What makes a great bar: this water wall adds drama to the sophisticated ambience of New York's Potion Lounge.

Years ago, a great bar at most country clubs was adorned in mahogany. The bar's mahogany paneling oozed warmth, encouraging members to linger for a drink and socialize. The wood paneling lured members in, comfy chairs retained them, and the affable bartender mixed their favorite martini. At many country clubs and resorts, the bar is the nexus, the meeting place, connecting the golfers and members in one setting for a relaxed time.

But what makes a great bar? In 2003, wood paneling isn't the only answer. As the world becomes more stressful, bars at country clubs and resorts have turned into one of the last refuges for people to get away from it all and escape their daily travails. Since many country clubs offer heightened security or are located in gated communities, the bar becomes the symbol of comfort in perilous times. Club Management wondered aloud to some people who have spent a lot time pondering the subject: "What makes a great bar? Is it the drinks, the ambiance, the bartender, or something else?"

"A bar is great that leaves me with a memorable experience," stated Robert Henry, a principal of Robert Henry Design Architects in New York. "The cocktails that are served, the environment, and the people all contribute. Great bars emanate from good cocktails and good conversation in a stunning setting." Henry recently designed the Potion Lounge, a breathtakingly sophisticated and inviting bar in Manhattan. An image of Henry's design is featured on the cover of a new book on bar design.

Julie D. Taylor, the Los Angeles-based author of that book, Bars, Pubs and Cafes--Hot Designs for Cool Spaces (Rockport Publishers, 2000), said that as tensions in the world rise, people come to bars for solace. "Sleek, minimal bar stools are out. People want chairs that are padded, upholstered chairs with arms that invite lingering. Lounges are proliferating. Since more women are joining clubs, they prefer lighter wood, not the old boy's club with mahogany," she said.

Bars evolve and change, responding to consumer habits, suggested Walter Allen, principal of Ferry Hayes & Allen, an Atlanta-based commercial interior design firm that specializes in private clubs. Mahogany was in vogue when members wore formal clothes and mahogany was the "height of civilized living. Members wanted bars to reflect the best of what they could afford," he said. But as people started dressing in casual clothes, bar design reflected that informality.

As times become more stressful, intimate bars have become popular, Allen suggested. His firm designed the interior of the tiny 12-foot bar at the exclusive Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, NC, popular with its members. "It's a pie-shaped bar with an inside/outside fireplace with a terrace. Bars are places where you want to feel good and you feel better when you rub up against someone's shoulder," he said. The intimacy creates the energy at the Quail Hollow Club bar.

Here are several country club and resort bars--each one possessing its own cachet and special features that make it "great":

What makes a great bar? Scintillating conversation in the Garden Bar at the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C.

The Garden Bar at the Cosmos Club in downtown Washington D.C. has the de rigueur cherrywood-paneled bar, leather banquettes, classic wooden chairs, marble tabletops, and walls adorned with book jackets and memorabilia of its 3,000 academic and intellectual members, explained Bill Caldwell, Cosmos general manager. "This is a social bar, a bar where people come to converse," Caldwell said. At the Garden Bar, members C. Everett Koop--the former Surgeon General of the United States--may opine on zero-based population growth, or Judith Martin, aka Miss Manners, may banter about social etiquette.

"The people make the bar. It's not the mahogany that makes the bar," Caldwell said. "After 9/11, we found that members were gravitating more to the bar," he noted. In perilous times, the warm and cozy Garden Bar served as a refuge for people, even intellectuals who had no easy answers to the world's most vexing problems. People such as Monica Lewinsky who frequented the private Garden Bar to avoid photographers, or the nuclear scientist who scribbled a formula for the hydrogen bomb on a napkin, make it special.

What makes a great bar? Appealing to women and men: the Jack Buck Bar at the Missouri Athletic Club

Though the Missouri Athletic Club is celebrating its centennial year in 2003 and continues to thrive as the premier athletic and social club in downtown St. Louis, its famed Jack Buck Bar debuted in 1998 when it was renovated. Formerly the men's grill, the Jack Buck Bar, named after the renowned St. Louis sportscaster who died in 2002 and was loved by locals of both genders, was transformed from a clubby, almost stodgy, dark mahogany bar, appealing to cigar-smokers, into a "cocktail lounge and martini bar that also appealed to women," noted Brian Helms, its food and beverage director.

Designers replaced the dark mahogany paneling with light red oak, brightening the room. The muted lighting, designed by Newton Kerr, a Chicago lighting firm, "makes everyone look wonderful," Helms added. Cushions were added to bar stools to lighten the atmosphere, and private booths (particularly appealing to women) were installed, a departure from the old men's-club atmosphere. But cigars from the new humidor may still be smoked in the bar, and the sepia-toned murals on the wall of St. Louis's greatest athletic events over the last century remain from the original design.

On a typical Sunday morning in football season, when over a thousand people fill the Missouri Athletic Club for brunch, either to attend the game at the adjacent Edward T. Jones Stadium or watch the game on the club's many televisions, the joint is jumping. The TVs are blasting, the lattes and Bloody Marys are flowing, and the kinetic energy makes the Jack Buck Bar in St. Louis one special place.

What makes a great bari Location, location, location for the Interlachen Lounge at the Atlanta Athletic Club 

When members stop for a single malt scotch or vodka at the Interlachen Lounge at the Atlanta Athletic Club (AAC) in Duluth, GA, they often stay for dinner. AAC, once the home club of golfing legend Bobby Jones, offers a tremendous view of the 18th fairway and green from the Interlachen patio.

"It's location, location, location," noted David Sheppard, AAC club manager, explaining the lounge's popularity. If this lounge were located in the middle of the club, it wouldn't attract such a loyal following. "The bar is located between the upscale and casual dining rooms, the perfect location for people to be seen by other members," Sheppard explained. Most members meet their friends at the bar and rejoin for lunch or dinner as a foursome.

When the Interlachen Lounge was renovated in 1997, four 35-inch televisions ensconced in large cabinets were added to meet member's changing needs. "People want instantaneous information, news channels, or evening sporting events. People watch the news or a golf match," Sheppard noted. "It's like Grand Central Station here because everyone at the club sooner or later comes through the Interlachen Lounge," he added.

What makes a great bar? The retro interior at the Union League Club of Chicago

While many country club bars have removed their dark wood decors, the Union League Club of Chicago (ULCC) in the downtown financial district revels in its classic Rendezvous Room bar. A painting of a naked lady, the Captive (part of the ULCC's huge art collection), is hung over the bar, and the walls also display three mounted animals: a huge elk, a cape buffalo, and a wild boar. Other touches include a back-lighted stained glass window and a massive grandfather clock. The ambiance is completed with dark wood, red leather chairs, and wooden tables, including a huge circular table just inside the entrance.

"Retro works," said Jonathan McCabe, CCM, the club's general manager, though he noted that a recent renovation reduced the number of mounted animals from eight to three, and painted the walls green to soften the ambiance ever so slightly. "If an organization has a heart, this is where you take its pulse," he said, since most members gravitate to the bar for lunch, a drink, or to socialize.

"We're housed in a 1926 Federal-style building with oak floors. The building is classic and so is the look of the bar," McCabe noted. The Rendezvous Room, he said, is a "constant in our members' lives. It's always the same, always reliable, and offers a great martini. Today there's is so much uncertainty, but the Rendezvous Room offers certainty," McCabe said.

What makes a great bar? The historic view from the Babcock & Story bar at the Hotel del Coronado 

The ceiling fans hum, the cushioned wicker chairs beckon, the white walls sparkle, but the bar's major attraction is its glorious view: most seats at the Hotel del Coronado's Babcock & Story bar and patio in Coronado, CA face the Windsor Lawn and the Pacific Ocean. "The bar has a plantation feel and a turn of the century appeal," explained Steve Schackne, the hotel's food and beverage director.

The bar is named for the Hotel Del's founders, Elisha Babcock and H.L. Story, two Midwestern businessmen who 114 years ago dreamed of building a resort hotel that would be the "talk of the Western World." The bar's showpiece--a 46-foot handcrafted mahogany bar--sailed from Philadelphia around Cape Horn in 1888. The venerable barroom softened its dark wood decor with a 2002 renovation, but still returns guests to a simpler time. "There's nothing high-tech here, no stainless steel edges, just soft wicker chairs that look out to the ocean," Schackne said.

What makes a great bar? Appealing to the community

At the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota, which opened in late 2001, the two major bars, the Ca' D'Zan Bar & Cigar Lounge and the Bay View Bar & Grill, were designed by Pamela Hughes to appeal to local residents, not just guests and tourists, noted Susan Konkel, corporate director of interior design for Ritz-Carlton Hotels in Washington, D.C. "If you're looking to sustain a resort bar's business, you need to reach out to the community. Otherwise business can be seasonal and limited," Konkel noted.

Hence, the Ca D'zan Bar has a private smoking room, replete with leather chairs and hickory paneled walls and overstuffed fabrics, creating a more "masculine" atmosphere, Konkel said. But the Bay View Bar is a casual beach bar that looks out to the bay. Hughes designed the bars to be elegant but conservative, appealing to the tastes of local Sarasotans.

Great bars come in all sizes, shapes, designs, and locales. "The key to a great bar is defining your clientele and meeting their needs, whether it's a trendy wine bar or beer joint," Julie Taylor asserted.