Cool Hunting

Fifteen years since the original club opened in London's Elephant and Castle, Ministry of Sound has evolved beyond all recognition into a truly global brand. These days, it doesn't just sell dance music of all shades, but also the audio equipment to listen to it on, and even clubbing holidays to places like Egypt.

Ministry's latest off-shoot is the Minibar, which aims to be the "ultimate bar concept" that will "revolutionize the high street." Whether or not the pun in the name immediately marks the place down is up to you, but the rest of the spiel is quite intriguing. Minibar will be split into four zones, and will include hot-tub seating (pictured right), a diary room and video rooms for some "web cam excitement." Aside from the ideas obviously inspired by watching too much Big Brother, there'll also be the requisite cocktail and shot bars, and a dancefloor coupled with a decent sound system.

Surprisingly, the first Minibar opens in the relatively small North-of-England town of Harrogate (it's about the same size as Kansas City) next Friday, 31 March 2006. With such high hopes for it though, you won't be surprised to hear that Ministry intends to eventually roll out the brand in every major U.K. city.

Minibar
Unit 1
The Royal Pavilion
Parliament Square
Harrogate
North Yorkshire HG1 2RR
United Kingdom