It's something I know little about, but isn't Cardiff relatively well respected for it's gayscene. I know it's one of a few cities in the UK that specifically gets a mention for it in my lonely planet guide.

I wish wow all the best anyway, although I did like globar. Is the place opposite a gay bar too? I have had a couple of menacing sex-pest type stares walking past before!

That place down the bay.. x:it, is a really nice place by the way, run by really friendly people.

Haha Pulse is a gay bar, but I never associated it with the "Sex Pest" set. That is unless you are 21 and incredibly good looking and then pretty much every gay guy will have a gander.

Every time I walk past Pulse there seems to be an array of middle aged heterosexual couples sat outside (the type who regularly drink during the day if you know what I mean). I didn't think it was a gay bar. You learn something new every day.

I've never had any sex pest stares either btw. I'm quite put out by that. What has James got that I haven't eh?

I was wearing tight leather trousers, with a sock stuffed down the front, while reading heat magazine at the time.

There's nothing I like better than spending an afternoon sitting outside Pulse quaffing pints of blue WKD whilst shouting lewd and sexually suggestive comments at the passers by.

I tried to go to the X:it bay pub last night for the quiz but yet again it was shut due to an 'electrical fault'. This is the third time that this has happened that I know of. I've heard on good authority that a change of management there is imminent.

Are you sure they don't put that sign up when they see you are coming? And then turn the music back on as soon as you've gone? We used to do something similar as kids when the insurance man called. Hide behind the settee until he had gone. You weren't our insurance man were you?

On a pub/bar related note has the Tair Pluen shut down? It always seems shut when I walk past. Or have they just seen Wizard wandering past St Johns church....?

Yeah I think it's just a pretty traditional pub..opens about 6-11 I think. Quite a nice place actually.

I picked up Buzz magazine earlier..

Bar Cuba is becoming 'The live lounge' with a focus on live music, trying to have it every night.
Opening weekend 18th Sept.

An advert for 'Lolfa L3 Lounge' Self proclaimed newest live music venue in Cardiff. Operning night 20 October, with what looks like welsh language acts.

Also the old Maindy Pub is reopening as something called 'The North Star. Focusing on 'live music, good food and great drinks'.

I must say that the Point debacle aside, things seem to be looking up for the Cardiff music scene.

Where is Lolfa situated?

I think I saw in the planning applications that Elgano caterers on North Rd (opposite the student halls) and the sandwich bar just at the other end of that terrace were both applying for licences to serve alcohol on the premises. With the Blackweir Tavern and the Maindy reinvigorated could this be a new student area?

Yeah, as far as I know it will be called 'Northstar'. Seems a slightly odd one to me. The area is partly solid working class, with the Mynachdy estate, and partly student. Most students I think are more inclined to drink at home, or head into town, in which case they will be more likely to make progress down North Road towards the Blackweir Tavern etc.

Obviously, I hope it goes well though.

It does seem odd until you read this

I noted today that the old Cross Inn (Mujib's,Eastern Manor...) is currently boarded up, so something is happening. Why do some pubs etc seem to change hands constantly, while others seem to be unchanged for 30 years?

Unprecedented Action on the new live venue front..

another new place:

Millennium Music Hall.

http://www.millenniummusichall.co.uk/

Seriously, im not kidding.

The Coal Exchange is doing gigs again..starting on bonfire night apparently.

I make that that I've learnt about five new live music venues in Cardiff in the last two days.

It does mean the coal exchange renovation is not imminent of course..

Signs have gone up today stating The North Star (Maindy) will be re opening soon!

The rumours that Beat Box Bars, management of Buffalo & Ten Feet Tall, are taking on the old Glamorgan social club building at the bottom of Womanby St / opposite Millennium Stadium are looking more substantive. The buildings windows are now full of posters for events happening at both Buffalo & Ten Feet Tall, so they've obviously been inside.

The globe loses its licence:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8267688.stm

Yes, it's this damned noise issues again. I guess it may well be a valid argument. A club has no right to inflict misery on residents who were already there (making the Point argument all the more frustrating, as it was there first) Anyway, I guess we'll see what happens.

As I stated last week though, there are several new venues purported to be opening, and good rumour above about the staff club too.

The Globe is still operating, and looking to do the necessary sound proofing, so its still in the balance.

I see that the new place about to open in the former Purple Lounge on Bute St next to the Natwest Bank (see other link on this forum entitled 'New Welsh Restaurant for the Bay') is actually called The Captain Scott

Perhaps it is going to be a Wetherspoons (like I was told months back) after all or maybe it's just a totally new pub.

I also see that a new Arabian restaurant is about to open next to the new Harbour Fish Bar and Roosters and the knocking shop and George with George on West Bute St.

The Cross Inn on Gabalfa Flyover (aka Mujibs, East, Eastern Manor etc) wil definately become a Wetherspoons according to the signs I read on the way into work this morning. Re-opening in late November. I'm glad it's going back to being a pub. The Spoons have their detractors but they generally put some effort into their re-furbs, the food is cheap and cheerful and they always tend to be busy. It would be a shame for this building to have lain empty for any great period of time.

According to a rumour I heard they are also looking at taking over the Carpenters Arms in Llanrumney.

Other, less welcome, rumours suggest the Clifton is due for closing soon as is the Bertram (both in Broadway). That comes just after the Locomotive (now demolished) and the New Dock Tavern were closed leaving only the Royal Oak.

Wetherspoons decided to branch out of the city centre (Ignoring Ernest Willows and the one in Canton) - this can only be a good thing!
I know alot of people don't like 'spoons but I do and I'd be delighted to see one in Gabalfa and Llanrumney - though admitadly I'm unlikely to ever use the latter!

As someone else has said I'm suprised they haven't yet sought a presence in the Bay. I always thought the old red brick Post Office (which would inevitably be called the Old Post Office....) would be ideal for them. Big building, good location, I'm sure it would do a roaring trade.

Further related news from the Bay -

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2009/10/01/something-new-on-the-menu-at-bay-landmark-91466-24823188/

New restaurant at the WMC called Ffresh. It will be an in house operation so hopefully may have a bit of longevity. Two restaurants carshing and burning in just 5 years marks that spot as a bit of a culinary graveyard.

As an aside I ate at Gilby's not long before it closed. The food was excellent but the room we ate in was cold and clinical. I hope this is rectified and they look at the layout as well as the menu.

Hi new to the board but long time reader..the restauant looks the same as it was before - what worked in the old Gilbs was the lunch time area but that seems to have gone so I have a bad feeling about it as lessons don't seem to have been learnt

Welcome Alun!

Hello Alun

It's a shame if they are not trying to address the atmosphere. I felt as though I was eating in a meeting room that had been temporarily filled with tables rather than a restaurant.

Walked past Zync earlier, and it is very much open.

The SLug and Lettuce opposite the Hilton has shut though-I think someone mentioned that before.

No great loss. The whole place reeked of the kind of dull place and had a feel of 1996-1998 about it.

I'm sure it won't be empty too long

Yeah I found an advert on "shop property" advertising it for rent. I believe they had time left on their lease so are unlikely to have left unless they`ve found someone to take over.

The bar in the same building as the old library on the hayes is closed to reopen as a new 'alternative' bar, called the old library. Seems a pretty big venue to be opening in an already busy market.

James

how doesd a bar have a 1996-98 feel about it, I've tried recalling that period in my life, and don't really recall bars/pubs/clubs being anything other than ordinary at that time?

Be renaming it "Zyncs" would help with the irony! (or if grammatically challenged zync's!!)
I think the added "S" epitomised the mood/style that saw many bars rebranded that way in the mid 90's - esp in London

I now what you mean James. I lived in London during that period and it seemed All Bar Ones., Pitcher and Piano's and Slug and Lettuces were cropping up all over the place. All of them pretty much the same - blond wood everywhere, chrome beer pumps with just the name of the beer on them, crappy DJ's in the corner, no fruit machines, floor to ceiling pine wine racks behind the bar, an extra 60p per pint than the traditional boozer next door, packed to the gills with office wallahs who thought they were too trendy for old mans pub but not rich enough to go to the really upmarket places. Very very shit.

Well I ran the Slug and Lettuce in Soho for 4 years and it was fabulous! How very dare you...

Karl

a bit more descriptive, i now know hte place you refer to James. Something akin to the atheneum in Manchester

I am right off chains myself Karl, left Slug in 2006. It was good back in the day when it was the first 'bar' with a good food offer but has become very formulaic and another purveyor of the average more recently.

I'm working for a company who have 3 pubs now and it's much nicer. Shameless plug time;

www.evanspubs.co.uk

Wow - small world. I was in Petworth (the Black Horse Inn and not the Lickfold!) on the weekend before last.

The Captain Scott pub at the old Purple Lounge in Bute Street has opened. Nice looking place with very cheap beer prices. Will be interesting to see how much trade it can pull away from the more pricey alternatives in Mermaid Quay

Zync was having a repaint when I walked past earlier.

SOunds good. One of my tests for knowing the Bay is a success is when that part of Bute Street livens up.

They'll need to market it a bit, but it should do well. Whats it like inside?

I'll try and check it out on friday.

That irrelevant place that used to be in the Old Library-Que Paso, or something is no more..

..signs up saying a new place opening soon called; "the old library" GRill and Bar, offering the best in 'alternative music'.

Also, I was in Tair Pluen earlier. It was open mic night, quite busy, and really atmospheric. A lovely, gem of a place, and far nicer than the Owain next door.

The original Funka Budda Lounge in Cathays is being gutted, not sure what is going on there. Quite a nice bar with good food but never seemed very busy. There is of course a new one on Charles Street.

Went down Cathays Terrace and there is a new bar called Umm where Wales' first non smoking pub used to be but whose name escapes me (was it Cafe Exit or something?). Just opposite the Flora.

... which has never been very busy when I've gone their either, although admittedly that was lunch time. But it was lunch time on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Something I've noticed about the average Cardiff shopper is that its (perhaps increasingly) difficult to get them off the main drag of Queen Street / St David's. Prime retail space in the city saw (until the recession) massive rental growth. Secondary city-centre retail space (e.g. in the arcades or St Mary's Street) saw very little growth whatsoever. I think this afflicts some of the more independent places.

I had a very interesting chat with someone at a conference I attended on Wednesday. They had been doing focus groups around the country, including Cardiff and they had a pretty negative opinion of the city. They were there in August and said it felt really "dead and quiet" (which I've NEVER heard the city called before). They also considered it to be dominated by chain bars and restaurants (which to some extent is true). Turns out they pretty much stayed in the Westgate and St Mary's Street areas which during the week I can imagine are quite dead.

But it got me thinking. Are we really dominated by chains? I think certain developments are:
The Brewery Quarter
SD2 (will be)
Mermaid Quay (increasingly)
But I think this just reflects the fact that prime rents in Cardiff are very high and only the chains can afford them. A look at Cardiff restaurant listings shows the city centre does have a good smattering of independent restaurants whith a fair few Indians, a couple of Chinese/Thai, a load of Italians and a few others. And areas like Canton/Pontcanna and Roath seem to increasingly boast decent independent restaurants. I think the problem is that the main thoroughfairs visitors will see really are dominated by the chains. In some ways this reflects the success of the city but it can leave the visitor who doesn't explore off the beaten track (e.g. your typical business visitor) with a skewed and potentially negative view of the city as very very "identikit".