WELL DONE. You scaled new peaks of alcohol consumption during Christmas and New Year. You woke up on January 1 manacled to a strange bed wearing half a pantomime horse, your swollen brain trying to shatter your skull, and you swore "Never again."

But that was four days ago. The pain has eased. You've spilt lager on the magazine article about high energy fruit smoothies, and swapped the bran flakes for a bacon sarnie. The pubs are calling.

You are on the road to recovery. All you need do now is scrap any remaining resolutions and stock up on the Resolve.

Why? Because there are bars out there crying out for your custom, that's why. And it is your duty to get out their and drink.

Bar Talk this week has two suggestions of newish places to go and give that liver the workout it so deserves.

First up is an old place with a new look. The Windmill, on Blossom Street, York, is an 18th-century coaching inn that has changed rooms more often than Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen. At various times it has boasted a steak house, a bier keller and a pool lounge. Recently it went through another transformation and emerged back to its ancient best on the outside with a modern feel inside.

It is run by Peter Pendlebury with assistant manager Vinny Wake.

Vinny says the light, airy feel inside has been attracting customers back to a pub that had been stuck in the dreary doldrums.

The pub now serves up John Smith's and one guest ale a week, which meant you could get your lips round some Roasted Nuts last week. Ooh er missus.

Traditional pub favourites dominate the menu, including steak, scampi and lasagne, with a two meals for £5.99 offer. Food is served noon-8pm.

Listed building status has thankfully preserved the multi-room layout, including a non-smoking area. The big screen is still there for sports fans, and plans are afoot to sign up to the footie on ITV Digital. Watch out for Windmill World Cup specials come summer.

Meanwhile, the Buzz Bar is creating a real, er, buzz in York. A Japanese sushi bar run by Lebanese brothers, the Swinegate hostelry is conspicuously cosmopolitan, which has gone down a treat.

Only weeks after opening, the Buzz is regularly packed, and has attracted a lot of repeat business, says Claude Eid, who brought the bar to York with brothers Joseph and Lucien.

Sushi, he stresses, is not just raw fish. It encompasses a range of rice-based Japanese dishes. The menu includes everything from chicken curry to soup and salads. Favourites so far are (and excuse pronunciation) tempura, salmon teriyaki, chicken teriyaki and noodles.

It's all healthy stuff, for those of you determined to stick to your New Year resolutions.

Diners apparently love the conveyor belt, where they can help themselves to any dish and are charged according to the colour of the plate (blue=£1.45, orange=£2.95).

Buzz is also a pure drinks bar, you don't have to order food. Liquid refreshment includes cocktails, wine, draught beer and sake.

The bar's first New Year was a cracker, says Claude. "We had a big party for about 60 people."

Claude decided York would be the perfect place for a sushi bar while he was studying business management at York College.

u NEXT Saturday sees the end of the Frog Hall, and campaigners wanted to see it end on a high note. So Sue Lacy has organised a Last Order/Tivvy's Birthday party (Tivvy is the drummer with Stealer, who were the resident band for some time in the pub).

Rather than a sad funeral for the Layerthorpe pub - which featured in a Press campaign to stop it being demolished and a video store and McDonald's being built in its place - it is going to be a wake with the Saturday being the highlight of the weekend.

The pub majored in promoting local bands, many of whom will be there on the night (as will be Rosie, Stealer's Number One Groupie) for the last last orders after more than 70 years. And hopefully there will be several representatives of the Press raising their glasses one last time to the Frog. Cheers.

u FINALLY, Bar Talk has managed to cause unwitting distress to the good folk who run the Cock & Bottle. In his goodbye questionnaire (December 22), our former scribe Dan Beergutstein vilified Villiers, the ill-fated conversion of the Skeldergate boozer into a wine bar. But he failed to mention that, mercifully, it has since been turned back into a pub. We are happy to make this clear and wish all involved many more years of happy Cock & Bottling.