Wow some bars really gets hit hard on mid-month Friday nights, and i dont mean in a good way….Check out this pic, in Baby Lynch, at around 9pm. That is the bar, and there are no people, let alone queues at it!

I was in, and there were about 4 or 5 groups of people in there, that counts 2-3 people as a group. It was so empty it was untrue.

There were 2 PR people outside, a doorman, and probably 6 bar staff…Thats 9 people and probably less than 20 customers at one time!

And what happens when i go? They sell a crap drink and get it wrong! Baby Lynch is one of the “more sophisticated” bars allegedly. But when i got a Vodka and Redbull i got the same old generic energy drink and some Smirnoff vodka which tasted really watered down. The drink tasted so watered down!! They have Redbull, and i ask for Redbull, but thats not what you get. How much do you think for a weak tasting vodka and fake Redbull? £4.50!!

I really dont understand how a bar which is supposed to be upmarket wants to sell their customers cheap drinks at expensive prices. Maybe thats why it was empty!

According to their Facebook page, The team behind Floritas, Baby Lynch and Madame Koo are looking for shooter girls to sell drinks to their customers.

What are they thinking?! These places are supposed to be classy bars, and now it looks like they are following the trend of the lower class bars by having people come round and annoy you and pressure you into buying more drinks.

I personally HATE these kinds of things bars do. You are the customer, and have chose their establishment out of many that are in Newcastle. You buy their drinks, but now that is not enough for them. They now have people going around trying to sell you more. Shots are cool! I love them. Sambuca, Jagermeister, Tequila, i love drinking shots. But, if i want one, i know where the bar is. Why do the bars feel the need to have this kind of gimmick.

They do have their place. I can understand them being in a place such as City Vaults, Chase and ‘fun bars’; But The bars on The Diamond Strip are supposed to be more upmarket, and have class. There is nothing upmarket about having a girl come round trying to sell you something.

One of the good things about these bars is that they dont (or didnt) have girls coming round bugging you and interrupting your night. That seems to have now gone, and these three bars are now copying the trend which is the shot girl.

WOW! Just as a write something good about Baby Lynch the inevitable happens…They mess up. Once again its the old routine of getting a drink you dont ask for and then the staff throwing their toys out of their pram.

Of course i am talking about the old “Redbull or not Redbull” story….

“Can i have Grey Goose and Redbull” -Yes
Comes over with the drink. “Thats £6.40 please”
“OK, can i have the can?” -”You want the can? ok”
Barman comes over with a can of something which isnt Redbull
“sorry, i asked for Redbull, this isnt Redbull, can i please have Redbull”
Barman then goes off in a huff and finally makes the drink i asked for in the first place..

This age old argument seems really petty and bitchy, but come on, £6.40 for some cheap energy drink (which you dont get you only get part of a can if they can help it) and vodka. It isnt on.

If they go to a clothes shop and ask for a Nike T-Shirt and they say yeah sure thats £25 and the guy comes back with a generic white t-shirt would they accept it? I dont think so!

It’s funny, because i was in Baby Lynch earlier on and ordered exactly the same drink, and i got it first time of asking. The bargirl even told me, “You’ll have to buy the can mind” which is fine, it was £6.30 (why 10p cheaper first time round?!!?) so its not like they sell you the generic energy drink to save you money, its to save THEM money.

Why do they stock Redbull if they aren’t going to sell you it?

If you are one of the many people like me who drink Vodka Redbull then you will know exactly what i am talking about Before i would just accept it, these days i will not. If you go to any bar and ask for Redbull and dont get it please refuse and ask for another drink!!!

Baby Lynch, sort out your staff!!! Maybe i was served by the ‘baby’ himself, i dont know. He sure acted like it.

Have the people at Baby Lynch been listening to NewcastleVIP? I posted earlier about how the bar sells many vodkas, but is cheap when it comes to the mixers, in particular the energy drinks…

They seemed to only sell some generic excuse for a drink instead of the industry standard, Redbull…Well at the bar on the right (not the main bar) they have Redbull! maybe they have always had this here, or maybe they read what the people want on Newcastle VIP

Thank you Baby Lynch. You have gone up in my opinion!

Newcastle nights out is all about the weekend. The bars are usually always full, for the last few weeks the bars on the diamond strip have had pretty big queues outside them. So what happens through the week? NOTHING! Its amazing to see places like Perdu and Floritas which get queues reguarly on Saturday night, being empty on a midweek night. I was in Perdu and Floritas, in each bar there couldnt have been more than 20 people in at any 1 time. I was gonna go into Baby Lynch but it was so sparse (i mean no staff aswell as no people) i didnt know if it were open or not.

Revolution was doing slightly better, but nowhere near what its like at the weekend. Still it got a few people in it which was more than any other bar around the area.

I guess if you wanna go out through the week the only place to go is the Gate, which does get decent numbers of people in.

This is a bar crawl idea if you want to go to more upmarket/trendy bars in Newcastle. It will suit you if:

You like to spend money
You are young-mature age 21-35
You like House Music/Ambiant music
You like drinking cocktails, or more high end drinks
You dress to impress

Is this you? Then read on….

Bars you will go to:

Destination (2 drinks)
Tokyo (1 drink)
Revolution (2 drinks + shots)
Madame Koo (1 drink)
Baby Lynch (1 drink)
Floritas (1 drink)
Perdu (1 drink)
Tup Tup Palace (many drinks)
Total Drinks: 9+
Total Cost: £50-£60+ (not including club entry fee or club drinks)

The bars you will be going to are all in the same area, the central station area. Dress code is smart casual. First bar is Destination, which is next to the station hotel. If its early enough you can take advantage of their happy hour, where you can get 2for1, free drink, half price or full price by pressing the button when you get your drink. This bar can get packed at times, there are 2 bars inside with seating, aswell as many TVs and an outside area for people who smoke.

When leaving turn right and follow the road round the bend and you will get to Tokyo. This bar might be hard to miss, at it looks like a little door and nothing more, and is on its own. Get yourself a cocktail once inside, you can chill downstairs or upstairs in this place.

When leaving turn left cross the road and head back up to the bar on the corner which is Revolution, it is hard to miss. Here you can enjoy a cocktail, have one of many different kinds of vodka drinks, or get you and your mates a rack of shots, which i highly reccommend. If you are going with a few people a Jug (pitcher) of something is a must; i advise Absolut Chambles (Vodka, Champagne, Redbull). Rev is an amazing bar because of its decor, yet again its a very popular bar, and the music is House.

From leaving there turn left and walk down the street which is Collingwood street, aka “The Diamond Strip“. There are a few bars in a row here, which are Floritas, Madame Koo, Baby Lynch. Go to all of them. Whats better than bars directly next door to each other?! Get yourself a cocktail in each or some wine, or beer if you prefer.

When you exit any of these places turn left and carry on down the road to Perdu. Unfortunatly there can be long queues here, but if you can stand a 10-15 minute wait you can go in here. You can get more cocktails, long drinks or whatever you fancy here. If you are drunk enough you can dance to the commercial pop/rnb music, or chill in a booth if there is one available.

If you want to head to a club at this point there is Tup Tup Palace, which is on the opposite side of the road, further down. Another choice would be Tiger Tiger at the gate. If your not ready for a club you can keep walking down Collingwood street and go to bars Bijoux, Grund Floor @ The Attic or no.1 Grey Street

Baby Lynch is an upmarket trendy style of bar, on the diamond strip. You can go there an enjoy a whole host of drinks, draught beer, bottled beer, wine, cocktails, and so on….Being the kind of bar it is they sell some high end drinks, including Dom perignon, Cristal, Grey Goose Vodka, which is nice, but they have the lowest of the low to compliment it.

WHY DONT YOU SELL REAL RED BULL!!! It pisses me off so much when you go to a bar and ask for a vodka redbull and they sell you it when its clearly not Redbull. If they say “well its the same” then why not sell the genuine thing? They charge the same price, but i can assure you their “energy drink” is not the same price at wholesale.

The majority of bars which dont give you the real stuff dont even tell you, they give you it and thats that.  I have to say, some bars DO have signs which read “The energy drink we sell is….” which is exactly what they should, or if you ask simply tell you we dont do redbull we only do a generic energy drink….If i go and ask for a pint of Estrella Damm they wouldnt sell me Fosters, so why do it with Redbull.

It DOES make a difference. It DOES taste different. I am the customer, if i ask for a drink i want that drink, not something i didnt ask for.

Baby Lynch also are yet another one of those bars which sell Sol instead of Corona. Why?! If you have a bar which is billed as upmarket i would make sure every last detail of the place was exactly that, from the alcohol to the mixers.

Newcastle was probably the busiest its been this year last night, considering its the middle of the month and the weather didnt help matters either since it was raining most of the day and in drabs on the night.

The bars had queues! Even bars which dont normally have queues, such as Destination, were packed. The standard queues for the diamond strip bars especially early on, Perdu, Floritas and Revolution all had pretty big queues outside so i thought better of going to them at that point of the night.

I did go into Revolution, where some fucking muppet spilled more or less a whole pint down the back of my jeans, what a dickhead. He actually said “i’m sorry there’s not much else i can say”. What a cock. I used my I Heart Vodka card and got 12 shots and a jug of Absolut Chambles which only came to £22. Not bad for 6 glasses of drink and 12 shots

Baby Lynch was pretty quiet early on, and the latest entry to the diamond strip, Madame Koo was open for a pre-opening kind of thing. Unfortunatly the place looked like a building site outside, why have a pre-opening like that? They should of kept the place closed till it was ready, but maybe they are just testing the water or something.

Blue down the quayside is now closed. This might just be for refurbishments, but it was not open and looked like it was getting a makeover or the place may be gone for good.

There was also police everwhere. There was apparently some trouble after the Newcastle game. Police were dotted all over the town outside bars, subway etc.

According to the Facebook pages of Floritas and Baby Lynch, there will be a new bar opening…

Date for opening is supposed to be Friday 29th May; with free drinks 7 – 8pm.

Will this be something different? Do we need another bar in the diamond strip? We’ll have to wait and see what this has to offer.

Answers on a postcard for the name of the place….Or just write a comment

Its bad times for the bars in Newcastle’s NE1, with hardly anyone going out anymore. Bars are definatly much quieter than ever before, its just a matter of time before we must see some closures.

The Sports Bar has already gone, currently nothing has opened there yet. We have seen the opening of Linekers Bar aka the old box aka 55 Degrees North.

On Friday night i was in the bars The Lodge, The Vault, Baby Lynch, Clear Bar and all were quieter than ever. Clear Bar was empty. We were the only people in the bar at 20:30 on a Friday night…People just dont seem to be going out. The Lodge and The Vault are 2 bars which used to see a fair few people, but both were pretty empty in comparison to only a year ago, The Lodge entire upstairs was closed and the ground floor was not packed by any strech of the imagination.

Which bar will be the next to go?