PLENTY of bar and restaurant owners like to point out how unique their place, though in the case of Bohemia you would have to agree with their claim of originality.

Opening in 2012 after a massive £400,000 refurbishment, the grand café and late lounge seems to have more strings to its bow than the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

From the outside it could be a Bavarian or Belgian bar, with dark wood turrets, and ye olde European-style signage like a sigil from Game of Thrones.

Step inside the grand café and the Euro-feel morphs into a laid back jazz lounge, where Billie Holliday and Louis Jordon are warmly piped into the room.

Physical pieces of Brighton history are on show, with two old promenade supports from the West Pier holding up the main bar and a balustrade from the monument mounted on the walls.

The expansive bar room is a spectacle, laden overhead with many a magnum of champagne and hanging glasses.

There are various nooks and crannies for cocktail drinking with a few British refernce points thrown in,

And on the third floor is the best-kept secret in Brighton, the Veuve Clicquot Champagne Roof Garden. With an Astroturf floor, glass walls and green-hue back-lighting, it is modelled on a society garden party, an idea owners Paul and Verity Craig came to when hosting parties at the Cowdray Estate.

Old-hands in the night-time trade, the entrepreneurial power couple have run clubs, bars and restaurants across the city, the ambitious Bohemia an event space for aspirational revellers looking for a touch of sophistication away from than the West Street rabble.

Good for well-behaved groups and classy hen parties, the experience is more naturally appealing to women, though not exclusively so.

You certainly wouldn't expect to see waxed and tanned lads with deep Vs and bulging necks, at least not without the company of a glamorous companion.

The cocktails are theatrically appealing, the old fashioned poured from a coffee percolator into a highball glass, which unleashes a billowing cloud of dry ice and wafts of cinnamon vapour. One of Bohemia’s ‘showstoppers’, the twist involves flavouring Buffalo Trace bourbon with roasted coffee beans in bar-top barrel, for an uncompromising whack of big flavours which may leave purists wishing for the original.

More fruity and feminine is Beatles tribute Strawberry Fields, a long serve of vodka, fraise des bois, strawberry, lime and orange juice, served with a dainty dish of strawberries balanced on the top. It’s as British and summery as it sounds with just the right amount of sweet-meets-citrus sharpness. And for groups there are sharing chests the Cuban Roulette (£50) and Jude’s Punch (£60) which come with more dry ice.

Fizz is an important element with quality Prosecco, sparkling wine from Nyetimber and Champagne big hitters Moët, Bollinger, Laurent Perrier and Perrier-Jouët from between £70 and £150 a bottle.

If you are dating a footballer, a bottle of Louise Roeder Cristal comes in at £320, but more affordable is Moët Chandon Imperiál and Veuve Clicquot by the glass for £11.50 and £13.

Food-wise, the menu is a Pan-European mish-mash with a Spanish tapas selection sitting alongside French grilled chicken, and superfood tacos, as well as crowd-pleasing pub-grub like fish and chips, burgers, lamb shank and fillet steak.

I try the beetroot cured salmon, fresh mouthfuls of fish, dill and lemon on toast, with peppery olive oil and watercress, which was a lovely match for the Moët.

But the tapas selection, made up of four uncommunicative dishes, was hard to love. Sautéed chorizo with white and garlic was fine, but the garlic mushrooms were insipid and bobbed unappealingly in a bath of their own murk.

Tiger prawns were juicy with a nice kick of chilli, but the touch meatballs came in a gloopy Bisto-type gravy.

Service was attentive and no nonsense in a European matter of fact way. There was a mix-up with the order, which meant a lengthy wait for the main. It was an honest mistake met with apologies, and the service charge was taken off - though in The Gourmand’s book service should be discretionary anyway.

Bohemia is clearly a cafe-bar first and foremost, and the food is not extraordinary like other parts of the place.

But don’t let that put you off, as its the seductive one-off space and generously-stocked bar where Bohemia’s strength lies.

Bohemia

54-55 Meeting House Lane, Brighton

Bar: Five Stars

Food: Three Stars

Service: Four Stars