Tilley's

With elegant, dark wood fittings, a moody, deep red colour scheme, and soft jazz wafting between the old-fashioned booths lining the walls, there is some things essentially nostalgic and cinematic about Tilley's romantic atmosphere, reminiscent of a Hollywood film noir.

Its timeless in a way that's hard to emulate in a youngish, fickle town like Canberra, where high turnover of night spots seem inevitably dictated by the relative hip-factor of the decor, the DJ and the cocktail menu.

It's ironic, really, that such a sense of timelessness should be associated with a place that has been a pioneer in so many different ways. And there are plenty of numbers and statistics associated with Tilley's, as I discovered when I spoke to owner and manager Paulie Higgisson. When Tilley's opened its doors for the first time in January, 1984 (which brings it to the ripe old age of 19 this month), it could only seat 60, and yet 420 people turned up.