Move over Hooters: London bar to have real, live owls

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Perhaps Harry Dunne is finally capitalizing on his legendary mistake in Dumb & Dumber, as several entrepreneurs are set to open a new owl bar in London’s Soho district next month.

The owl bar, which Mashable reports will be opening at a secret location, will allow patrons to view the nocturnal birds while imbibing their favorite alcoholic beverages. However, you’ll have to be lucky to gain entry, as more than 33,000 people have already registered for the random drawing through which a fortunate few will learn of the club’s whereabouts.

Raising the bar(n)

According to the Londonist, the pop-up bar will operate under the name Annie The Owl, and it will only be open from 8:30pm to 2am local time on March 19-March 25. It will be a venture of start-up app developer Locappy and the Gloucestershire’s Barn Owl Centre.

“After… flying across the great lands of Asia and Europe, Annie and her friends arrive in London for a week in March, before setting off to the North in search of longer nights,” the pop-up club’s website explains. “Come say hello, sip yummy cocktails mixed by London’s best mixologists, and meet the OWL-PACK to see why everyone has been talking about this lot.”

Among the owls being featured at the event are Annie, for whom the bar is named; Darwin, an owl which can rotate his head 270 degree and eats up to 1000 mice per year; and one known as Hootie, whose picture is blurred on the website and whose identity is reportedly confidential.

Owl have what she’s having

A sample cocktail menu includes the “Annie Collins,” a mix of gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup that is shaken and topped with soda water; the “Owl-Presso Martini,” a blend of vodka, espresso, Kahlua, and Tia Maria that is shaken and served with beans; and “The Hoot,” which is vodka, gin, and vermouth, shaken and served in a martini glass, according to the website.

Tickets for the own bar will be £20 (approximately $31) and will include entry to the club for one person, two cocktails and 120 minutes of “unique owl indulgence” featuring Annie and her owl friends. All of the birds will be accompanied by trained handlers, and proceeds from the club will go to the sanctuary’s conservation efforts.

“I’m half Japanese and have visited an owl café in Tokyo and really enjoyed it,” the creator of the event, an individual identified only as Seb, explained in an interview with the Londonist on Monday. “I thought that it would be really cool to bring one to London.”

The owl bar is the latest in a long line of unusual clubs, cafes and restaurants that have been popping up in London recently. Others include Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium, described as the first-ever cat cafe, and a cereal cafe serving over 100 different types of the breakfast favorite from all over the world, including the US, France, Australia, South Africa and South Korea.

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