Thursday, May 31, 2007
It is true to say that Boca Chica’s commercial activities took rather a beating just over two years ago when, in one short period and for different dubious reasons, the mainstays of night time watering holes, in the Duarte main street, were closed. Those of you who are regular Boca Chica visitors will probably recall their names at the time: ‘Cosmos Disco’ ‘Zanzi Bar’, ‘Madhouse’, ‘Route 66’, ‘La Criolla’ and ‘Bar Austria’.
The good news for night-life lovers is that each of these establishments is well and truly up and running again, though be it nearly all under different names and the greater part under different management. The only exception to that rule is ‘La Criolla’ which carries on under its original name, now from time to time also offering live music performances, under precisely the same management. The newly revamped Cosmos Disco and Zanzi Bar are now under the common roof of ‘Ambaradan- Disco Bar’, whereas Madhouse re-opened its shutters as ‘Liquer Store’. Route 66, including the distinctive Route 66 gas pump, disappeared and currently goes by the name of ‘Piano Plaza’ – ‘Discoteca Germandi’. Apart from La Criolla arguably the one that has maintained closest form with its past is Bar Austria which has merely transferred half its name across the Alps; now named ‘Dominican-Suiza Bar’.
However, a quick review of our main street indicates that in addition to these mainstays Boca Chica night life has rarely been served by quite so many bars at the same time. New to the territory since that low point a couple of years ago is ‘American Bar’ located inside the Hotel Europa, ‘Colmado Belli’ found directly opposite Liquer Store and ‘Comedor Alleman’ which is a drinking establishment in the very premises of that former server of sweet-toothed puddings, namely the ‘Nestle’ ice-cream parlor. Don’t worry though… if you have a craving for ice-cream, and are not up to running after the mobile ice-cream vendor wandering around town, the Dominican produced “Bon” franchise serves ice-cream further along the street and its branding definitely undersells itself for it is considerably better than its name states… quite “Excellent” in fact.
Discotheques seem to be experiencing a similar upward trend to the Bars, even if some of them are on somewhat less certain ground! At that low point back in early 2005 there were only two discotheques to be counted in central Boca Chica; that of the ever present ‘Hamaca Hotel’ and one in the ‘Hotel Burbuja’. At point of writing we can actually count four plus one waiting in the pending tray. The three solid operators are those at the ex-Route 66, the ex-Cosmos and the Hamaca. In addition to that we hear that the Burbuja now under the name of ‘El Greco’ is waiting the granting of permits to re-open as both a hotel and a discotheque. That just leaves the currently named ‘Disco Terraza’ on the beach, which in ironic contrast to the ex-Burbuja seems to be less interested in annoying little things like permits… that might be something to do with a whole row of law-defying predecessors being abruptly closed down who had to learn the hard way that an open-air discotheque is not actually permittable according to Dominican law! Anyway, we hope you can make it soon to try or re-try the assortment offered… and don’t forget that Playa Vista and the Playa Vista Beach area is the perfect place to relax the next day if at any point you should overdo things in the bars and discotheques the night before!
Posted by Playa Vista @ 02:33 PM CST
Sunday, May 13, 2007
We try to allow a certain latitude culturally for our guests when we can, and we were pleased to be able to accommodate that specific claim again the other day. British cuisine may be famous for all the wrong reasons, but it is certainly not so well known that British people can be very partial to an after meal dessert or "pudding" as is commonly used in the vernacular of that country.
Well, we had a visitor from those sweet-toothed isles on the beach enjoying the sun, sea and sand in front of Playa Vista and as he ever so politely requested -if in anyway an ice-cream might be possible to follow his chicken and French fries and if it were to be possible then preferably just vanilla and certainly not chocolate- we naturally wanted to oblige. Just to hedge our bets, we mumbled that he should know that this really isn't a dessert-eating culture even though we were fairly confident we would be able to get some kind of ice-cream on a stick from next door. A few strides later in our neighbor's direction and we were met with shrugged shoulders, "No, we don't sell ice-cream anymore, sorry". All right then we thought, off to the Nestle ice-cream parlor in the main street not so very far away because after all the customer was ever so polite!
We turned the corner only to find a rather quaint tricycle with a very, actually rather cute, mini-generator attached, selling soft ice-cream on a mobile basis. Might have been perfect but there were people waiting to be served and we could have with almost certainty bet the full value of the sole 500 pesos note we had that he would not have change. So we thought we would carry on to the sure-fired cert at Nestle! Hmmm, 150 yards later it was obvious that the Nestle parlor, though still having the same facade, had been converted into something else that frankly did not sell anything sweet-toothed at all let alone ice-cream anymore. We had no idea that our warning to our sweet-toothed guest was to be so apt, it was proving to be quite a desert for desserts. With the never-say-die attitude to the fore we thought we would just whip back to Playa Vista pick up some change and go stand in line for the mobile ice-cream seller.
Yes, we said mobile... when we got there he had gone. We don't give up that easy though and following a few appropriate questions, like: "Where the hell has the ice cream seller gone?" Helpful fingers pointed in the direction he had motored. Now things began to roll the way we all wanted. We caught up with him easily and he was waiting without any line of people as if just for us! The seller only had vanilla, not a hint of chocolate in sight and the price was even right too at less than a dollar for a scoop on a cone.
Just one little hurdle to be surmounted. We discovered that the bright Caribbean sunshine might be one of the reasons that ice-cream is not so popular here as other colder parts of the world but, if you look about yourself sharply and run, the melting can be contained.
As we offered the hard-won "pudding" to our guest his cultural make-up instinctively prompted an, "Excellent. Thank you very much." With our self-same mechanisms at work we responded, "It was a pleasure, no trouble at all".
Posted by Playa Vista @ 01:31 PM CST
