Probably the last thing I ever thought I would hear at a restaurant in Guangzhou was the Canadian National Anthem, 'Oh Canada.' However, last night, I heard an entire restaurant full of Canadians singing it at the top of their lungs.
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The Brew - Guangzhou's favourite neighborhood bar |
How's how it happened. The night started after Carl, Ronald, Mark and I wanted to find something for dinner other than McDonalds. We got a car and had Xiqin (our translator, office manager, assignment editor, jack-of-all-trades) find a restaurant close to the MPC. After the driver was lost looking for this Cantonese Dim Sum place, Carl spotted a place in a neighborhood called The Brew. Guangzhou isn't like Hong Kong where there are loads of choices from all over the world. There are very few non-Asian restaurants that we have seen so far unless it's a McDonalds or a KFC. So when we saw The Brew, we quickly made the driver turn into the parking lot. We walked in and the place was packed. All the waitresses and waiters were wearing Sidney Crosby shirts but none of them had any idea who he was. We knew there had to be a Canadian somewhere in the place. We asked for the manager and instead got the owner, a 30-soemthing year old guy from Ottowa. He has lived in Guangzhou for six years now and wanted to open a restaurant where he could watch hockey, NFL and baseball. He specilizes in burgers and has a bunch of different beer on tap. Walking in this place you would think you were at any sports bar/restaurant in the US/Canada minus the lack of English spoken by the waitstaff.
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The kids playland inside the Tavern. |
We ordered a beer (I had a Guiness) and some burgers. Hockey and college football were on the two large screens and for an hour or so we felt like we weren't in China. Most of the people in the place seemed to be Canadian, British and even a few Americans. The burgers were not bad as I had the Soprano burger. The Hamblogger would have been proud.
After, we stepped into The Tavern located right next door which was owned by a couple British guys. They had a bunch of TV's all showing EPL games. The crowd was split between Chinese and Brits/Aussies. We fit right in. The strangest part was there was a kids playland in the smoky bar. When we walked in there were about 10 kids playing in the kids land. It must be a culural thing because there is no way a bar would allow kids in ataround 11 p.m. let alone build a play land for them. We just were in the Tavern for a little while before heading back to Asian Games Town.
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The Tavern Sports bar in Panyu |
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