Getting Out

So -- lovely day trip to Mtskheta aside -- I have yet to "get out" of Tbilisi, thanks to winter and busyness.  But I have come across some pretty cool night spots that I feel are worth sharing.

First and foremost -- Besty's!  I hesitate even to post about this, because the venue is small and it was crowded enough last Friday.  But I just cannot keep silent.  Betsy's is a hotel on the top of a hill (get to it by walking up the street next to the Rustaveli McDonald's) and thus offers some of the best views around.  Their prices are about what you'd expect at an expat hotel, except they have Happy Hour every Friday from 6:00-8:00, and drinks are half price.  Even better, they serve a small buffet of free food every happy hour.  Two Fridays ago it was awesome chicken curry and white rice, and last Friday it was chicken wings and macaroni and cheese.  So this literally means that for under 10 lari you can get something ridiculous like 4 beers plus a yummy western dinner.  Plus the staff is cool and speak good English, and the decor is cozy and chic.  Real wood-burning fireplace!  Clean, modern western bathrooms with toilet paper, soap, and hot water.  Safe to say I will be spending many, many Friday evenings at this amazing place.

Superior view from Betsy's Bar.

This past Friday I met quite a few very cool expats, from a group of Marines who were celebrating a friend's promotion, to a Scottish businessman chatting with a diplomat from the American Embassy.  Come to Betsy's.  Just... don't bring many friends, and behave yourself. :)

The place, apparently, to bring (a whole lot of) friends is where we've ended up the past two evenings after Betsy's, Canudos Ethnic Bar.  Beer here is 3 lari, so not bad.  Getting a beer, however, might prove more of an ordeal than you're willing to go through.  Last Friday night, it was so crowded that I literally had to resurrect my Concert Skills to get from one side of the room to the other.  It was so crowded that I left after one beer rather than attempting to throw myself into the drunken crush in front of Ethnic's tiny bar in hopes of eventually getting a second.  The bathroom is Not Good, and there is only one toilet which inevitably means a line, especially when it's crowded like last time.  Still, music is usually decent, good rock n' roll for the most part, and they don't care if we play beer pong in the back room.  So, pluses and minuses.  Ethnic is the hotspot for meeting expats these days, which means if you are looking for something to do on a Friday or Saturday, chances are decent you'll run into someone you know there.

Cool people living it up at Ethnic -- fellow TLGers Dan, Ryan, Jennifer, and Callie

Another place I recently discovered is Re-Life Cafe, on Chardin.  A quick google search did not reveal a website, but it's across from KGB if that is helpful.  I remember the beer here being a little more expensive -- 4 lari I think, which would explain why Re-Life is extremely popular with expats who aren't TLG.  Chill small place with couches and low tables for chatting, except the music is really too loud for chatting unless you really throw your vocal cords into it.  Bathroom is nice, separate for men and women which means less pee on my toilet seat, especially as the night wears on.  Bonus.  They let us stay over an hour past closing (we didn't know!) before kicking us out, so props to their niceness on that one.

Dani, Suzanne, and me with another cool TLGer whose name I forget.  My bad.

Finally, I went with a whole bunch of TLGers recently to Mirzani Brewery.  We went to the one in Marjinashvili, but Mirzani is a chain so they can be found all over Tbilisi.  Don't be put off by their Chain status!  Being a brewery, they make their own beer, and that means you can get a very decent mug of beer for the enviable price of 1.50 lari, pretty unheard of elsewhere in the Big City.  They also had house wine very reasonably priced, and the wine was decent.  Their food was excellent too and not badly priced.  Highly recommended!

So there you go -- four pretty decent places to get out in the evenings.  I hope you find them as favorable as I do.  Stay tuned... rest assured I will be back with more savvy tips as find them.  Gaumarjos!

Finally, this is not exactly an expat hotspot, but I didn't want to sign off without saying some good things about the wonderful concert I got to go to last night!  One of my private tutoring pupils invited me out to the Nino Katamadze concert last night at the Tbilisi Philharmonic, and of course I accepted with pleasure.  Turns out she had box seats!  So I literally had one of the best seats in the house for this show, and I enjoyed it immensely.  Nino Katamadze is sort of like a Georgian mix of Adele plus Florence + the Machine, so it is no wonder I liked her.  Of course, could not understand a single word, but her voice was incredible and so was the music.  Check her out!