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Bianca and I we were walking home from dinner at a friend's place the other night -- which we see as one of the great perks of living in the city in a walkable neighborhood -- and we stumbled upon a new bar in Koreatown on Bloor Street. Neither of us had heard of the place before, but there was loud electronic music emanating from the building and an obscene amount of neon-like lights inside, and so naturally we decided to investigate it further.
We immediately crossed the street, walked inside, and found this:
This, it turns out, is a cyberpunk-themed bar called Zui Beer Bar. They have another location at Yonge & Finch, which is arguably now a bigger Koreatown than our older one here on Bloor, and so this is their latest location. It only opened a few weeks ago.
They serve asian street food (which we didn't try since we were full from a wonderful dinner). They're also very obviously trying to create a fun party vibe. On every table is a light. The QR code is how you order things. But there's also the option of alternating the light between yellow and purple. Yellow means you want to be left alone. And purple means, "come join our table." It's a bit like the Grizzly House in Banff where every table has a phone and making cold calls is encouraged.
It's the kind of bar and restaurant that will transport you into a different world. I was imaging that we were in a John Wick movie discussing some sinister plot. And at some point, we were going to get up, tug on one of the infinity neon art pieces, and then be led down a secret passage to people of questionable moral fiber. That never happened, but we loved the music and we loved that the owners just went for it.
At the very least, it will make you feel like you're in some futuristic Asian city. The kind that would have LED dragons animating across their downtown office towers.
Full disclosure: I've never really been to Las Vegas.
I say "really" because I did pass through it as a kid. But I've never been during a time in my life when I could actually remember it and, to be honest, I've never had a huge desire. Though, I was interested in the work that Tony Hsieh was doing in downtown Vegas. And I have had people try to tempt me with the lure of good electronic music (and by good I mean not EDM).
Then all of a sudden, Refik Anadol revealed this enormous sphere that shows happy faces. And now I really want to go to Vegas. So at some point, I will endeavor to do that. But the other thought that came to mind when I first learned about the sphere was "this seems to be working, which means other cities will likely copy it and want their own version of Vegas' sphere."
This is, of course, an understandable desire. And today I learned that Los Angeles is working on a "tiny Las Vegas sphere replica" for Sunset Boulevard. Despite being "tiny", I'm sure it'll be pretty cool too. But in the end, who wants to be a replica? The aim should never be to recreate some version of what another city has already done (see "Two very different beans").
The aim should be to create something new and truly remarkable. And Las Vegas did exactly that with its sphere. So much so that, one day, I may actually visit the place.
Bianca and I we were walking home from dinner at a friend's place the other night -- which we see as one of the great perks of living in the city in a walkable neighborhood -- and we stumbled upon a new bar in Koreatown on Bloor Street. Neither of us had heard of the place before, but there was loud electronic music emanating from the building and an obscene amount of neon-like lights inside, and so naturally we decided to investigate it further.
We immediately crossed the street, walked inside, and found this:
This, it turns out, is a cyberpunk-themed bar called Zui Beer Bar. They have another location at Yonge & Finch, which is arguably now a bigger Koreatown than our older one here on Bloor, and so this is their latest location. It only opened a few weeks ago.
They serve asian street food (which we didn't try since we were full from a wonderful dinner). They're also very obviously trying to create a fun party vibe. On every table is a light. The QR code is how you order things. But there's also the option of alternating the light between yellow and purple. Yellow means you want to be left alone. And purple means, "come join our table." It's a bit like the Grizzly House in Banff where every table has a phone and making cold calls is encouraged.
It's the kind of bar and restaurant that will transport you into a different world. I was imaging that we were in a John Wick movie discussing some sinister plot. And at some point, we were going to get up, tug on one of the infinity neon art pieces, and then be led down a secret passage to people of questionable moral fiber. That never happened, but we loved the music and we loved that the owners just went for it.
At the very least, it will make you feel like you're in some futuristic Asian city. The kind that would have LED dragons animating across their downtown office towers.
Full disclosure: I've never really been to Las Vegas.
I say "really" because I did pass through it as a kid. But I've never been during a time in my life when I could actually remember it and, to be honest, I've never had a huge desire. Though, I was interested in the work that Tony Hsieh was doing in downtown Vegas. And I have had people try to tempt me with the lure of good electronic music (and by good I mean not EDM).
Then all of a sudden, Refik Anadol revealed this enormous sphere that shows happy faces. And now I really want to go to Vegas. So at some point, I will endeavor to do that. But the other thought that came to mind when I first learned about the sphere was "this seems to be working, which means other cities will likely copy it and want their own version of Vegas' sphere."
This is, of course, an understandable desire. And today I learned that Los Angeles is working on a "tiny Las Vegas sphere replica" for Sunset Boulevard. Despite being "tiny", I'm sure it'll be pretty cool too. But in the end, who wants to be a replica? The aim should never be to recreate some version of what another city has already done (see "Two very different beans").
The aim should be to create something new and truly remarkable. And Las Vegas did exactly that with its sphere. So much so that, one day, I may actually visit the place.
This past Monday, I got together with David Wex (of Urban Capital) and Rick Sole (my business partner) for a night of DJ'ing electronic music. We called it our inaugural developer rave session and it was a ton of fun. I (mostly) had no idea what I was doing. Rick and David were great. And together, we played to a sold out crowd that consisted of two of our wives.
David was also kind enough to host us at his bar Lisbon Hotel (it's closed on Mondays). Which is why when I posted some of the above photos on X, Affan Imran asked if we are calling ourselves the Lisbon House Mafia. I thought that was pretty good. And since I'm still in search of a proper DJ name, that's the title of today's post.
Maybe when we do this again, we'll open it up to more than 2 people. Maybe.
This past Monday, I got together with David Wex (of Urban Capital) and Rick Sole (my business partner) for a night of DJ'ing electronic music. We called it our inaugural developer rave session and it was a ton of fun. I (mostly) had no idea what I was doing. Rick and David were great. And together, we played to a sold out crowd that consisted of two of our wives.
David was also kind enough to host us at his bar Lisbon Hotel (it's closed on Mondays). Which is why when I posted some of the above photos on X, Affan Imran asked if we are calling ourselves the Lisbon House Mafia. I thought that was pretty good. And since I'm still in search of a proper DJ name, that's the title of today's post.
Maybe when we do this again, we'll open it up to more than 2 people. Maybe.
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