When I first got to Taipei, the people I was forced to live with used to go to Julianna’s every Saturday night, and I went along. One time, there were these two huge German businessmen sitting at the bar, getting drunk and making an awful racket. Nice enough blokes. They even bought me a beer. Next thing, I go outside and see them surrounded by a bunch of wankers with baseball bats, rearranging their faces.
I never went back. It was Roxy 99 for me after that.
There was also that rich people place, Ziga-Zaga that they would frequent. It was 2001 and a martini cost NT$500. Just so you could sit around with famous people you’d never heard of. I went once, and then said “fuck this shit”.
I never stooped as low as drinking outside the Seven, but did have some fun in the less bourgeois places.
I used to go to the Tavern on Saturday nights to watch sport and have dinner with my friend, and then head off to Fresh, the best gay bar that doesn’t exist anymore. Excellent place to meet cool women.
All the places that I mentioned are dead and gone, and that’s just the last 20 years.
It is news to me! I didn’t even know that I had a seedy gangster bar. If I knew, I woulda hired Sicilian mafiosi. They wouldn’t have had the place shut down.
Yeah, Roxy99. Thread wouldn’t be complete without that one. Infamous “free beer for the first x people”. It seems that the last remaining Roxy, Roxy Rocker (or Roxy X, as it was renamed recently) is also kaputt.
Brown Sugar near NEO19 wasn’t mentioned yet - nice Caipirinhas and sometimes good music. But for harder music, Velvet Underground in Ximen was better.
I’m glad that Taboo didn’t turn belly up, even it looked like it for a while.
Yeah, the Ploughman’s Inn, across from Starbucks, off Zhong Xiao East Road. Great place, would go there every Sunday evening, happy hour. The Filipino bar man would always try and pull a fast one over us. I went to the 10? 20 th anniversary party around May 2000. Free bar from 6-8, total mayhem. Ian, a regular, would go on to open JBs, located very close to Shida Road. Now, there’s another story.
The last time i saw him was over 15 years ago on chungshiou east road. He was just standing still smiling and staring into space.
I went up to see if it was still open but no, nothing.
ok, you remember Spin. So you probably remember the old fun vibe, not the second seedy 5am last call meat market. And of course 45. Keep walking and at the corner of Roosevelt in a basement was pretty big techno club run by a seedy gangster called Peter. Do you remember the name of that place?
