By HELEN KIRWAN-TAYLOR from wsj.com

You know bars are back in fashion when people trade "mixologists" business cards. These are people who perform chemistry experiments on alcoholic substances and come up with nifty combinations that win bartenders such as Erik Lorincz of the Connaught Bar in London standing ovations. There are now regular pilgrimages to sample his Bloody Mary with celery "foam."

One would have had to be on a prolonged vacation not to have noticed the amount of bars, private members clubs and watering holes multiplying across Europe. What sparked this trend is a matter of debate though one cannot underestimate the influence of the Golden Globe and Emmy-winning American television series "Mad Men" on our habits. Even teetotalers are polishing up their Baccarat crystal glasses and filling them with ice—just for the sound effects.

You can, however, credit David Collins, the designer behind the Blue Bar at the Berkeley and the bars at Claridge's and the Connaught, for making hotel bars the most glamorous destination places in London. Clients (Madonna and Tom Ford included) often ask him for exact replicas. "People tend to entertain on a different scale now. It is not always the commitment of cooking dinner, so a great way to be hospitable with relatively low inconvenience is to have people for pre-dinner drinks, but with all the trimmings: martini, lemon, sliced apple, etc., and of course great glasses," he says.

Parisian designer India Mahdavi Hudson, who updated the interior of the Coburg Bar at the Connaught Hotel, has a more pragmatic explanation for the trend. "No SMS," she says, inferring that bars may be the last place where people communicate as opposed to staring at their Blackberry screens. Ms. Mahdavi Hudson has just designed a retro '60s style bar for the 10th anniversary of French Architectural Digest, which was installed at the Hôtel Marcel Dassault in Paris in September and features jungle wallpaper and rattan furniturea. Her idea is to create "daytime" bars, she says, "where you meet with friends and leave the mobile at the coat check."

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