Czech Up Yours!

Stickyrice used to be a boozier blog. Beer was never far away in any given post. Many of my street food escapades are punctuated with beer full stops. I do still occasionally put a jug or two away but not with the same frequency. The gut's gotten bigger and the hangover's bite bigger. I'm basically avoiding the amber fluid except where protocol requires it or I'm a stick in the mud if I don't.

A Friday night not so long ago had me sampling a few at the huge Czech beerhouse, Gammebeer, on the dyke road by the Vietcombank building. This enormous green establishment had taken my eye on many a prior rideby. The big barrells out front leave nothing to the imagination. It's a beer lover's paradise, one where gluttony takes over, where a beer lover feels he has divine licence to drink as many huge tankards as possible in a race with his tablemates in as short a period of time as possible. It would be downright wrong not to! Nobody would expect less. No room for moderation at all.

Ugly!

Problem was that the atmosphere inside had a reverse effect on me. My consumption was seriously tempered by the decidedly pesky staff. No jolly beermaids delivering beer here. The Czech connection was manifesting itself in some kind of weird recoil to real communist times where the fun police were alive and well. It seems that at this beerhouse, under this waitress's watch, one is not permitted to move one's beer off the coaster, move one's soy sauce ramekin onto one's plate, clap or cheer too much at the conclusion of the rather karaoke-like entertainment or take too many photographs. Her superior arrived at the table to admonish me at one point. What kind of beerhouse was this?

We called for the bill.

Didn't even have the chance to get ugly!

The Bill

Four people had three beers each and some snacks - 530,000VND (USD$33.40, AUD$36.10)

Gammebeer
198 Tran Quang Khai St
Hanoi

Comments

[Tuan]

Wow, what kind of a beer house is that? Look like it wont be in business for long if they keep up that kind of altitude.

[Shannon]

Hi Sticky Rice,

My name is Shannon and I'm the editorial assistant at Foodbuzz.com. Following up on a recent email invitation to be a part of our newly launched Foodbuzz Featured Publisher program, I just want to reiterate that I am very impressed with the quality of your posts. I would love to send you more details about the program, so if you are interested, please email me at Shannon@foodbuzz.com.

Cheers!

Shannon Eliot
Editorial Assistant, Foodbuzz.com
shannon@foodbuzz.com

[sticky]

They've been there ever since I've been here - 6 years - maybe they were just having a bad night, Tuan.