W. Hoami is a well-known International writer who, having walked into Paris Wine Bar for the first time, took the trouble to record his thoughts:

“There are two arteries, running parallel to the seafront and to one another, that give life to the entity known as Hove. The first is called Kingsway, or unsurprisingly to all and sundry, ‘The Coast Road’; the second is named Church Road, or in the vernacular, ‘The Main Drag’. As I ambled along the latter, a random door opened and closed in an instant. In that glorious moment, an array of senses assaulted me: the whisper of chatter, the colour of music, the touch of smiles, the taste of warmth, the smell of ambience, the feel of glamour. My instincts were aroused. I entered. And as I did so, my imagination drifted …

‘A single red blood cell perpetually journeys one road to one exclusive destination, its sole mission. Having travelled the great aorta, the grandest destiny of all awaits: the sign of life, the signal for love, first breath, last breath, the ticking clock that never tells time’

… I breached the threshold, my destination pre-determined. Fate had played its hand. The heart of Hove beat before me: humming, ticking, vibrant, calm, so alive, so human, so very us.

Thereafter, for posterity – and to those who can (in)coherently decipher in vino veritas after two glasses of red – another name was added to my list of timeless hearts masquerading as bars.”

• Harry’s Bar, Venice;
• Raffles Long Bar, Singapore;
• The Savoy’s American Bar, London;
• Havana’s El Floridita, Cuba;
• Sloppy Joe’s, Key West, Florida;
• Paris Wine Bar, Hove.