In the beginnign Chaos was founded by Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) impersonator Leo Er-jin (劉爾金). He saw that it was good but it was eventually sold on to a tourist guide and DJ, Shao Zhang (小張), who bought the place four years ago.
There is no neon sign outside or bright lights inside to indicate when the bar is open and this is part of its charm.
This is not a theme bar, it does not have special promotions and there are no gimmicks. People come here because they want to drink and talk in good company, late at night. Zhang says that trend bars come and go when fashions change, but at Chaos the song remains the same.
Couples, singers, business people, politicians, barfiles and clubbers are seated around the wooden horseshoe-shaped bar, talking together or in large groups, just as they have always done, given the right conditions.
At the center of the houseshoe is Celeste (曉勤), who has been serving the drinks and making people feel at home seven nights a week, 52 weeks a year, for the past four years.
In many ways, the bar is a time capsule. “I would not describe the decorations,” Celeste says, “because they have been here for nine years and have not changed.” There is a dart board, but there are no darts. There are 2,000 records, but the turntable does not work.
There is also a comprehensive collection of around 800 CDs, many of them rare imports or classics. Celeste will deal with your requests.
There is Guinness, Boddingtons and Erdinger for beer drinks (all NT$200), the usual range of spirits and mixers, and then the specials like Zubrowka Bison brand vodka (NT$240), Havana Club silver dry rum from Cuba and a selection of malt whiskies.
Busy times are on Wednesdays and on the weekends, after other bars have closed. A last stop saloon. Chaos is located at 28, Ln. 131, Yenchi St. (延吉街131巷28號), off Civil Boulevard (市民大道) and is open 12pm to 5pm on weekdays. Later on Wednesday and weekends later. No credit cards accepted.
One of the biggest sore spots in Taiwan’s historical friendship with the US came in 1979 when US president Jimmy Carter broke off formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan’s Republic of China (ROC) government so that the US could establish relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Taiwan’s derecognition came purely at China’s insistence, and the US took the deal. Retired American diplomat John Tkacik, who for almost decade surrounding that schism, from 1974 to 1982, worked in embassies in Taipei and Beijing and at the Taiwan Desk in Washington DC, recently argued in the Taipei Times that “President Carter’s derecognition
This year will go down in the history books. Taiwan faces enormous turmoil and uncertainty in the coming months. Which political parties are in a good position to handle big changes? All of the main parties are beset with challenges. Taking stock, this column examined the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) (“Huang Kuo-chang’s choking the life out of the TPP,” May 28, page 12), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) (“Challenges amid choppy waters for the DPP,” June 14, page 12) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) (“KMT struggles to seize opportunities as ‘interesting times’ loom,” June 20, page 11). Times like these can
Dr. Y. Tony Yang, Associate Dean of Health Policy and Population Science at George Washington University, argued last week in a piece for the Taipei Times about former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) leading a student delegation to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that, “The real question is not whether Ma’s visit helps or hurts Taiwan — it is why Taiwan lacks a sophisticated, multi-track approach to one of the most complex geopolitical relationships in the world” (“Ma’s Visit, DPP’s Blind Spot,” June 18, page 8). Yang contends that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has a blind spot: “By treating any
You can tell a lot about a generation from the contents of their cool box: nowadays the barbecue ice bucket is likely to be filled with hard seltzers, non-alcoholic beers and fluorescent BuzzBallz — a particular favorite among Gen Z. Two decades ago, it was WKD, Bacardi Breezers and the odd Smirnoff Ice bobbing in a puddle of melted ice. And while nostalgia may have brought back some alcopops, the new wave of ready-to-drink (RTD) options look and taste noticeably different. It is not just the drinks that have changed, but drinking habits too, driven in part by more health-conscious consumers and
RSS