Taipei sports bar is great and all, but we need to start mixing it up some more…there has to be more then 2 places where we can meet. Look what happened when we went to the Tavern…that was the best happy hour ever!
I think JB’s would be a good option for a future Happy Hour. I’ll talk to Ian about it the next time I see him… 
JB’s would be a good venue. It was a better experience when I went to the Canadian Society social the other night. Only drawback I see is the two floors which can break up the mixing.
I think I’ve said this before, but how about Malibu West (Just off the north End of Linsen N Rd, near the Imperial Hotel) . Its large and open, good food, pool table and a small outside area.
The German bar on Fuxing North Road next to Sunrise would be good too. Good German beer, and even a few German dishes thrown in for good measure.
One floor layout, and great for mingling.
[quote=“Frost”]Taipei sports bar is great and all, but we need to start mixing it up some more…there has to be more then 2 places where we can meet. Look what happened when we went to the Tavern…that was the best happy hour ever![/quote]I think it also helped that that one wasn’t held late at night after a long day at work and having to get up early the next day.
How about Bongos? It’s hard to find unless you know the secret pathway, and be very wary of the fish and chips. But other than that, it should make a nice HH
Hooters might also make a good venue. It is centrally located and near an MRT
Maybe find some venue other than a bar. Just a thought (but your right about the bar thing).
Maybe find some venue other than a bar. Just a thought (but your right about the bar thing).[/quote]
Indeed, a Restaurant. Now there’s a novel idea. Have some great food with great company and sit around talking shit after the meal over some drinks.
Maybe find some venue other than a bar. Just a thought (but your right about the bar thing).[/quote]
Indeed, a Restaurant. Now there’s a novel idea. Have some great food with great company and sit around talking shit after the meal over some drinks.[/quote]
Yeah, I know this great pizza place on Lishui St, just south of Hsin Yi. It’s called Alley… 
I totally agree.
I like Alleycat’s and TS, but we’ve had too many happy hours there. Let’s start all new venues from now on. Different kinds of places are good too.
Brian
JBs would be a good choice, I think. I’m sure we could work something out with Ian with regard to a food deal. It is indeed on two floors, but that might not be such a bad thing, as more non-smokers might be inclined to attend – the ground floor is non-smoking.
However, if I had my druthers we’d wait a bit until the rooftop beer garden is completed.
I’d like to see the Happy Hour, which is apparently the main social event for the Forumosa community, be held in a place that is more welcoming to the whole community, and not just to smokers. Many nonsmokers get irritated eyes, sinuses and throats from being in smoky places, and second-hand smoke is a cancer risk. Plus our clothes and hair STINK when we get home.
So I’d like to suggest that we move to venues that have open-air patios, such as the “300” bar/restaurant by Dahu Park in Neihu.
Also, kids and bars don’t mix, and I think it’d be fun to let kids mix too, so restaurants, especially non-smoking ones, sounds good to me.
Picnics would be good too, as they are open-air, good for spouses and kids and well-behaved pets.
As for restaurants, I’d like to nominate Mr. Paco’s pizza, near Ren Ai & Dunhua. The pizza is superb, and they have a nice selection of Belgian beers too!!!
[quote=“Dragonbones”]Also, kids and bars don’t mix, and I think it’d be fun to let kids mix too, so restaurants, especially non-smoking ones, sounds good to me.
Picnics would be good too, as they are open-air, good for spouses and kids and well-behaved pets.[/quote]
Kids and restaurants don’t mix either. In fact, some people would rather not have kids ‘spoiling’ things at all.
But that’s a purely subjective opinion, and I think the point is to try and have a variety of styles of gathering so that people have a choice of which ones to go to. Amazingly, some people don’t want to go to huge piss-ups either. Others don’t have any interest in playing pool, having a running commentary on someone else’s pool game, or watching sport on screens either.
I agree that the ‘theme’ of the happy hours has probably not been very encompassing in the past and I’m very glad to see people proposing alternatives. A small(ish) get together at the pub may have been appropriate a year or two ago, but these days we need to be a bit more respectful of the huge numbers of people who want other things.
Perhaps in future we could see ‘adult’ gatherings, and more family-friendly affairs too. Picnics sound like a great idea, if 914 ever stops jinxing the weather.
And I would definitely be up for trying some new places, especially some place that is usually dead and could use a crowd on a Friday or Saturday night. It would be good to make these events more accessible to out-of-towners and people who have to work early on weekday mornings. And why not a DIY event or even a forumosa fund-raiser?
Is it possible for us to take over an area by one of the riversides one Saturday afternoon and have a BBQ/picnic that goes on into the evening? A few bands, ultimate frisbee, fancy dress (a la Rio ‘carnaval’!!) contest, Miss Forumosa pageant, ice-cream eating contest, some team and individual sports, bouncy castle, mud wrestling, and a special area for the quaffing of heroic quantities of ale, no kids allowed. Super.
There could even be a nude sunbathing area!
And just once, could we go somewhere where you don’t have to inhale other people’s cigarette smoke? JBs has the no-smoking option, and The Tavern advertised that they were intending to be smoke-free at the Easter thingy (or did I dream that?) so it is possible.
Kudos to all the people making suggestions so far on this thread. It’s long overdue.
Thanks for all the feedback! This is great! 
I think we’ll keep our Happy Hours in a similar format, but I think it’s great if we can expand events beyond that.(Camping, anyone?) There are a million things we can do above and beyond our scheduled Happy Hours. Let’s explore the possibilities.
How about Granma Nitti’s in Gongguan? There’s a lot of room there
That’s the way to go I think. Keep the Happy Hours as they are but add more things.
The whole reason for having HH on weekdays is because so many people (me included) want to keep our weekends for our “other” lives, in which indoors and bars don’t always feature. However, should there be weekend activities that are closer to what we’d normally do on a weekend, such as picnics etc., then I for one would be in.
Who would be up for getting a bunch of cars and scooters together on a Saturday or Sunday morning and tooling up past Wulai to some of the outstanding Tunghu area swimming holes, for example? Leave at, say, 9am, laze around on the rocks drinking beer, swimming, etc. and back in Taipei by 5 or 6.
Sandman, that’s a cool idea.
Hey, we could do activities to raise money for helping sick, abandoned animals! We could combine rummage sale, bake sale and street performance! Wives get to sell things they don’t think their husbands need or shouldn’t have, I’ll make fudge brownies and cookies, and Mordeth can ride around upside down on a pocket scooter or something fun like that, with a hat out for coins. 
Bring your coolers, frisbees, dogs and lawnchairs, and make a party out of it!
More to the point, its a do-able one. The camping stuff is great, but it can be hard for a lot of people to make such a long trip, especially if they don’t have transport. Day trips are much easier to organize and can be a lot of fun. Plus, its a mountain river, so there’s a chance we might find Omniloquacious having it off with somebody up there and we could throw rocks at him and stuff.