Lounge Act

Gah. Enough of politics. Let’s talk about beer. A much more attractive subject.

More than anything else, the pursuit of new watering holes is a perpetual struggle. Having covered the jewels, or lack of jewels, around the Port area in my last booze-related post, the Dictator and I decided to break the easy shackles of the Wellawatte run, and try out something new. As it happens, this potential new goodness happened to be in the north Kollupitiya/Slave Island area, which was not really an option for us generally because most of the places were fairly upmarket and frankly, dull.

The White Horse is a handy place but not really one of my favourites. It’s got a reputation as one of the liveliest places around but I find the space is a bit too small, rather too dark, gets smoky and noisy awfully quickly given the influx of company crowd after offices close. I also was not terribly impressed by their bites. A cardinal sin. The upstairs is handy for cracking open a bottle of arrack with a group of friends but there are better places for that too. Like on the beach in Mount Lavinia.

If you swing back behind from the Nawam Mawatha area to Kompannaveediya, there are a couple of boozing options, including the Castle Hotel and the Nippon, though sadly now out of action. Unfortunately, for varying reasons, we haven’t managed to imbibe the atmosphere at these respective bastions for a cheap and cheerful boozing experience. If you swing forward from Nawam Mawatha, you are presented with the Cinnamon Grand and then the Galle Face hotel and the rest of the five star hotels to the north of the city. The Cinnamon Grand is a nice enough hotel but I tend to go there only if I have to. That said, you can’t argue with Cheers for sporting occasions, and I recall watching the Champions League final last year at well past midnight. The Inn on the Green at the Galle Face wins marks for being about the most genuine of all the pubs, especially with Tetley Bitter available on tap, but it’s not the most comfortable and the food is always a tad disappointing. Still, I usually make an appearance there for quiz night. Obviously, you can’t beat the Terrace for an evening drink but it’s not really a booze destination. Anyway, all these places are on the expensive side though you get roughly what it says on the tin.

I had received a flyer on the re-opening of the Holiday Inn bar, which I believe used to be called the Oasis. It has now been re-monikered the New Oasis Lounge. There was suspicion. When faced with the option of going there a couple times, we both decided against it and chose more familiar trappings. This can be the bane of ‘trying out something new’ – you run the risk of it being awful or expensive or too sleazy, and then regret the lack of the safe option of cheapish beer and good quality devilled beef. Eventually, we did make the trek across there. It’s re-monikered but not really refurbished. The furniture and trappings are all still fairly tatty, and you can tell that a complete overhaul wasn’t performed. Nonetheless, there is a large screen and a jukebox. You can’t argue with a jukebox. The music on offer is pretty good, and nothing too awful, with the exception of an acoustic Seal disc that keeps getting picked on random play.

Offending Seal in plain view. Picture from Daily News.lk

The bar is fairly large with the actual bar area towards the right as you enter, offset by a pool table that saw some custom when the Barmy Army invaded the place. The rest of the room is made up of fairly expansive seats and sofas, about eight in all, so it is seats a fair few. A big screen is directly opposite the door, and the speakers for the juke box on either side of the screen. Hence, the best place to sit is squarely in-between the two speakers, and in front of the big screen, behind a wall that shields you from the majority of the bar and the pool table.

Edge of big screen, with speaker

It’s an interesting place, and on the handful of occasions we’ve been, has been frequented by a myriad of motley individuals. On the first evening we took the plunge, there were two men with what’s best described as two local ‘companions’ – let’s put it this way, they were clearly not wives or girlfriends. The two men were boozing heavily and the ladies were draped all over them. It didn’t make for a pleasant picture but at least, there was no excessive necking or such like. Unfortunately or mercifully, I couldn’t really take out me trusty camera and take a picture of this asshattery for posterity. Curiousity will have to be sated by a picture of the sofa where this asshattery did occur, only about 15 minutes before they arrived.

We managed to busy ourselves with the juke box, and tried out the devilled beef, which was satisfactory but not brilliant for the price tag. You can also order from the coffee shop opposite but again, it’s priced in the flashier hotel range, though I suspect that the burger would be fairly reliable.

The next time we went, I swear that the sofa we had occupied the previous week (we were relegated away to its left flank) was the site of some shady business dealings, involving a couple of sketchy looking foreign blokes with suitcases and some local execs. Upon their departure, we swooped in and re-acquired our seating, and watched the highlights of the 1st Test at Asgiriya. On subsequent visits, we were swamped by the Barmy Army who gorged themselves on booze, burger, pool and such fare as Oasis (no pun intended) and tragically, voluntarily chose Seal. The last time we went, there was another curious group of people. I still am not quite sure what was going on there, though it looked decidedly fishy. So the place seemingly provides its own inadvertent entertainment and even if expensive, you can’t argue with decent music considering Clancy’s plays the same soundtrack time after time after time. And it’s effing awful.

And if you’ve just been paid and want to splash out, the German restaurant is just around the corner for a mighty feed. And there, you get exactly what it says on the tin. Quality and quantity. More than can be said for most places.