NEXT weekend sees the opening of Bolton's newest bar -- and thankfully this is one event worth getting excited about. Part of Luminar Leisure, Life Cafe has several branches in the UK, including Manchester and Liverpool. Now Bolton has become the latest addition to this chain of classy cafe bars.

Manager Neil Turner is reluctant to pin down his target audience, aware that Life Cafe, with its considerable expanse of space, will ably cater for different groups at different times. But he explains that, generally, Life are targeting "the 20 to 30 year old market" and adds "we want it to be the kind of place that you can sit in with a laptop and not feel out of place."

This ambition is reflected in the surroundings -- Life is spacious, stylish and modern, with smooth wood furnishings and large screens dotted at intervals. The bar is divided into three areas -- cafe bar, restaurant and clubbing to cater for the different requirements of their customers.

Showing an understanding of the customer's needs, the music will be fairly restrained as you enter, growing louder the further in you go. Towards the back of the bar glass screens, on show in the daytime, will slide back to

reveal a bar, dancefloor and DJ Box. It looks very funky.

In fact it has a very Deansgate Locks feel about it, which will come as a relief to those who head to Manchester for this kind of bar experience. Happily, Life plans to fill a gap in Bolton's nightlife rather than duplicate the kind of noisier bars that Bolton has plenty enough of.

And the service will be attentive -- 40 staff have been hired, there will be waitress service and a host will remain at the entrance at all times to meet and greet the clientele. "We want it to feel like a privilege to get in," says Mr Turner. And, if first impressions are anything to go by, it probably will.