No Midsummer Blues Here!

The heat may be insufferable and the skies may open at any moment on the one day you forgot your raincoat, but summer in Hanoi is full of plenty of reasons to get excited. The rest of July is poised to be a classic. Events, prizes, and an all around good times with your fellow New Hanoians. Settle in, and let’s get down to what awaits. A month or so back, one of our more enthusiastic users suggested that it’s about time that the New Hanoians got down to some face to face meetin’ amidst the glory that is the local bia hoi joint. We couldn’t agree more. What this diverse and savvy group needs is a chance to put some faces to the (user)names. It turns out, we even have an occasion. One of our most active members (and a winner of last month’s Mexican feast for four at Kitchen) is soon to leave Hanoi for the unending horizons of travel. We wish Dratman all the best and want to send him off with a spot of farewell drinking worthy of a distinguished New Hanoian like himself. All those wishing to join us, we’ll be congregating at Bia Hoi Zin (Dratman’s local) at around 8:30pm this Friday (July 20th) . If you can’t make it for the beginning…no worries. We plan on being there for a while. Something tells me that with the group we can assemble, they won’t have any misgivings about keeping a light on for you. For those not acquainted with Bia Hoi Zin, it is on the southern end of Ba Mau Lake (near Lenin Park…or Reunification Park depending on how long you’ve been in town). Be ye a New Hanoian of the ole days or a newcomer to the community, you are most certainly welcome. Bring friends. All are invited. If any of us remember much about the evening, I imagine there could be some pretty rocking reviews of the place. Perhaps Bia Hoi Zin’s reviews will be the start some award winning efforts from our users for the month of July. The very thing that brought Dratman to the New Hanoian community’s attention is upon us again, and it’s a swell set of prizes to get those fingers clacking way at the keyboards. To start us off, we have a legendary establishment of the Hanoi culinary scene…a restaurant that was here long before many of the current legends found their way into our hearts (and stomachs). The Piano Bar & Lounge is offering a refined night of eating and drinking for one of our distinguished users and three friends. The evening will start off in their downstairs bar area, with its classic horseshoe shaped bar in the center of the room. There our foursome will enjoy a bottle wine to pique the appetite, amidst the tinkling of piano keys. The group will then head to the second floor where they will enjoy the sort of dinner that draws some of the city’s most discerning diners. More piano and wine will accompany meal, and then they’ll be off to the roof patio for after-dinner drinks and the sounds of Phung Hung three floors below. Do you have what it takes to treat friends of yours to such an evening at the Piano Bar & Lounge? If a new lunch time haunt is what you’re in the mood for, then perhaps Hoa Sua is the place or you. Another of our outstanding users will have the chance to treat three of his or her friends to lunch in one of the hidden gems of Hanoi. Hoa Sua will be treating this lucky foursome to a culinary tour of their training school’s many takes on what lunch in Hanoi can be. For starters, you’ll have your choice dining spaces within their outdoor patio, the Western feel of the first floor, or the Asiatic setting of the rooms upstairs. From there, diners will enjoy a custom designed lunch of some of the restaurants finest dishes. The task of ordering itself will give way to a series of appetizers, entrees, and desserts that will show you all this fine organization has to offer. And, in this case, fine organization refers to more than their food. You’ll be experiencing an entire enterprise dedicated to preparing disadvantaged youth for life in the hospitality world. Fine in its own right, this very meal will be a step on the way to these kids’ making a better life for themselves…and, thus, so much more fulfilling for all involved. And finally, for the dipsomaniacs among you, a bar quickly reclaiming its spot as a late night Hanoian institution is calling on you to pull the sort of all-nighter you’d jump at the chance for. Half Man / Half Noodle has thrown down the gauntlet to one of our users who feels worthy of a night of real drinking. Said winner and ten of his or her partners in crime will have a free jug of Ruou Can (a sweet traditional liquor of Vietnam drank from an earthen jug with bamboo straws) from one of the only bars in Hanoi serving this legendary concoction of Hoa Binh Province. To top it off and keep the night rolling right along, our winner will have free draft beer for as long as he or she can manage to call out, “Mot Bia Nua!” His or her ten friends will also get 20% off anything they drink for the remainder of the night…and as you all know…a night at Half Man / Half Noodle can stretch on ‘till Hoan Kiem is ringed with the righteous routines of first light exercise we’ve all come to associate with a great night out. With their new $4 a night dormitory upstairs, the bar sometimes doesn’t even get a chance to close before its 6am opening time. You might just be the one to push the limits of what an all-nighter really means. If that’s not enough to get you amped for July in Hanoi, than surely this will jump start your xe may. On Saturday, July 28th, renowned socializing, organizing, and musifiying group C.A.M.A. is throwing down on the banks of the Red River. For one night only, Tre Place (between West Lake and the bridge to the airport) will be turned into a full on punk-rock-dancing-drinking-and-being-what-we-be sort of place. With returning members in town for one reunion show only, The Offensive will back together…performing as The Defensive. Entrance tickets will be 100,000 VND (including two drinks). While C.A.M.A. searches Hanoi for the next location of one of their incomparable spaces, don’t waste this opportunity to kick it on the river’s edge. If we don’t see you there, we better never hear you complain that there’s nothing new to do in Hanoi. For that matter, you’d better steer clear of us with that nonsense in general. July’s looking pretty damn nice from where we’re sitting… Cheers, The Staff of the New Hanoian

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