Reviews Of Harlem Bar

Kirkcaldy's Premier Steakhouse & Sports Bar

DRAM magazine November 2004

Dram Magazine article image

Harlem and adjacent club The Candle Rooms are certainly making an impact on the people of Kirkcaldy. Jason Caddy visited the Town's latest style complex to take a look at the design.

Dunfermline-based Troc Sales Ltd opened its multi million pound Harlem/ Candle Rooms in Kirkcaldy at the beginning of August. The 324,000 sq metre bar and club complex is located right on the water front overlooking the Firth of the Forth - and is fast becoming one of the most popular destinations for the style conscious drinkers of Kirkcaldy.

Harlem is best described as a sports and music bar, and, according to director of operations and marketing, Brad Greenwood, this greatly influenced the design. "Our objective was to create a dual purpose, quality venue for both music and sport. The real trick was to keep both segments of the market happy without alienating either one."

The Harlem and Candle Room operate in tandem and keeping customers in all night was also a design consideration. Greenwood continues, "Both could operate quite easily as stand alone venues but we want them to operate in unison. People can begin their night in Harlem before progressing to the club later on." The bar certainly doesn't just scream either sport or music. There are many screens displaying sports but they haven't gone overboard. There are as many pictures of Jazz performers on the walls. On closer inspection there are also signed football tops and musical instruments giving equal weight to both concepts. Redhouse Design was responsible for the concept. Says Chris Hines from the company, "The obvious starting point for the concept comes from the music angle of Harlem in the US. The aim was to recreate the atmosphere of an upmarket version of an American Roadhouse."

The bar is on the right as soon as you enter and is shaped like a giant letter P. The pewter bar top has been rounded off and is quite bulbous in an American diner sort of way. On the bar are strips of ice designed to keep drinks cool and illuminated from below. These are no doubt a talking point and, I'm told, a first for Fife. Although CPL's Russian bar Stavka has gone better with an entire bar made from ice. Are we seeing a new design trend emerging? The back bar has been constructed using brick and large back loading 'super chill' fridges with gantry spirits stored on various circular shelves around a pillar in the protruding part of the 'P'. Other than this there's nothing much to say about the bar apart from that it's large enough to accommodate a lot of thirsty customers.

Surveying the rest of Harlem from the bar itself, in the middle of the huge spaces are lots of dark wooden chairs and tables. To the right are windows commanding the water view. On the opposite side of the area is a smaller bar which is opened during busy periods and raised platform accommodating more seating and live bands. The floor is polished concrete throughout and the walls have been painted in browns and beiges with the odd dash of red thrown in for good measure. The second, smaller, bar is made completely of mahogany wood and in the absence of much natural light a large mural of a jazz band brightens up the space as it casts a big red light over the proceedings.

If you look up, directly above the 'P' bar the designers have created the illusion of another floor or mezzanine complete with tables and chairs/ I'm sure this will be the cause of much confusion as customers try desperately to locate the stairs up to it as I did and I wasn't even drinking.

Next to the bar is the connecting door to The Candle Rooms - previously a Luminar venue - which also had a minor refurbishment, as soon as the company bought the premises last October. However they have just installed a corridor of light, connecting the two venues using mirrors and lots of fibre optics. The club has a bar at one end with the dance floor dominating the rest of the space. Says Scott Maitland of SSUK, the company reponsible for the sound and lighting installation throughout the complex. "The Candle Rooms has really only had its face washed with the emphasis being on a fully integrated sound and light system and not the design. In Harlem the brief was more video focused and nearly 5000 sports channels being beamed in. Email and the company intranet can also be accessed on the screens."

The design is an interesting one. It took me longer than usual to scout about the place even though I've seen bigger in my time. As well as the pictures there are also a few nods to the bar's namesake in the form of famous big apple buildings etched in the glass doors to the toilets for example. For a sports bar it has less clutter than most and more subtlety which is Harlem's strength and little touches like the polished concrete floor, light corridor to the club and false mezzanine, as well as its overall style, are sure to guarantee Harlem and The Candle Rooms will be packing them in.

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