Women on Women launch at JuJu Bar

Date:             Thursday 26 January 2012
Location:       JuJu Bar, 316 King's Road, Chelsea, SW3

WOW Cocktail...? Don't mind if I JuJu!

The launch of a cocktail night in a trendy Chelsea bar, filled with hundreds of lesbian and bi women... you can imagine we had high expectations for this evening out. And for the most part we were not disappointed.

JuJu is a fabulous venue - lots of seating, a good variety of dimmed and well lit areas with differing music volumes throughout the bar - lending itself to dance spaces and socialising spaces (although it was on the dark side around the dancefloor, which given it was packed, meant the dancers had to pay attention not to bump into people as they bopped).

The drinks were lovely, and there was an excellent selection of cocktails and mocktails - on the pricey side as you might expect in the area, but they were quality cocktails, not shy on the alcohol, tasty and good value for money (£9 cocktail, £5 mocktail). The 2-4-1 offer before 9pm made them great value for money to that point, but it also meant the queue for the bar was very long from 8.30pm as the women tried to get served before the offer ended.

The venue offered lots of nooks and crannies and intimate areas, rather than one large open space, and the small dance floor was rightly placed in front of DJ booth. The venue really lends itself to groups of friends up for an ambient, fun night out or for couples wanting to spend a little time getting to know each other in a romantic setting with some privacy.

JuJu bar comes with a cloakroom (just £1, not bad) and mood-lit up-lit toilets that are kept tidy with an attendant (they're the darkest toilets you'll ever go in - just light enough to see the toilet roll!).

JuJu bar is very easy to find on King's Road, although not particularly close to a tube station. There are plenty of buses in the area, however the transport links from SE London are somewhat missing (TFL's fault, not WOW's!) so we decided to drive, and despite researching carefully, discovered a bit too late that - parking is hit and miss - most side roads are residents till 10pm, so look for pay and display spaces which are free after 6.30pm either on King's Road itself or further up off King's Road if you're driving.

The low mood lighting and venue layout makes this venue slightly difficult to meet new people - we'd recommend it as a great night out if you've met someone recently and want to see them again to get to know them better as the intimate corners and cosy seating are perfect for getting close and personal and the cocktails will relax you both.

Also, if it is your birthday or special occasion, this venue lends itself to celebrating in style with your friends, and we noticed a nice room towards the back, not far from the dancefloor which had a rope that could be used to section off a reserved space, it was hardly used and would make a great VIP area for group bookings of up to 20!

There is currently a lack of good nights out in SW1/3 so it's great to see the start of a regular night over this end of town and it certainly is a quality, classy night.

Keep a look out for future nights (3rd Thursdays). There may be a door charge to cover the venue hire on future events but for those amazing cocktails and a classy venue playing good music filled with women we wouldn't mind paying £5 if the drinks offers remained (or perhaps even £10 if the happy hour was extended to 10pm!).

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Review by Naomi and Katie