Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.06.2014, Blaðsíða 22

22 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 07 — 2014
MAHLER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
4 DAYS. 9 CONCERTS. 13–16 JUNE IN HARPA.
AND PEKKA KUUSISTO. JUNE 15TH IN HARPA
GRAMMY AWARD WINNING
"The World ś Best Orchestra" Le Monde.
Bravó
Laugavegur 22
Bravó is your regular, run-of-the-mill bar
that serves decent drinks and doesn't try
to be anything that it's not. The bar plays
good music at a comfortable volume that
allows for conversation, and provides
good seating options even during
late night, when most other bars have
removed their tables to make room for
a dancefloor. Bravó is probably the best
standard bar on Laugavegur.

900 1400 1000

DJs play all kinds of different music
every night, except Mondays.

Young (20-30s).
There's often spillover from next
door bar Kíkí when the dancing
crowd needs a break, but on the
whole, the bar doesn't pander to a
particular crowd.
A good selection of board games is
on offer.
On the whole, it's a very nice
addition to the bar scene: a bar that
doesn't do anything other than
provide good drinks at a fair price.
– RJH
Bunk Bar
Laugavegur 28
Bunk Bar is part of the Reykjavík
Backpackers hostel. The mood is
international, chic but still very laid
back. They offer finger food and a fresh
selection of cocktails, which are mostly
classic with a hipster-twist. A lot of
cucumbers, Hendricks and Fernet Branca.

900 1800 1100

The iPod playlists feature
everything that's currently hot in
the music world, from Jay-Z to
Swedish House Mafia. The tunes
are very mainstream, with the aim
of pleasing everyone.

Young (20-30s).
Couch surfers, backpackers,
tourists, sport-fans, youngsters,
hipsters.
The large smoking area is quite
nice early in the evening, for
chatting and smoking.
Bunk Bar is a hostel bar for hipsters,
jocks and misfits alike. – SKK
Café Haiti
Geirsgata 7b / Verbúð 2
This breezy cafe in the heart of the
Old Harbor is quiet and relaxed. The
menu and decor bring Haiti and Iceland
together, and the staff is friendly. We
imagine the midday breeziness we felt
during our visit would be the same later
in the evening, just with less espresso
machine sounds, and more clanking beer
glasses.

950 1050 980

Current heavy-rotation pop, R & B
and hip hop hits on the radio

Older (40+)
Older men in small groups, dads
with babies, 30-somethings on
laptops, tourists
A nice terrace that's great on warm,
sunny days.
A casual, laid-back cafe excellent for
a slow drink of any kind, anytime of
the day or night. – AT
Café París
Austurstræti 14
Loud conversations and bar sounds.
And, it's so red...We think they want us
to feel like we're actually in Paris, but
then we see those hostel-types and are
transported far, far away from France
entirely.

750 1200 950

Low hum of chill-out beats, or is
that the air conditioning?

Young (20-30s).
Hostel-type 20-somethings,
girlfriends, small groups, moms,
walk-in tourists
A nice terrace that's great on warm,
sunny days.
This is the reddest bar in all of
Reykjavík. – AT
Café Rosenberg
Klapparstígur 25
Café Rosenberg is Reykjavík's home for
folk, blues and jazz music, at all times
featuring a packed schedule of top-tier
musicians and singer-songwriters. There
are several beers and wines on offer,
but one’s experience is primarily shaped
by the artists performing. Some nights,
it is entirely appropriate to chat with
your friends,while on others people will
shush you for sneezing. When we visited,
popular acoustic-folk-punk band Ljótu
Hálfvitarnir had the crowd riled up and
singing along.

900 1350 900

Live acoustic music is the norm,
usually played by some of Iceland’s
finest. If you’re a fan of jazz, blues
and/or folk music, this should be
where you spend every night. Note
that there is an entry fee to most
events.

Older (40+)
Cool cats and their kids, musicians
and their friends, locals
The place reeks of elegance,
without being too clean. Brass and
acoustic instruments hang from
the walls and the interiors are all
wooden.
The hippest place to be for
unplugged music, and quite
possibly the only one where men
can wear bracers and fedoras
unironically. – TGB
Celtic Cross
Hverfisgata 26
This place feels like a dingy old Irish
pub that has scrubbed itself raw but
still can't get rid of the stink. Despite its
initial appearance as a straight-forward,
wood-panelled barfly situation, it is in
fact a pastiche of several compartments
with totally different vibes—the tiny back
room lined with church pews and posters
of Irish writers (this room was formerly
styled as a funeral home with an actual
coffin), a downstairs VIP lounge decked
in leather and purple LEDs, the smoking
patio decked out in half-assed graffiti. It's
got weird vibes all over it.

750 1200 950

Whatever is on the bartender's
Spotify playlist at a reasonable
volume until 22:00, then
unbelievably loud air-raid EDM
and hip hop. They used to have
troubadours every night. Not sure
if this is an improvement.

Too young (under 20)
Barflies, townies, tourists having
one drink only, business bros,
freshly turned 20s, John Waters-
type trash appreciators, unknown
musicians.
Café Ray Liotta: a VIP lounge in the
basement that charges a 40,000
ISK admission fee for mysterious
reasons.
You can scrub all you want, Lady
Macbeth, that stain ain't comin' out.
– RX
Crystal
Ármúli 7
Crystal is nestled outside of 101
Reykjavík, close to a slew of large hotels
such as the Nordica Hilton. Upon entry,
several women in risqué clothes that
latched themselves onto our group and
started flirting with us. They suggested
we buy them drinks and join them in the
VIP area, where we would chat and dance
privately, for a price. When we confessed
we were reporters, they scattered to the
four winds and wanted nothing to do
with us.

1000 N/A 6000

The music was uninspired, exactly
what you’d hear on the radio, and
the sound quality left a lot to be
desired.

Older (40+)
The pale, male and stale; rich
travellers, older men, women that
are paid to be there
The bar was adorned with wide
benches, low-key lighting and a VIP
area, which consists of two small
rooms with armchairs and mirrors.
Access to this area costs 1,000
ISK per minute, with a ten-minute
minimum. They also have a really
expensive list of champagnes,
ranging from 6,000 for the house
champagne to 305,000 ISK for a
750ml bottle of Louis Roedore
Crystal..
The beer was expensive, the music
was tacky, the lighting was cheesy,
women had to be paid to be there
and the bartender said nobody had
ever asked him if he could make a
cocktail. – TGB
Den Danske Kro
Ingólfsstræti 3
This Danish-themed bar sports fittingly
over-used tables and almost- broken
chairs in a small dimly-lit environment.
The vibe ensures you can feel like part of
the group while sitting by yourself, except
when you're forced to try your hardest to
ignore the troubadour and his admirers.

850 1400 850

Generic pop-rock and then all the
hits played by troubadours.

Older (40+)
The age of the guests depends on
when you visit: earlier in the day
younger professionals go there
for a cheap beer after work, in the
evening the place fills up with older
people.
A few patrons tell us that Den
Danske Kro has the best or second
best Guinness draft in town. They
also have a darts table and a great
big patio for smoking.
Perfect for those too cynical or
“tasteful” to endure the full-blown
troubadour mayhem you at English
Pub. – JL
Dillon Whiskey Bar
Laugavegur 30
All bark and no bite, this rock bar is thinks
it's really tough but it's mostly just a
sweet and simple place. The vibe is a
lot like the décor—stripped down to the
floorboards, beams and rafters exposed,
everything else is purely functional. It
feels particular primal and raw, only
enhanced by the kind of music that
gets played. The place has also seen a
tremendous improvement in recent times
since a renovation massively improved
the PA system, the bathrooms and the
overall hygiene of the place.

990
1300 1200

Rock and metal, simple as that. At
zero they're playing Bob Dylan, at
eleven they're playing Slayer. AC/
DC guaranteed at least twice a
night. There are live shows upstairs
every weekend.

Older (40+)
Metal heads, rock stars, lonely
punks, aging losers, young dorks,
lapsed goths, everyone associated
with Eistnaflug, Atli Stones,
whiskey enthusiasts, Manic Panic
addicts, tragic old drunks who try
to trip women to get their attention.
An impressive selection of whisky
(or whiskey, as their sign insists),
Scotch, Irish, rye and bourbon, and
an extensive cocktail menu based
on them.
For those about to rock. – RX
Dolly
Hafnarstræti 4
The lights are always low and the
music always loud at Dolly—not
just after midnight on Fridays and
Saturdays, when it fills to capacity
with the high-heels-and-trainers
crowd. But the room (mismatched
old furniture, spectacularly ugly
textured wallpaper, the perpetually
mysterious stained-glass window
with a view to nothing) makes for a
funky, lounge-y atmosphere at all
hours.

700 1350 1000

Dolly's DJs spin house mixed
with hip hop, slanting towards
well-known floor-fillers as the
night progresses.

Young (20s - 30s)
Guys dressed in track jackets
designed to lead you to believe
they're graffiti artists; girls
dressed entirely in fringe; girls
dressed exactly like Winona
Ryder circa "Reality Bites"
(WHAT UP); guys and girls alike
dressed in skin-tight acid-
washed jeans.
A photo of the establishment's
patron saint (Parton saint?)
guards the bar, and the most
comically muscular bouncer in
101 graces the front door.
It's like the woman says: "And
Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii will always love
[this bar]." – MCA
Einar Ben
Veltusund 1
Einar Ben is a spacious pub, with
dark wood, trefoil-patterned maroon
carpets, walls lined with comfy
leather sofas, and lots of gold paint. I
feel like I've been transplanted into a
central London boozer.

800 1250 1250

The greatest hits of Icelandic
elevator muzak.

Young (20s - 30s)
Actually, not a single other