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PIED PIPER BAR, SAN FRANCISCO
Then: 'Greatest men's bar in the West ... masculine elegance and high excitement.'
Now: Televisions. Enough said.
RITZ BAR, PARIS
Then: 'A dazzling display of chic beauties, Greek shipowners, British and French aristocrats, Americans who ate at once wealthy and knowledgeable, and assorted European opportunists.'
Now: The opportunists are still there, but the action has moved across the hall to the Ritz's other bar, the somewhat precious Bar Hemingway.
21 CLUB, NEW YORK
Then: 'If you're not known, you don't get past the iron gate.'
Now: If you wear a sport jacket, you can get in. Still, a nice place to be.
SHELBOURNE HOTEL BAR, DUBLIN
Then: 'More than a social pursuit, it is the rock and rib of the national character. In the Georgian setting of the Shelbourne, the landed gentry in greatcoats and riding breeches congregate to enjoy the peat-bog brown Guinness stout.'
Now: Renovations have left a nice, elegant bar, if somewhat lacking in a certain charm.
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RAFFLES, SINGAPORE
Then: 'One of the great institutions left behind by British colonialism.... Best remembered was the night a tiger walked in and sat under a billiard table.'
Now: A tourist joint. That's what they tell us, anyway. But you never know.
RITZ BAR, LONDON
Then: 'The temple of the perfect martini ... the meeting place of 'The Establishment,' that indefinable but very real institution which rules England.'
Now: Closed. Gutted. Reopened. Modern.
