Mix And Mingle In Manila

After hours in Manila you’re doubly in luck, with opportunities to mingle with a fashionable crowd of socialites and young professionals plus a favorable exchange rate that features tumblers of 12-year-old Scotch for $8 and gourmet entrées starting at $20. If you’re here on business, you’re apt to be in Makati, the city’s premier commercial and financial district. And for more than two decades, a social focus of Makati has been the centrally located Shangri-La Hotel, with three comfortable lounges.

Straight back under the imposing curved stairway, its Lobby Lounge looks out over lush plantings which camouflage the urban landscape. Overlooking the almost Olympic-size swimming deck, the Pool Bar offers a chance to unwind in tropical outdoor air. Newly opened this year, Sage Tapas Bar directly adjoins the lobby, inviting guests to pull up to the shiny marble bar or to nestle into the seating areas to listen to live bands or DJs spinning. From 5 to 8 p.m., “Deux Delight” happy hour offers two-for-one daily specials. From the tempting tapas menu be sure to order a phyllo cigar, a leaf wrapped around lamb, confit and figs.

For skyline views, take an elevator to the top of Gramercy Residences, Manila’s highest residential skyscraper, and join the crowd at 71 Gramercy, one of the hottest new bar/restaurants in town. Bold black beams, elongated square lampshades, tufted leather couches and a galaxy of overhead lights contribute to the New York-style décor, while the outdoor roof deck has a full bar and amazing views all over the city.

Calling itself the country’s first boutique nightclub, Privé is a club some locals prefer for the exclusive crowd attracted to its plush red banquettes and tufted velvet stools situated in front of a quilted, mirrored wall. Privé showcases the city’s foremost DJs in a cavernous venue with a full-on dance floor and stateof- the-art audio and visual equipment.

At Black Sheep in the W Fifth Avenue building, “the evening doesn’t end with dinner.” Mondays through Saturdays, starting at 7 p.m., a jet set crowd gathers around the open kitchen in its loft-style lounge for molecular gastronomy — three-way prawns, chicken-n-egg deep fried in dark beer and glazed with an orange foam, and salty salmon roe. Liquor bottles stacked on four shelves tower over the bar, and cozy wrap-around white upholstered chairs complement the panoramic views.

Gay revelers swear by two popular venues near each other in the emerging popular Mandaluyong district: O Bar and Bed Manila. Recognized as a leading LGBT venue since it first opened in 2003, Bed recently relocated and offers dinner, coffee, cocktails and some outdoor seating. Nearby O Bar is open daily but really shines on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Saturday nights its transgender shows are supplanted by dancing.