Alice & Fifth: best bring a fat wallet to Sandton's exclusive supper club

New supper club and Sandton spot of the moment Alice & Fifth is striking and bold but feels as if it’s hidden away.

Maybe that’s the plan?

Downstairs from the Sandton Sun near where the Vilamoura restaurant once was, it oozes decadence. If you want light, fresh and airy, this isn’t your kind of place. But if you’re beguiled by dark (there are no windows), sexy, detailed, and sumptuous environments mixed with an elegant sense of the avant-garde, this could hit the spot.

At the entrance a bottle of Louis XIII cognac is displayed in a cabinet on the wall. The bottle is valued at R240,000 and a shot will cost you R8,000.

The interior is about velvet, wood, marble, intricate white panelling, reds and greens. In various sections, there are groupings of what comes to 8,000 rich maroon tassels hanging from the ceiling, imported from India.

Real fur from Iceland covers various chairs. Old-world panelling covers walls that futuristically bend to become ceilings.

The interior is by Tristan du Plessis, whose own Studio A has only been around for three years but has already won international awards.

The menus are a story of their own. On a digital touch screen, the cocktails tell their own story with images of serpents and The Wolf of Wall Street clearly evoking temptation. Cocktails range from R150 to R270.

The menu is meat-heavy, clearly catering to male patrons.

Resident DJ Leo plays Afro house and deep house from Thursday to Saturday and there’s a revue bar, though apparently it’s seen more as interactive theatre.

The supper club seats about 225 people. There’s no cover charge. Average spend on a meal is probably around R1,500, says one of the managers

There’s a members-only section and to play in this part of the club it will set you back R50,000 worth of alcohol for the year.

Some of this — with your name engraved on it — will be kept in a beautiful cabinet. One would hope so...

• Visit Alice & Fifth at the Sandton Sun, Alice Lane, Sandton.

•  This article was adapted from one that originally appeared on the Financial Mail website. Read the original article here.