Solo birthday: looking for a fun yet elegant bar

These would be the classics, all very centrally located:

https://rubenshotel.com/dining-and-drinks

The Rubens at the Palace

The Grosvenor Pub
79 Grosvenor Rd, Pimlico, London SW1V 3LA, United Kingdom

Grosvenor House is now owned by Marriott:

https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/longh-jw-marriott-grosvenor-house-london/dining/

The Bourbon Bar at the Grosvenor says 'smart casual' dress code, so carry-on only me would lean towards it, so I can stil fit in the overhead.

Shoutout to The Grosvenor! That's a reasonably obscure but good call. It's run by good people and a good bunch of locals. I used to work around there and have been in quite a lot. Short walk from Pimlico tube station on the Victoria Line.

If you're in that area, The Morpeth is good too. They have a characterful upstairs room where you can dine, and a bar downstairs. Ask about the ghost in the cellar. I haven't been keep up on ghostly happenings there recently. It's opposite MI6 so it's possible James Bond may drink there.

https://www.morpetharms.com/

I enjoyed cocktails for a friend’s birthday here.

The Booking Office inside the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel.

https://www.booking-office.co.uk/photos

Oh my, just looking at these places and the menus is decadence itself. I love it!! Keep the recommendations coming. Maybe I will save my pennies, never eat out in Seattle, and just go to London for every birthday. One should sit in a velvet banquet at least once a year drinking a "Seventh Duchess of Bedford" or a "White Swan...."

Lots of lovely places to drink but don’t expect anyone to talk to you. Londoners are polite but not really friendly in that way. That goes for all of Southern England. It’s far more usual to chat to strangers in the north or in Scotland.

Helen, over decades of travel and long London stays I’ve engaged in lovely conversations with Parliament members, retirees, dog walkers, church elders, teachers, musicians, actors, artists, docents and museum employees.

None of those conversations were started by me.

Some of those interactions generated friendships that endure to this day.

Lastly, OP hopefully this link to Conde Nast will have a place that piques your interest:

https://www.cntraveler.com/gallery/best-bars-london

Isla, thank you for the inspiration! I was already contemplating spending a milestone birthday in London next year, and this might have sealed the deal. :) I have bookmarked the thread.

I'd agree with Claudia, London's not as unfriendly as all that. There's definitely situations where it's unusual to strike up conversations with strangers, ie on the tube, but in a pub isn't one of those situations.

I liked Conde Nast's list again. Most of it is too posh for me, but I think they do a good job writing about places in London for North Americans who are spending a bit on a trip, or indeed a birthday night out in the case of the OP.

Again, interesting to see how things have shifted east, even for big US media like Conde Nast. The people who are doing interesting things with food and drink have really moved east wholesale. There's barely anything on that list west of Mayfair. Some swanky places in Hackney and Bethnal Green I had no idea about. Pamela in Dalston piqued my interest as it's run by people who ran The Alibi and Birthdays, both of which I went to when I was out in Dalston more a few years ago.

It’s probably why over 50 years of visiting the UK that I love pubs.

Proprietors, people, pets and Sunday roasts!

The American Bar at the Savoy. Probably one of the most famous bars in the world.

https://www.thesavoylondon.com/restaurant/american-bar/

@ avirosemail, Gotta do a fact check on your post. I doubt if the Grosvenor Pub is owned by Marriott. It appears to be a small, local pub.

The JW Marriott Grosvenor House London is owned by Marriott. @Isla will be challenged to get an appetizer and two drinks for under $100 there. This caught my eye because I was a regular at the London Marriott Grosvenor Square for many years.

Though it has been a solid 20 years since I was there, I always enjoyed Scotts in Mayfair, right between Grosvenor and Berkeley Squares. Two drinks and a top appetizer will push the $100 limit. https://scotts-mayfair.com/menus/ Will definately tic the class and elegance and ambiance boxes. I hope everyone is still friendly.

If you want to push beyond the $100 boundary, have the Dover Sole boned at your table.

I mentioned two different Grosvenor-labeled establishments above -- the relatively cozy pub in Pimlico and the swanky hotel owned by Marriott which has more than one bar and dining choice inside.

Edited to add that if I were to include my personal penchants, English food is only slightly less horrendous than German.
Don't go into the whole song and dance about austerity after the war blah blah blah and how those stereotypes are outdated;
I'm aware of all that, and I still look at the menus of these establishments and wonder how they manage to stay consistently 4 coach lengths behind the times. Note for context that I live in the SF Bay where Whole Foods supermarkets are the lower end of what we have available, and as RS's co-author on Italian dining points out, Bologna and SF have standards that are head and shoulders above most comparably sized places.

@ avirosemail, Sorry. I misunderstood your post. The Duke of Westminster was a busy man.

Edited to add that if I were to include my personal penchants, English food is only slightly less horrendous than German.
Don't go into the whole song and dance about austerity after the war blah blah blah and how those stereotypes are outdated;
I'm aware of all that, and I still look at the menus of these establishments and wonder how they manage to stay consistently 4 coach lengths behind the times.

Errr... Thanks for that :)

Which establishments do you mean? Is referencing WWII still something people do? I wasn't aware of the song and dance. The war was almost eighty years ago now. You mentioned a couple of willfully twee retro-themed hotels and an obscure neighbourhood pub in Pimlico in you first post. Is that what you mean?

Bologna and SF have standards that are head and shoulders above most comparably sized places.

Try getting a decent Chicken Jalfrezi in Bologna. No chance.

The Grosvenor House in London is not owned by Marriott. It is owned by a Qatari based investment company. It is managed by Marriott.

Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Hyatt and the like do not own most of the hotels bearing their name. They either operate them under a management contract or sell the hotel owners a franchise.

@Frank II, You are correct. Most branded hotels are either company owned and operated or do business with a three-tier structure where one business entity owns the physical property, one operates the property, and one licenses a brand name and provises certian services to the operator. For convenience, I refer to a Marriott property as one either owned by Marriott or franchised through Marriott.

@GerryM: Sir, I like the cut of your jib.

Re: the shell games that financiers play -- the Bard's line about 'first kill all the lawyers' needs a little more nuance, to something like the ..the lawyers who work for financial prestidigitators