Toast Restaurant and Bar, Hampstead, NW3

I remember when this bar opened circa 2001 because it had a late licence so there was great excitement as all of the pubs in Hampstead closed at 23:00 and the younger drinkers in the area had to go on an expensive trip into Camden to find a late bar if they wanted to drink after this time. The bar was stocked with standard and premium draught products and the bar staff would take great delight in mixing cocktails, which were very good. The waitresses were always buzzing around the tables and three quarters of the floor space was sectioned off as the restaurant area, but there was always enough space for us who had just popped in for a drink. The music was always upbeat, but never too loud to be intrusive to the conversation and I always found the bouncers to be friendly and reasonable. The demise of Toast came in 2008 when the new licensing laws came in allowing the pubs on the high street to open until midnight and the final nail in the coffin was the smoking ban as the location above Hampstead Tube station did not have any outside space that would allow a smoking area. Camden council also gave strict instruction that groups of people standing on the high street smoking would not be accepted so the doors had to close.