It was being in search of plastic rapier garnish skewers that first piqued our interest and brought us behind Mike’s Dad’s bar on that rainy Saturday afternoon. Despite their being hopelessly oversized in the hands of our action figures, there was something about the three we had manage to procure from empty cocktail glasses the night before that led us to desire acquiring more.
The carved wooden figurine of the ample-bellied, frothy stein-toting Toby man never changed his drunkenly vivacious demeanour, and the stale odours that wafted from any number of spill spots and emptied yet unwashed ashtrays along the table top in front of him suggested Mr. Brice and his guests had felt similarly Dionysian the evening previous.
A large neon green CASTLE sign gave emphasis to the three decks of glass shelving, and the weathered wood dartboard cabinet doors emblazoned with Beefeater’s gin logo was an equally memorable distinction for us. The musty dark wood and leather characterization of the place paired with a sort of forbidden fruit mystique in being the source of all the boisterous late-night activity heard after the children has been sent to bed.
Strangely, what these next-day forays into the most intriguing fixture of the house left me with was an association for buttoned leather upholstery. The bar featured prominent buttoned black leather panel detailing and table top edging that had an inherently dapper suggestion to it - an almost “rat pack” suave character on account of the libational exuberance that radiated from the adults that lingered about it. As a result, buttoned leather upholstery has always had a very brandy-and-cigars stateliness for me.
My own interpretations aside, like-detailed furniture does add a measure of refinement to any space, and club chairs are the most common example. A tufted Chesterfield Chair or Conquest Chair visibly hints at being worthy of occupation by an individual recently removed from his banker’s desk and is removing his gold cufflinks before enjoying an aged scotch. Even in more modern takes, like a Kubus Chair or an Ezio Leather Chair, there is something about tufted / buttoned upholstery that kicks the sophistication level up more than a few notches, irregardless of style, design and even the advent of Technicolor.
Even at 33, I feel too young and presence-less to do a Brentwood Club Chair justice, and I’d need to at least grow a moustache and be able to drink cognac after cognac without flinching to be worthy of being reposed in an Englewood Club Chair. For those considerably more Dean Martin-like than myself, the large selection of similarly-themed club chairs at cymaxstores.com is an easy way to add a splash of the decidedly debonair to your entertaining area by means of the wonder of online shopping.
If only I had a chance to slide up to the old Brice bar one more time, tie loosened and tall enough now to rest my elbows next to the Toby man, exchanging all manner of sports and political banter amidst a cloud of second-hand smoke and the clanging of ice cubes.
I might even take home one last rapier as a memento.
Strangely, what these next-day forays into the most intriguing fixture of the house left me with was an association for buttoned leather upholstery. The bar featured prominent buttoned black leather panel detailing and table top edging that had an inherently dapper suggestion to it - an almost “rat pack” suave character on account of the libational exuberance that radiated from the adults that lingered about it. As a result, buttoned leather upholstery has always had a very brandy-and-cigars stateliness for me.
My own interpretations aside, like-detailed furniture does add a measure of refinement to any space, and club chairs are the most common example. A tufted 
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