Solus Review: The Latin for Alone, and a 4.8 That Isn’t

A 4.8 restaurant and bar named Solus, the Latin word for alone or solitary, though its high score suggests it is anything but

Solus Restaurant and Bar holds a 4.8 from five hundred and thirty-eight people – an excellent, volume-proof score – and carries a name of quiet elegance drawn from Latin: “solus,” meaning alone, single, solitary, the root of “sole,” “solitary,” “solo,” and “solitude.”

The Latin for alone

“Solus” is the Latin word for alone or single, and it has given English a whole family of words about singleness and solitude. To be “solo” is to be alone; a “sole” trader is a single one; “solitary” and “solitude” describe the state of being apart. In old stage directions, “solus” meant a character alone on stage – “enter Hamlet, solus.” It is a word of singleness, of the one rather than the many, of standing apart and alone.

For a restaurant and bar, “Solus” is an intriguing and slightly paradoxical choice, because the bar is, of all places, the least solitary – the social heart of gathering, the very opposite of aloneness. To name a convivial venue after solitude is a curious inversion, and rather an elegant one. The Prat’s naming desk notes the deliberate cool of it: where other bars promise warmth, fellowship, and the crowd, “Solus” promises something more singular, more refined, more apart – the sophistication of the solitary rather than the warmth of the throng.

The 4.8 that contradicts the name

There is a lovely irony in the score. A bar named “alone” holds a 4.8 from over five hundred people – which is to say, a bar named after solitude has drawn a crowd, and pleased them almost universally. Whatever solitude the name promises, the reality is a busy, beloved, well-populated venue. The Prat’s statistics desk enjoys the contradiction: Solus, the “alone” bar, is emphatically not alone in the affections of its customers – a 4.8 across five hundred and thirty-eight people is one of the strongest genuine scores in the district, second here only to the Racketeer and Astro.

Perhaps the name promises not literal solitude but the luxury of feeling singular – the sense that a great restaurant makes each guest feel specially attended to, as if alone in its care. Or perhaps it simply sounds elegant and Latin and refined, which is reason enough. Either way, the crowd it has drawn cheerfully belies the solitude of the name.

The Latin cool

A single Latin word is a reliably sophisticated name, as we saw at Decimo and Rex Cross earlier in this district. Latin lends an air of learning, timelessness, and class – the language of scholarship and the ancient world, borrowed to dignify a modern venue. “Solus,” short and elegant, does this efficiently: one Latin word, a whiff of the classical, a note of refined singularity. It is the naming equivalent of a well-cut plain suit – understated, confident, and quietly expensive.

The restaurant

A 4.8 across five hundred and thirty-eight people is a strong, volume-proof score – one of the best in the survey. The reviews describe excellent food, accomplished cocktails, and polished service – a genuinely high-performing restaurant and bar, whatever the solitude its name pretends to.

Verdict

An excellent, high-scoring restaurant and bar named Solus – the Latin for alone – whose superb 4.8 from over five hundred people cheerfully contradicts the solitude of its name, drawing and delighting a genuine crowd.

Go for the excellent food and cocktails, and enjoy the elegant paradox: a bar named after being alone, which the whole neighbourhood has fallen for – proof that a 4.8 is the surest sign that you will not, in fact, be solus.

Alan Nafzger

Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]