As chronicled in the Echo, Bar Med opened its doors at 135-136 High Street in Southampton in late December 1998.
Marketed as a stylish new cafe-bar, the venue aimed to provide food, drink, music, and fun all day and into the night.
The bar was designed by the Southampton-based architectural firm HPW Partnership for the SFI Group, building on the success of the very first Bar Med which opened in Bournemouth in 1997.
With its brightly coloured, sunshine-themed decor, the establishment offered a Mediterranean menu and a holiday atmosphere designed to help patrons relive their vacation fantasies.
The entertainment schedule was packed throughout the week, cementing its reputation as a leading pre-club venue.
Mondays were dedicated to live sporting classics on the big screen, Wednesdays featured “Karaoke Chaos”, and Thursdays offered the ultimate nostalgia with 70s funk and 80s Tropicana.
The weekend ramped up the energy with the “Party Ibiza Sounds System” on Fridays, a massive party night on Saturdays, and a cooldown of spiritual soul and acid jazz on Sundays.
However, the venue was not without its troubles.
In June 1999, police were called to break up a mass brawl involving more than thirty people that spilled out of the bar and onto the street.
The violent clash left three men injured, with two requiring stitches and another detained with a suspected fractured skull.
By November 2000, Bar Med faced further difficulties when city councillors rejected its application for a late-night music and dance licence that would have allowed it to stay open until midnight during the week.
Police Inspector Kelvin Taylor formally objected to the extension, noting that the bar ranked fairly high on the list of establishments with disorder problems and had breached liquor licensing conditions over its closed-circuit television setup.
Despite the controversies, the bar remained a hotspot for several years, even featuring in a local newspaper survey in April 2001 which revealed a pint of lime and soda cost anywhere between 30p and 60p.
The venue eventually changed its name to Below Bar in 2002 before closing its doors for good in 2005, later transforming into the venue For Your Eyes Only.
If you have any memories of this venue, please share a brief call for information which readers can submit in the comments below or by emailing ian.crump@dailyecho.co.uk.