I was at “the Tavern” off Keelung Rd. the other day on the night of a soccer match. I was standing at the bar ordering a drink when a short guy in his mid-fifties walks up to me and says, “You’ve got a problem. You’ve got a big head and it’s in the wrong place.” After looking around and realizing that he meant I was blocking people’s view of the screen I mumbled a flustered “sorry,” and then stewed in my various thoughts about all the things I should have said. :x
After I got my drinks and sat down. I noticed that the guy wasn’t even around anymore. A little while later, however, I saw him come back over, grab a remote control from behind the bar and start fiddling with it (ironically, while standing betwixt me and the screen).
At that point I realized he looked familiar and I pulled out the ad that I had ripped out of the Taipei Times. Sure enough it was the owner. Needless to say that drink there was my last.
As soon as he introduced the faux bronze statue with the beer coming out of its nipples - I, and the very cool staff that used to work there - never came back.
Yeah, there’s no love lost between me and Michel (the proprietor) either. Last Christmas, we had arranged to have our office Christmas party there as we had had a great one there the year before. Decent food, open bar, etc. My boss wanted to make the same arrangements again this year, and paid to have the whole place to ourselves, as we had the previous year.
Michel asked if it would be ok to have a small group (he said 5 or 6) of regulars there until 8:00 pm at the very latest - apparently he had already promised them that they could come. Well, of course my boss said that that would not be a problem. Well, it was a problem. There were outside people there the whole night - lots of them. They were arguing with our company employees about usage of the pool table, eating our food, drinking at our company’s expense, and sitting at our tables. Remember, we had paid to have the place to ourselves! At one point when a whole new group of people came in at about 10:00, I approached Michel and told him that there were outsiders crashing the party, he says “I know, isn’t it great?” What a wanker. He may have made a few extra thousand NT dollars that night by opening the doors to the public, but he lost a lot of respect. I won’t ever spend money there again. :fume:
not been to the tavern for a while but went in there last week and the flamboyant owner told me about their decoration plans with flat tv screens, first class seatings and how much disappointed he was about us south africans…etc. with beer coming out of his ears. i then received an invitiation and made it to the tavern wednesday night and my god it was all there, tv on every bar seat, crystal clear screens absolutely everywhere and hardly any annoying beer signs. food buffet they had for 350 nt better than the hyatt and me and my mates enjoyed finally watching what we want. michelle was even nice and a guy working for the train project said that a new wife of michele made all the difference and that he changed now that his divorce was over. think they put something like 5million into the place or something. very impressed! gerard
Interesting how the owner could come up with that sort of cash for new TVs and stuff. Let me guess, he puts every dime back into the place because he is only running it to serve the people.
And check out the write-up in today’s TT – “keeping the English teachers out [of the Tavern], which is a good thing.”
Guess he doesn’t realise that many of the members of the two football teams he sponsors are teachers.
What a moron.
Not just a moron, he’s an
obnoxious little man
. :raspberry: I absolutely refuse to spend my money at O’Ginny’s or The Tavern, and it ain’t got nothing to do with new competition. If those were the only pubs in town, I guess I’d have to start homebrewing. :fume:
I’ve contemplated this very same question with respect to other substandard establishments and there are are only two possible explanations.
People enjoy being shat on.
People are idiots.
I think the 2nd explanation is more probable, though the two explanations are not mutually exclusive and the 1st explanation can be incoprporated into the 2nd.
It stands to reason that if the owner is an obnoxious prick; as many have attested to, then other obnoxious pricks would enjoy the atmosphere and service that said “prick” provides, and naturally converge here. Now, if that establishment and other establishments that offer lousy sevice, value and atmosphere do a thriving business, we are left with no option but to conclude that, indeed, the majority of people everywhere are idiots. Simple math, my friend.
We have a good old-fashioned slag-fest going here. Don’t stop now.
Well Michel cannot claim to have taste. Has anyone seen what he did with O’Ginny’s. Nice walnut veneer wallpaper. Can we cover the whole restaurant with it? I am surprised that it is not on the ceiling and floor as well that would be even classier wouldn’t it?
Anyway, the only memories I have are the rotten local pink hot dogs cut into flower shapes (yuck) or flared at the ends whatever style that is?! the awful cocunut rolled shrimp, but I did have a good steak and gravy there one night.
He strikes me as being very mercenary. If you can give him something, he is polite in an oily, unctuous way. When he has what he wants, then he is high-handed. When it came to organizing a function at one of his places, he could not bow and scrape low enough to me. When I ran into him at a bar with the rugby team, he could not even be bothered to give a glance in my direction. Fine.
Very defensive too. When he genuinely asked about the food, I told him and he got very offended so I backed down immediately. When he asks, he wants you to tell him how good it is. He does not really want to know. So … “everything was great.” Thanks for asking.
As to how he stays in business, look at Papa Giovanni’s. That owner and his younger brother are psychopaths and they are still in business. I have never been as offended at any bar, restaurant or hotel as Papa Giovanni’s. Local restaurants can infuriate by being incompetent. This was full on aggressive in your face nastiness. Michel is not psychopathic, he is just a user and wants to make money YOURS. It’s up to you to go back or not.
I like the quote about since a little monkey business opened up downtown. Haha Wonder if Momphard means THE BRASS MONKEY?!
I also think the owner is F**king As*hole! I met him twice and he had such an attitude. I really hate the guy.
He also is prejudice against Americans and he treats his Philipino staff like crap.
I have the email distribution list of all of his customers that signed up to receive email from his restaurant about upcoming events if anyone wants it. He sent it out by mistake once.
Also, if you want to open a bar to compete with him, I know he uses the Satgo.com.tw satellite systems only NT$30,000 per year I asked him a long time ago where he got his satellite system from as I wanted satellite in my house. He wouldn’t tell me. He must have thought I would compete with him. Nevermind, I found them on my own.
By the way, maybe some of his workers are illegal and someone could bust him. Have to check that out. Also, I bet he doesn’t pay tax. Does he give a fa piao?
Anyway, that comment about English teachers really pissed me off, and I am not even an English teacher.
My advice is to leave him alone. Too many others involved, the Filipino staff etc.
We all know that his place sucks. I personally do not like him and he has never really done anything wrong to me. He just has like you said an attitude.
Business will go where people are happy and feel welcome. If we do not, then others may not. This can only last for a while before… they go to the Brass Monkey? or another sports bar? Then what can he say? How could you desert me?
I know that posting on Tealit is gauche, but maybe just this once some of you should cross-post there. Just to get the message to Mr. Blanc’s preferred market segment.
Wow this dude must have some real bad karma. He must have been a legislator in his previous life.
Ah, so what. Just avoid patronizing his establishments. Believe me, I have dealt with him several times and he is high-handed and says he does not care about the English teachers because they deserted him first and he probably feels hurt. This is just bravado. Think junior high school. Fine you won’t let me play with you, I never liked you in the first place.
If you think Michel is bad, then I want you to go to Papa Giovanni’s, come out alive and then post on this forum. Anyone ever eat at PGs?
Fret not, because if he can afford to spend NT$1.5m on TVs, then a Kaohsiung branch is not unlikely in the near future. [/quote]
I will save that review just in case that dipshit does open a place in Kaohsiung. I will blacklist him so fast it makes my **** hard just thinking about it.
:fume:
gerard
