Thursday night drinks in Berlin

A couple of us had drinks at Neue Odessa last night to check it out. Seems like it will be fun.
The people who work there said it will be no problem to accommodate us.

Address is:
Tor Strasse 89

Yeah I saw Neue Odessa too and it's perfect for Thursday. We will totally pwn the place.

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving from stateside.

I'll be enjoying Turkey, Dressing, Pumpkin Pie and...

American Football!!

Oh - and I'll be sure to have a few drinks as I think of you all. Thanks for making Berlin such a great place to live (and for helping with the homesickness!)

Think I may pop along tomorrow. Been meaning to for a few weeks now. Looking forward to it.

hey everyone! im fairly new in berlin as well, and natalie told me about this site/gathering.. so hopefully i can drop by tonight!

and by natalie i mean nadine!

my nadine? or are you talking about someone over 5 foot?

Mid-afternoon on Thurs. All signs point to me showing up tonight.

I'm sorry, we don't allow newcomers.

Just kidding. Very much looking forward to meeting new people!

hello everyone !

i'm jennifer & i'm accompanying my mate josie to the social tonight. im also an erasmus student from england living in prenzlauer berg. our american friend rosemary will also be tagging along.

looking forward to being 100% understood in conversation with new people!!! wunderbar...!

xx

A few shots from the event: http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/3874515. Sorry, hardly representative of the whole crowd, but it's a start.

This Thursday we will be celebrating 2 things, both of which are very close to my heart! Firstly St Andrews Day (it is actually on Friday, but I am sure most will see it through till Friday!) And for those not familiar with St Andrews he is the Patron Saint of Scotland and thus us Scots like to celebrate in his memory! The Second celebration is the one year anniversary of discovering Hairy Mary’s. (Thanks globalgirl!) For those who don’t know HM's it is a great little bar in Prenzlauer Berg which unfortunately won’t be open much longer, so we have to party as much as possible in my favourite "Berlin" bar.

So I will see you all at Hairy Mary’s from 8pm on Thursday. Don’t worry about being prompt, as you won’t miss us!

I believe it was you that hosted the first Hairy Mary's- Toytown night ScotsLass.

Very much looking forward to not having the flu and going out for drinks night this week. See you all Thursday.

But it was you who suggested it!

Hairy Mary's!!
Can't wait for Thursday...

OK. Instead of working, like I should be right now, I've been fantasizing a bit.
Had a little crazy idea.

Maybe, just maybe, we should all consider the possibility of forming some sort of cooperative together to buy Hairy Mary's. Among, say 50-100 people, it wouldn't be very expensive.
It could operate under a co-op business model, where all members/patrons own a share in the company. There are already quite a few bars in Berlin that do this, and as far as I've heard it works.

Here are some pros and cons I am thinking of:
Cons:
Most of us are relatively transient people who may or may not be here in five years.
Although it would be legal and possible, there would be loads of paperwork to deal with; especially as most of us lack German citizenship.
Organization/management of co-ops can be a nightmare.

Pros:
A different ex-pat could work the bar each night of the week, creating part time job opportunities for our little community here.
As the co-op would not be expected to make a profit, drink prices could be kept very cheap.
Toytown could have its own clubhouse in Berlin.

Looking forward to reading feedback on this.
Time for me to stop daydreaming and get back to work.
- Stafford

Great. I'll be there.

And to you Stafford, this idea has been tossed around a bit. Nate and I have been throwing it back and forth for a while. And where I'm all for crowd-sourcing, you've hit the nail on the head with leadership and management. If someone had the time and presence of mind to organize it, it would be an excellent endeavor, hell, I'll even volunteer to build the website and social network. Of course, you'd also have to get the approval of Mark and Laura. I have no idea what the current For Sale status of Hairy Marys is at this point.

I'll be there a bit later!

Looks like I'll be making it with the better half in tow. Poor sod...

Hairy Marys!! Nice one! Has it really been a whole year?! Well thanks to both globalgirl & ScotsLass for that fantastic Thursday night this time last year! & I'm sure this Thursday will be even more of a night to remember! See you all there!

I am a newcomer who will be popping along tonight for sure. I can't stick another night at home with some DVDs! Look forward to seeing you all tonight.. and to St. Andrew's Day celebrations.

Oh I am so very excited that its Thursday, might do a happy dance round my office! Super excited that V will be joining us! Woo hoo!!!

Hi there,

I'm a Virgin Hairy Mary but I'm planning on coming down tonight. Please be gentle with me!! K

Sorry! When Hairy Mary's is involved there can be no gentle! See you tonight!

Have to pack and get some sleep for my 7-8 hour transit to Fussen tomorrow AM...sorry out.

Is it 8 o'clock yet?

I wish

Awww guys I'm sorry I couldn't make it I was home much later than I had expected and then I got home and my friend had called from Canada and she kind of had a mini crisis lol.

Fantastic Thursday/(Friday morning... ) last week. Was great to see a few people that came back to visit us. I'm going to try and have a look around for a place for this Thursday, but if anyone has any ideas feel free to throw them out there.

Hi everyone,
There is a fantastic place on Veteranenstrasse 14, corner of Fehrbellinerstr., Near Zionskirchplatz.

It is a "Weinerei", or "wine place", run by the owners of a wine store, and works as follows:
Everyone pays a 1 Euro entrance fee.

Then you get to try different wines and drink as much as you like. They also have non-alcoholic beverages. The whole place is like a giant living room, furnished with second hand armchairs, sofas and coffee tables. Very Berlin.

When you go you pay as much as you think you should pay. There is no fixed price.
They also have some food, usually one dish and a soup.
The place closes at Midnight.

I was there yesterday to check if it was big enough. It is, but it would probably be a good idea to make some sort of a reservation as it is very popular. Which probably means that they would expect at least some of us to have bite to eat. I guess this kind of goes against what we normally do. So tell me what you think. I'd be happy to make the arrangements.

The thing about Weinerei is that it's SO crazy busy. It would be hard to fit a large group of us in there...

We mainly need a bar where there usually isn't that many people, so that we can fit 20 to 40 people without causing a hassle. Also since most people don't post whether or not they're coming, we can't predict whether we'll only have 15 people or over 40, or if everyone shows up at 8pm or after 10. So reservations are a bit hard to make.

So mainly we're just looking for a bar that isn't super popular, and is easy enough to get to. For Thursday night drinks at least.

Lots of people organise smaller meet ups for other nights of the week, if you're looking to check someplace out, but don't want to go alone.

Unless someone else has any brilliant ideas, I suggest we revisit and oldie and go to August Fengler on Lychener Str. We haven't been there in quite a while and it's near a lot of different transportation lines so we don't have to be wandering around in the cold for too long.

Once consensus has been reached on the chosen location, note that you can now update this page's title and include the location there. Click the small "edit" link at the top, next to the current title.

I think I'm going to try to saunter in and stumble home for this. I'll be a five foot seven blond guy with glasses, trying to discern snatches of English from the crowd. If you see anyone looking confused, that's me. What's a good time to show up?

Since it's started getting dark, most people start to come between 8 and 8.30. If the first couple people to get to the bar could mention that they're with Toytown and where they're sitting, so if anyone asks they can point the group out (if you don't just naturally spot the large group of loud people speaking english..)

See you all later.

Sponsored by Belushi's?? What? Since when can someone sponsor Thursday night drinks? Let's not give in to this. I don't have any recommendations this week, but someone please suggest something other than Belushi's.

You ever don't have to go to Belushi's.

Rather, Belushi's are simply paying for their banner to be included at the top of this page. Their money helps keep this website online.

There's no obligation to take the Thursday drinks night there. You can continue to go to whatever bar you please.

So if anyone wants to choose the venue for this week, go ahead and post it.

Does anyone know intersoup, Schliemannstr 31? It seemed spacious enough to me. Any opinions?

I do not understand why people move to Germany only to go to bars that are the same in their country of origin??

Well said scorpio
I really want to go to one of these Thursday night drinking sessions but my knowledge of Berlin is...well...
I only really drink in this little russian bar in Fhain tago or something.

Most people would not like the bars I frequent lol

HAHA depends. what you mean. Only places I know are Roadrunners Cassiopiea SO36 mainly rockn roll bars due to work

Excellent news that Toytown is getting a little more financial support.

However, the accompanying unattributed claim that 'It is popular with the English-speaking crowd for viewing televised sports such as NFL, NHL, and such.' is a little more than just a banner.

The sponsorship for TT Tuesdays in Munich does not contain similar statements but simply notes that two establishments kindly sponsor the event.

Whenever someone on this forum suggests going to watch NFL or NHL or similar, the consensus regularly settles on Belushi's. See the forum search results as evidence of that. So I think the statement about it being a popular choice of venue is fair.

I'm sure it is worth a visit and it is a natural choice for those wanting to watch American Sports in Berlin in a convivial atmosphere. It was just unclear to me whether the statement was simply self promotion on behalf of the sponsor or the opinion / statement of an individual. I will presume that it is Editor Bob statement endorsing the sponsorship unless advised otherwise.

Was a little shocked to see the Belushi's sign, but since Toytown has been a huge help to me over the past year, and I've not had to pay anything, I think it's fine that they're receiving a bit of cash.

I don't think this will affect our choices for venue, and as Editor Bob says, it is a popular choice for watching sports. If it was a complete hole, or something like McDonalds I can see a minor protest.

Also just looked at this intersoup place's myspace and don't see any reason why we don't head there this thursday.

Intersoup is new- let's do it.

Although, I do have an inexplicable urge to watch some NHL.

You could even go a bit further and say that why would anyone move to Germany and spend all their time speaking English on English-speaking websites, but that would kind of defeat this website's purpose. Maybe the Goethe-Institut should sponsor the website instead. (And I'm not being judgmental here...just taking note).

Touché Monchick. Touché.