Waterford's Nightlife megathread

angry_fox wrote: »

Whats escape like on a saturday night???

*May not actually be Escape

abouttobebanned wrote: »

People are just not going out as much anymore but there is a chance for one more bar...but it needs to look good, have great service and be targeted at over 23s.
.

I'd love such a bar.

I was in Leuven in Belgium for a short holiday last month. Geographically it's about the size of Waterford, it's a student town where the University provides most of the out-going public, as well as having some industrial manufacturing on the outskirts. So pretty similar to us.

But it has 250 bars and restaurants, and they all seem to do well. What I really like was that all the bars took their beers seriously. Every bar had a beer menu longer than any food menu. Each beer you got also had its own official glass, e.g. Leffe in a Leffe glass, Hoegaarden in a Hoegaarden glass, etc. You had quite bars, loud bars, music bars, nite club/late night bars etc. but in all you got a good choice of beer, as well as sprits/wine. Each pub had a so-called "cheap" beer on tap, usually Stella or Jupiler, which is brewed in Leuven. Both are lovely. You rarely got a pint, most drink sizes were 25, 33 or 50cl as quantities are metric. This wasn't bad as you'd actually drink a little less over the course of a night. You would expect to pay around €2 for a 33cl glass of on-tap beer, all between 5 and 6% ABV. For a fancy beer, like a trappist ale or a high ABV beer you would pay about €3-€4 for a 33cl glass. These you would tend to drink slower as they're a heavier beer, and I think psycologically the fancy glass you get them in make them seem larger than they are.

I would really love to open a similar bar in Waterford. One where you have a nice choice of beers, both cheaper ones on tap and then slightly more expensive bottles in the fridge. You'd get a nice glass to drink it from instead of a dirty over-washed Carlsberg glass when you're drinking cider like I've seen in some places! I'd almost opt for no music like Downes' where you can have a chat earlier in the night maybe and then light background music for anyone staying a bit longer. I honestly think there would be a market for it. If you could keep the overheads low it could become the venue of choice for anyone looking to drink nice beer in a nice athmosphere without paying too far over the odds.

Now I neither have the means or the balls to open such a bar in Waterford at the moment but I really wish someone else would! I could appreciate that importing nice beers might be expensive but the world is full of nice beer, surely some obscure ones can be cheap. If you can get bottles of Tyskie for €2 in an off-licence could a pub have it on tap for less than €3.50? I wouldn't mind drinking that. Plus I'd rather spend a little more on a quality beer, especially if it's over 6% ABV, and drink it slowly. If there were a few hundred more like me we'd have a customer base!

zxy wrote: »

doesn't Geoffs work like that? They have a good few beers to choose from anyway..and all kinds of strange glasses to drink them from

Both Geoffs and Downes' are similar alright, they're also where I like to drink the most! But I'd like somewhere with more choice. I like the idea of the Porterhouse micro-brewery in Dublin where it has it's own brewed beers on tap and a huge selection of bottles. Maybe the Dungarvan Brewing company could do the same!

We can add mordant's to the list of closures too, it closed about two or three weeks ago.
Though if the whispers i hear are true it will be opening again under new management.

c - 13 wrote: »

Portlaw ? Bit of an unusual destination

There's some sort of arrangement with whoever has the Pellum (?). Twister Vicks should be re-opening though. Actually I'm supposed to be playing there Friday night, better make some calls!

The Forum looks to be seizing the opportunity. €5 gigs for O Emperor, Knights of Leon and Delorentos and more bands I cant think of atm over the next few months until christmas. Free entry was nice, but I don't mind paying €5 in before 12 for that!

MitchKoobski wrote: »

The Forum looks to be seizing the opportunity. €5 gigs for O Emperor, Knights of Leon and Delorentos and more bands I cant think of atm over the next few months until christmas. Free entry was nice, but I don't mind paying €5 in before 12 for that!

They obviously read our thread about the place dying

But there's new 18 - 28 year olds knocking about the city, where are they?