The Excelsior's top floor bar, Talk of The Town, has reopened after a very quick renovation last month. The Causeway Bay hotel invited industry guests and the media over for drinks and snacks on Wednesday night to check out the new digs. Although it still has that hotel bar vibe - including an anonymous band playing classic disco covers - the makeover has spruced up ToTT's dated decor. In short, it now feels roomier and the over-predominant red has been replaced by a less harsh cobalt blue. 'In the day, some people say it really brings out the blue of the water,' hotel general manager Amanda Scott said. 'There's still some work to be done on the menu and the bar but they'll come in time.' Given that all the work was done in less than a month, it is more a cosmetic makeover than a surgical reconstruction job. The project fell to J. Lee Rofkind's local firm Buz Design, although some of the talk at the ToTT was that famed interior design group Yabu Pushelberg - who designed Lane Crawford's IFC and Pacific Place stores - was supposed to redo the club. Alas, their price was far higher than the Excelsior could afford. When asked to confirm, the current management team says they could not do so because they weren't around when those initial talks occurred.
