Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.06.2013, Síða 23

Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.06.2013, Síða 23
people, patrons of the arts, writers, poets, suits. Holt is kind on the eyes. As you sip on your excellent drink, you're surrounded by the brilliance of Kjarval as well as other Icelandic masters of the visual arts. So the Gallery Bar really delivers. A hardboiled hangout for every aficionado of cool. – SKK Glaumbar Tryggvagata 20 Glaumbar is technically a sports bar, but looks and feels more like a ship’s converted poop deck. There’s a centre bar with dimly lit seating around the periphery that makes it easy for anyone to snuggle up to you when you aren’t asking for it. The two of you then have the privilege of watching the very to absurdly drunk groove in the small dance area near the bow. Glaumbar is not a place one goes to see and be seen. If someone really understands the bar scene in Reykjavík, he or she will go to get a cheap beer and get the hell out. 350 800 N/A Almost exclusively DJ remixes of other, already heavily auto-tuned, sexually-charged tunes. Young (20s-30s). Dudes, Wall Street weekend party boys, university students, 101 rats, middle-aged fellas busting out the old pick up lines, people trying to watch the damn match!, grown men who get competitive about foosball, Julian Assange, and anyone looking for one of the cheapest beers in town. There’s a crowd-pleasing foosball table, pinball machine, grimy bathrooms, and very cheap beer (the same price as a Reykjavík bus ticket). All dudes on the poop deck! – SS Harlem Tryggvagata 22 Harlem's walls are essentially a permanent exhibition of some of the best contemporary Icelandic artists. Fittingly, young artists and art students make up a considerable chunk of the crowd. They engage in intensive table dancing, pouring beer on the floor, breaking glass and feeling like sardines. There are some good deals at the bar in the early evening but things don't pick up till well after 1:00 AM. 750 1200 1050 House music, R&B, hip-hop and poppier party and rock music can all be heard depending on who's behind the decks. Young (20s-30s). Young artists, art students, university students, musicians, tourists, expats, graphic designers, cultural professionals. They have a foosball table and crazy paintings on the walls. Cute, arty kids dancing on elevated surfaces. – AB Hemmi og Valdi Laugavegur 21 Even though it’s pretty empty at this point in the evening, Hemmi og Valdi never feels lonely. Perhaps that’s because its wooden walls breathe sweat generated by pan-faced, body-jerking hipsters. Although the seating is uncomfortable it’s a good place for chatting, that is, until it becomes an over-crowded cesspit of skinny people wearing baseball caps listening to electronic (whatever that means) music. Then the smoking area is quite nice, being as it is to the side of the building. 750 1000 980 It's a live music bar with lots of DJ sets and occasional bands with instruments. Grapevine Grassroots is a combination of music and performance art that is usually a good laugh. Young (20s-30s). 101 rats; artsy fartsters, musicians. They have a toilet that is big and gross with no mirror and a toilet that is small and gross with a tiny mirror. There’s a smoking area with seats. Hemmi og Valdi is a combination of flaws that make it feel local and homely. – AG Hótel 101 Bar Hverfisgata 10 This place is pretentious and it takes you up to 25 minutes to order a beer. 950 1350 1290 80s Soft Rock. Older (40+). Business people, bankers. You can't order a drink from the bar. A pretentious and un-cosy hotel bar. – OD Hressingarskálinn (Hressó) Austurstræti 20 The bar recently underwent a bit of a facelift with snazzy colourful cushions replacing worn leather booths. There are plenty of seats here during the day, but they clear half of them out on late weekend nights. The place is refreshingly free of pretentious young things parading their new indoor sunglasses and it's not a bad choice if you're a person looking to meet a young, attractive gal, perhaps showing a little bit too much cleavage so long as you are willing to overlook that she isn't the most engaging conversationalist. The same goes for the people looking to meet young, buff men in low-cut t-shirts, so long as you don't mind that they seem to bathe in cologne. 890 1100 1090 Expect troubadours, cover bands or live pub rock for the first half of the night and Euro-techno, hip- hop and Eurovision classics for the latter half. Young (20s-30s). By day, a very mixed crowd—tourists, university students, professionals, bums, grandparents, teens on a comedown, Grapevine staff. At night, your basic Icelander— The Real Iceland, suburbanites, out-of-towners, fishermen, the tribal-tattooed brigade, average Joes, average Janes, floozies, students, single mothers on an odd night out, people on stag nights and hen nights. They have a large outdoor area in the back which is great in the summer and is sometimes used to host special events. They also feature a covered, heated-up smoking area (which is fucking awesome). The place is generally quite roomy, pretty clean and not too grimy (although that changes as the night goes on). A place to go when you're in high spirits and valuing romantic conquest over good music. – RE Kaffibarinn Bergstaðastræti 1 A cosy pub and coffee house by day, Kaffibarinn by night transforms into the Reykjavík party that never ends. Its steamy windows vibrate with pounding music from midweek through the weekend, when there's often a queue after midnight. At that point, the atmospheric main bar area becomes a packed dance floor, beyond which there's a crowded backroom, a smoking yard, and a second floor for overspill. As well as the assembled best and brightest of 101, the reputation of the place attracts its fair share of suits and celebrities, drunks and oddballs. You could be standing next to anyone. 750 1150 800 Peak-time DJs tend towards the Pitchfork end of dubstep, electro and house in recent times. There are various DJs most nights, and in the daytime you can expect current sounds like Wild Nothing, Ariel Pink, or whatever the bar staff are into. Young (20s-30s) 101 rats, grizzly regulars, legends, dancing queens, the bright and the beautiful, hipster locals, dressed-up tourists, fresh-faced up 'n' comers, artists, writers, Icelandic pop stars, bohemians, seen-it-all cynics, professional drinkers, musicians, old-timers, wastoids, scene royalty, wide- eyed Íslandophiles. Kaffibarinn is an iconic kind of joint: atmospheric, careworn and dark, with maroon wooden walls, cosy seating, candlelight, corners to hide in, free wi-fi, free waffles on Sundays, and something good happening most nights. A Reykjavík institution—amidst an ever-changing array of local clubs and bars, Kaffibarinn remains the evergreen centre of the city's nightlife. – JR Kaffi Sólon Vegamótastígur 4 Kaffi Sólon is an upscale establishment that still maintains a laidback, casual, and comfortable aura, as long as you keep it classy. It’s more of a restaurant than a bar, but like every other restaurant, coffee shop, bookstore, church, gas station, and house in Reykjavik, it transforms into a bar on Friday and Saturday nights. 750 2100 990 A little Sinatra, a little misc. soft jazz, never unpleasant. Older (40+) People who go to meetings, well- behaved tourists, the engaged couple having that awkward dinner with the stoic father-in-law. It has a high, beautiful ceiling (look up), tables lit by pretty candles, decorated with expensive art that’s also for sale. Go to Prikið to get a hook up, go to Kaffi Sólon to go on a date (maybe with a person, maybe just with the food). – SS Kaldi Laugarvegur 20b Chilled and friendly bar that is perfect to start the evening at. 1000 1100 1100 Ambitious electro-pop. Young (20s-30s). Trendy graduate students. Freshly brewed beer. It's perfect for beer lovers. – ÓD KEX Hostel Skúlagata 28 KEX is a hostel, and feels like a hostel. This sounds awful, but isn't. The tourists are young, hot, and mostly pleasant, and the bar is quickly becoming a favourite amongst locals as well. The bar is spacious and filled with cool vintage knick-knacks, including old sewing tables. The décor and ambiance are cool but you won't feel like you're in Williamsburg, which is my biggest fear in basically any city. KEX isn't just a good bar because it's one of relatively few choices in a relatively tiny city; it would be a good bar in any city, but has a dreamy view of the sea that is truly Reykjavík. 950 1100 800 The music is very quiet if there isn't a live band, and seems to be mostly country and folk. Young (20s-30s). Girls with bangs (about 50% are tourists), dudes with beards (about 50% are tourists), old guys who look like they're into critical theory and BDSM (about 50% are tourists). KEX has a menu of affordable treats, including full meals that are too good to be fairly called "bar food." I would have sex with at least 65% of the people in KEX and would drink there even if this figure were much lower. – AS KiKi Laugavegur 22 Kiki feels very exclusive because it's small, up a dark flight of stairs, and only open two nights a week (Friday and Saturday). The loud music and intimate atmosphere is conducive to dancing, mingling, and maybe taking somebody home, but the place never quite fills up, thus never quite reaches its full potential. The drink prices are exceptionally high, which might be because Kiki, the only gay club in town at the moment, has no competition. 900 2000 2000 Very loud and consistently up- beat pop. Young (20s-30s) Cute middle aged gay couples, folks from LGBTQ tour groups, young guys who've just come out, people who don't know it’s a gay bar, women. It’s Reykjavík's only gay club, so it’s got that going for it. They've got that painted rainbow behind the bar! – SS Kaffi Zimsen Hafnarstræti 18 At the time of arrival, a young crowd has filled the dance floor, dancing stylishly to Beyoncé songs crossfading into each other. One mainstream beat gives way to the next, and a fresh batch of just 20 somethings make out furiously. Excited youths come in waves, hoping to get lucky. Do not show up before 1:00 AM unless you are desperate for a heart to heart with staff members. 850 1100 900 Zimsen plays ultra-mainstream music as if it were hip, and they play it very loudly. If you can’t dance to it, and haven’t heard it on at least five different radio stations, you won’t hear it at Zimsen. DJs freshen the place up during the week, but you will get exactly the music you expect during the weekends. Young (20-30s). Barely legal teenagers who stay up all night to get lucky, professional dancers, people who wish they were professional dancers, well-dressed knobs who desperately want to prove themselves, kids so young they make anyone from the ‘80s feel fossilised. It features a large dance floor filled with kids who’ve all put on their best threads in the hopes of impressing. There is a quiet corner where you might be able to attempt conversation with your newly found date. The relentless pursuit of predictable, enjoyable hedonism. – TGB Kofi Tómasar Frænda (Kofinn) Laugavegur 2 What is a completely unassuming daytime coffee shop and eatery turns into a sloppy, top-40 remix, off-beat thrusting and fist pumping disaster in the night-time. I can't tell who is local and who is a tourist because everyone is wearing a Gore-Tex jacket, but their pants look like they're from Dressman. 900 1000 1000 Overly dedicated DJs who take uptempoing "Gangam Style" and "Get Lucky" way too seriously. Too young (under 20) Mainstream enthusiasts who are really into Beyoncé remixes, teenagers, middle-aged questionable tourists, guys who wear unbuttoned polo shirts without a coat, one guy dressed head to toe in Jamaican flag colours, the entire morning staff from Hressó! They serve sushi from the restaurant upstairs, Sakebarinn, and have Víking's special Sumaröl (“Summer beer”) on tap. I've made a huge mistake. – RL Kolabrautin Austurbakki 2 While Kolabrautin is a prestigious fine-dining restaurant on the top floor of Harpa, its cocktail bar seems to be a neglected child of the fancy resto. What used to be the go-to spot to get a marvellously composed cocktail is now nothing but an unattended reminder of what once was—dirty tables, crappy service and bad cocktails. 900 1300 1100 Lounge-ish background beat. 23 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 7 — 2013THE GRAPEVINE'S BIG-ASS BAR GUIDE 2013

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