`You're very handsome but you're too young for me," she whispers throatily. Vi Lawlor, who has lived in Kildare since 1941, has a wicked twinkle in her eye. She has used this chat-up line before - "I'm the highest kicker in town!" she says.
Vi, sporting a pearl choker and a smokey-blue ensemble, is among the 100 people "who know how to party", according to a list drawn up by Social & Personal magazine. Others judged "good at chat up lines" includes Gavin Friday, Joe Elliott and Greg Purcell.
Ciaran Sweeney, the young Dublin-based designer, is not on the list but he's not upset. "I'm trying to go monastic, I'm going to go reclusive and contemplative," he says he parties into the night at Il Posto restaurant.
Alix Gardner, a caterer to some of the world's rich and famous, is one of the people who is "never in the kitchen at parties". Tonight she's with her husband, John Colclough, who is also involved in the party business. He tells of a client who insisted on napkins of a precise starchiness. To avoid misunderstanding, she sent a napkin over from the US to the housekeeping staff. "That's what I call an eye for detail," says John.
Former night-club manager Jackie Rafter has dropped in with her daughter Kate Marshall (12) and her friend, Miriam Jackson. The two adults think that the whole night-club scene is "so awful" - nobody dresses up any more, they wail.
Dressed to the nines, however, is Sean O'Leary, of the rag trade. He and his partner, James Bailie, are on the magazine's "party animals" list. "It's official," says Sean. The two are known for throwing some humdingers. "Careful planning is the key," says Sean, "and a good mixed guest list."
Hordes of these died-in-the-wool party animals now sashay across St Stephen's Green to the opening of a new and trendy restaurant, Mango Toast, in the Fitzwilliam Hotel.
A five-piece group called Wap are beating out a west African beat on the footpath. Inside they're serving oriental food. There's passion fruit on the plate and spice in the air. Conrad Gallagher welcomes us to his newest venture.
Singer Jim Corr sits quietly in a corner, calm in the face of a rising tide of hilarity and decadence. Maureen Cairnduff, compiler of Ireland's Who's Who, is a few seats down - this has to be celeb row! She's in the company of artist Robert Ballagh. The next edition of Who's Who, she says, contains the names of 1,000 people plus 200 young people, i.e. the under-30s or thereabouts. Wyndham Beere, director of the Abrakebabra chain, is also enjoying the opening with his wife, Shirley.