a non-smoking bar, you'll have to go outside," I was politely informed.
Welcome to Tallinn's first new clean air bar. With new European Union smoking bans due to come into force in June, the owners of Up Up have decided to push ahead early and give smokers a taste of things to come.
Other clubs are also in the process of exorcising smokers ahead of the official deadline, such as Moskva upstairs, which has always been a poorly-ventilated lung-strangler.
Last Friday night, March 30, was the unofficial opening night for Up Up. It was supposed to be a secret test night, but by 11 p.m. it was impossible to get a table inside. Like all things in Tallinn, nothing is secret for very long.
I joined a group of smokers as they shucked on coats and hurried outside. Standing on the pavement in the frigid night air, they told me they weren't so upset by the smoking ban.
"We have to get used to it, it's going to be like this everywhere soon," one said.
"Maybe bars will have to start putting heated tents outside, like they do in Scotland," said another.
Back inside, the bar was experiencing opening night highs and lows. The guests were all purring over the lime green fittings and sleek furniture, while complaining about the quality of the drinks. The apple martinis were perfect, but the mojitos needed some fine-tuning, according to one girl who claims to be an expert. The same girl could later be heard exclaiming 's "This Long Island ice tea tastes like a rum and coke."
Perhaps the bar staff were more concerned with their cute little outfits than the drink mix 's tiny 70s-style surf shorts, big wide white belts. The female staff have mostly been poached from Mmwah cafe across the road, I'm told, while most of the male staff have been lured away from Angel club.
A serious amount of cash has gone into making Up Up look as slick as possible. Like amusement parks, these trendy bars seek to entertain their audiences with electronic gizmos. It's what they rely on to spread word of mouth (Did you hear about the place in Berlin with the robotic fire-breathing dragon? Or the club in London with a waterfall in the bathroom?). At Up Up, there are soft cotton "clouds" suspended from the high ceiling which move and change shape thanks to some kind of internal mechanics. And in the themed toilets, the mirrors transform into advertisements every few seconds.
Up Up is owned by a couple of folk in the advertising business. The club is expected to become the hang-out for the advertising industry, and on Friday night it was already crammed with media buyers.
Aside from the non-smoking policy, it's not too much better or worse than Tallinn's existing trendy lounge bars. But it is new, and that might be enough to ensure its popularity with the cool crowd, at least until the next club comes along.
Up Up bar and restaurant
Estonia Pst. 1
Open Sun 's Thurs,
11 a.m. 's 12 p.m.
Fri - Sat, 11 a.m. 's 2 a.m.
www.upup.ee
