Brix Singapore

Post by **x9200** » Wed, 19 Dec 2012 4:36 pm

nutnut wrote:Maybe they are fronts for much shadier businesses!?

This thought has occurred to me.

offshoreoildude · Post by **offshoreoildude** » Wed, 19 Dec 2012 4:44 pm

x9200 wrote:
nutnut wrote:Maybe they are fronts for much shadier businesses!?
This thought has occurred to me.

Sergei will be upset.

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Wed, 19 Dec 2012 6:11 pm

x9200 wrote:There are also at least 8 Russian restaurants in Singapore
http://www.hungrygowhere.com/search-res ... ne=Russian

It's kind of surprising as only 3-5 years ago there was only one, at Arab St. Some owners/staff must be Russian. Never have eaten out in any of these places so can not confirm neither food nor nationality.

And strangely enough I have eaten at the one on Arab Street. I can recall who we went with, but I can't say I can remember anything about the food.

The only other Russian restaurant that I recall going to is in London. 'Borshtch N Tears', Beauchamp Place, SW3. (Just along from Harrods). It was an office Xmas lunch and it was a nightmare, an absolute disaster from start to finish. Really. Fawlty Towers had better food and service than that place!

Addadude · Post by **Addadude** » Wed, 19 Dec 2012 6:42 pm

Wasn't there a Russian restaurant in Tanglin Shopping Centre for years and years?

One of the poshest 'business restaurants' in Dublin in the 80's, The Grey Door, also served Russian cuisine.

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Wed, 19 Dec 2012 7:06 pm

Addadude wrote: One of the poshest 'business restaurants' in Dublin in the 80's, The Grey Door, also served Russian cuisine.

That name conjours up mental images of a really fun night out eh? Heavens I wonder why the place closed down?

Post by **x9200** » Wed, 19 Dec 2012 7:08 pm

@Addadude, IIRC, my knowledge was then also hungrygowhere based so could be they were not registered with them yet that time.

Post by **sundaymorningstaple** » Wed, 19 Dec 2012 8:03 pm

The Borshch Steakhouse has been here in Serangoon Gardens since I've been here (e.g., 30 years or so). Eaten there twice, many years apart. The fare is worse now than before. Not sure how they stay open, so there might be some truth about "some" of the business fronts here.

zzm9980 · Post by **zzm9980** » Wed, 19 Dec 2012 9:02 pm

I have to say that in my adult life I've only ever been irrationally frightened at one place I visited: Chocolate, a russian night club in Beijing. Various tables with Russian mobster looking guys watching go-go dancers, and wait-staff that looked like James Bond villains. Yeah, the caucasians working there all looked roughly like this:

And nutnut, I've been to Brix a few times, and I recall decent live jazz/similar bands at least half those times. It's most often Sunday nights when I wind up there (coworkers from US showing up and Hyatt being preferred hotel...), so maybe that has something to do with it.

Ipanema has the same generic filipino cover band as every 'working girl/BMD girl' bar in SE Asia/Hong Kong. If you actually enjoy it, go to Wan Chai in HK. Same music, drinks about a third the cost.

edit: oh yeah forgot to mention, the bar in Beijing mentioned above is also across the street from the North Korean embassy. Maybe that has something to do with it

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Wed, 19 Dec 2012 9:20 pm

zzm9980 wrote:I have to say that in my adult life I've only ever been irrationally frightened at one place I visited: Chocolate, a russian night club in Beijing.

A-ha! Reminds me of a nightclub in Sharm, Egypt called Black House (naturally we rechristened it Black Whores). That too was full to bursting with Soviet-bloc hookers. I recall at one point being threatened by a pimp...

My first and only time!

[p.s. this club was attached to a surprisingly smart household-name hotel where a couple of our dive group were staying... ]

offshoreoildude · Post by **offshoreoildude** » Wed, 19 Dec 2012 9:47 pm

JR8 wrote:
zzm9980 wrote:I have to say that in my adult life I've only ever been irrationally frightened at one place I visited: Chocolate, a russian night club in Beijing.

A-ha! Reminds me of a nightclub in Sharm, Egypt called Black House (naturally we rechristened it Black Whores). That too was full to bursting with Soviet-bloc hookers. I recall at one point being threatened by a pimp...

My first and only time!

[p.s. this club was attached to a surprisingly smart household-name hotel where a couple of our dive group were staying... ]

Sounds like a hotel bar I was in East Berlin in 1988 before the wall came down. A Russian pulled a flick knife out on me.... (see Sergei - I knew there was a reason I didn't like Russians!). Turns out he was joking but still... I'd forgotten that memory until I read these posts.

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Wed, 19 Dec 2012 10:49 pm

offshoreoildude wrote: Sounds like a hotel bar I was in East Berlin in 1988 before the wall came down. A Russian pulled a flick knife out on me.... (see Sergei - I knew there was a reason I didn't like Russians!). Turns out he was joking but still... I'd forgotten that memory until I read these posts.

Good joke... but only in retrospect years later

I also visited East Berlin before the wall came down. Once illegally, by climbing over the wall in front on Brandenburg Gate on NYE 31/12/89. There was an impromptu street-party of millions there that night - on BOTH sides -, and the border at that point was simply overwhelmed (plus it wasn't mined, as every other part was!).

Then, the next day we visited again, but we had to go through border control. We wanted to visit out of curiosity but also to have lunch there. We found no restaurants or shops open, or food of any kind. The lasting memory is of empty streets, snow, concrete, greyness, an urban wasteland...

Then we came upon http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant ... erlin.html

A historic tavern next to the divorce court whose name translates as 'The Last Chance', (Thought: I wonder if this is in any way connected to the expression 'Last chance saloon'?).

Anyway. It slowly dawned on us, that they neither had any food. So we set about getting exceedingly drunk with the local Easterners (aka 'Osties') who incredibly generously bought us strangers round after round of schnapps with which to chase our beers. Talk about utterly ratted! [and so on.... and so on

]

Ah ... thanks for triggering that seasonal memory OSOD

p.s. The irony is that this tavern is now quite a respected restaurant for traditional German cuisine. It still has the physical bar (as in bar-top), but people go there solely to eat, and not drink. Not a shot of schnapps in sight!

zzm9980 · Post by **zzm9980** » Thu, 20 Dec 2012 9:06 am

JR8 wrote: [p.s. this club was attached to a surprisingly smart household-name hotel where a couple of our dive group were staying... ]

I've learned if the Grand/Park Hyatt has a bar, there are hookers there. (Brix here, Xiuxi in Beijing, I forgot the name in Shanghai... etc)

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