Well it was opened last week, the Bucharest Hard Rock Cafe, being the 80th something in the world. It comes from the original concept, it has all the specific stuff, even the Rock Shop. So let’s see how it was like on 26.01, about one week after the big opening.

Access and Entry

The location is great, in the Herastrau park in Bucharest, a central area and close to the lake. A great location, in my opinion, easy to reach and which allows for good access, with parking and all.

From the entry, Hard Rock Cafe looks very friendly and a professional place. Everything is in order, everything is clean and you are welcomed with a smile – very nice.

Atmosphere and first impression

Right on the entry, you are being asked if you have a table reserved. Well, I did not have because I called the place before and they told me they do not accept reservations yet. Therefore, how am I supposed to have a table ? No, I don’t, and they mention it is full so if you want you can sit at the bar until a table is getting free. A nice thing is that you get a kind of device which will let you know when your table is free, so you don’t need to pay attention to everybody leaving. Good stuff.

The bar is place right in the middle of the HRC and it overs good view to the entire place, to the stage and to all the “stuff” hanging on the walls. You can see guitars, pictures of famous artists and such.

Hard Rock Cafe is half smoking / half non-smoking, which is a good thing – you will get the same atmosphere wherever you are sitting.

The bar offers a good range of cocktails, some classic ones and some which you can only find in HRC. They have a good range of drinks and they also have Clausthaler, which is a bonus from my point of view :) They do not have Leffe, which is a minus in Roxana’s view – but she will settle for the draft Guiness. :)

The restaurant

As our table was free (after about half of hour of waiting), we ordered some food. You have a nice variety to choose from, most of all being American specialties – chicken wings, pork chops, beef, hamburgers and salads. There is also a good range of starters and deserts.

After the ordering, comes the hard part – the waiting. This is one big MINUS they get, we had to wait for about one and a half hours. The waiters appologised, the manager appologised and they admitted they have a big staffing problem in the kitchen. Everybody was complaining about this aspect, some people next to us got their meal for free because of the long waiting time.

All in all it was not so bad, as you can watch the videos on the dozens of LCDs in the restaurant, but if you are hungry you might get very nervous. They promised to solve this is a couple of weeks, hopefully they will.

The food is very good – specially the beef (Grilled Fillet Steak) was delicious and the serving is quite ok (even though at one time they sort of forgot about or drinks) and everybody is friendly and smiling.

Overall

In the end, it was a very positive experience. The place looks great, the food is good and the drinks are also nice. The atmosphere is exactly a Hard Rock Cafe fan would expect. I am also looking forward for some live concerts in there and I will definetelly come back.

They need to put some more attention on the food timing and maybe they will have a reservations system as well.

More info about the Bucharest Hard Rock Cafe can be found here.

It seems that Romania is becoming more and more a popular subject for movies or a good place to shoot one. In time, several movies either approached Romanian subjects (like Dracula, for instance) or were filmed here – Cold Mountain being one.
One of the movies who pomises to do both is “Marketing Malcoch“, a movie about two Coca-Cola truck drivers who are mistaken by the villagers in Maramures region as foreign investors. The movie promises to be a nice comedy, which reminds me of “The Red Coloured Grey Truck”.

As I am quite a fan of road movies, I believe it is going to be a nice film to see. Looking forward for the first trailers and will keep you posted.

This is onoe post I was indending to write for quiet some time now – it does not contain any news, just some old tracks which I like a lot. They can easily make it into an all-time favourites selection. Also, I believe some of them might be quite unknown everybody – even if they are from well known bands, the tracks were not generally (with few exceptions) very popular in time.

Enough said, here they are in no particular order. Downloads available by clicking on the title:

1. Pink Floyd – Have a Cigar

From the most popular album Wish You Are Here, this is one of my favourite songs from Pink Floyd. The guitar sound on this one is just fantastic. Also the song has a strong message and is written in the purest Pink Floyd spirit.

2. Sepultura – The Hunt

This is definitely one of my favourite songs from Sepultura. It is not as well known as Arise or Roots, but it is a very powerful song and very well tight together. And it also reminds me of some nice parties from the students age :)
3. Authority Zero – One More Minute

This is THE song for snowboarding. And also for the seaside :) Found it accidentely in a video shooting of some motorcycle stunts and loved it ever since. Very dynamic.

4. Bad Company – Burning Sky

This is one of those childhood songs I remember very strongly. It was the first song from the album and I used to play it over and over again on the old pick-up :) Great song from a not very popular band.

5. Deep Purple – April

Deep Purple had dozens of hits and another stack of great songs which did not make it to the charts. This is one of them – a very long song, made out of three distinct parts and is one of the first songs where Deep Purple used an orchestral accompaniment. If you take the patience of listening it though, you will find some great sections and experiences.

6. Faith No More – Evidence (Spanish version)
One of the best songs of Faith No More in my opinion. Also, I believe it sounds great in Spanish – exactly how a Spanish rock song should sound. Too bad I could not get more of this stuff.

7. Joe Dassin – Le Roi Du Blues

My favourite song from Joe Dassin probably – it has a special place as it reminds me of one of the best vacations, alone, in 2 Mai, doing absolutelly nothing :)

8. Led Zeppelin – When The Levee Breaks

Not as popular as Stairway to Heaven but equally nice in my view. I have no idea what levee reffers to in this song, but anyway it sounds great ! :)
9. Pantera – Cemetary Gates

Well, this is probably quite popular, but it is the best track of Panters in my opinion. Even though many would not expect this from a band like Pantera, they have some great guitar solos. One of the best is in this track. And as I am a sucker for great guitar plays, this track makes it into this selection
10. Queen – Teo Torriate

Probably one of the most unknown songs from Queen. The special thing about it is that it has some of the lyrics in Japanese. As a kid, after listening to this track, I started studying Japanese. Too bad I did not stick to it…

11. Urma – Buy Me With A Coffee

The only Romanian song in this selection – actually it is sand in English, but the band is Romanian. Their best song, in my opinion, reminds me of some nice trips to Vama Veche.

Via Los Angeles Times I came across an article about Bob Popescu, founder of one of the most popular Jazz Clubs in L.A. Mr. Popescu passed away few days ago, but the article describes his work and fame in the Jazz music community in the U.S.

“Bob was a visionary,” said bassist Richard Simon. “This town hasn’t always been hospitable to ventures such as his in a niche as fraught with uncertainty as jazz, but he managed to create a space that was hospitable to both local musicians and the name groups that visit from other parts of the world.”

The entire article can be found here.

Which reminds me I would love to open a jazz club/bar sometimes in Romania…. hopefully this will happen in some years.

Saas Fee (in Switzerland) was really nice – a very pittoresque atmosphere, nice slopes and a some nice clubs and restaurants. Unfortunatelly, it was not so much snowboarding, but as it was it was really nice.

As Switzerland is very far aways, some nice tracks got me going and here comes the part to share with you – Prodigy vs Enya – Smack My Bitch Up Orrinocco Flow. One of the few remixes I like, but I like it a lot !

And some pictures here.