It was
Saturday
afternoon and I was in Westlands meeting a good friend of mine. We had planned to meet at the Pizza Garden to have a meal and catch up when I found the doors of that legendary eatery bolted tight. The friend who had asked me to meet him there had drinks at the very place a few weeks ago, so there must have been something that happened in the very recent past.
We settled on having a drink at Gypsies which was up the road on Woodvale Grove. It was earlier in the afternoon so one could see that the staff was still setting up the place for most of the punters. The venue seems to have a sort of canvas covering at the front preventing dust and other undesireable elements getting to punters. Even out there, there were some seats which were covered by some canvas opening.
I walked into the place proper, and even here they were still in the process of setting up. They had only opened one counter – the one to the right, and another area to the left with the centre area still closed. I
sat
at the counter to the right and was quickly joined by my friend and we started ordering – Tusker for me and Guinness for him. To our shock, only my brand Tusker, which was at a princely Sh280, was available. There was none for him. The dark beer fanatic was forced to settle with the Peroni, which to his surprise was not bad.
As we started drinking, we were following the game on counter and it was Leicester playing versus Newcastle in the English Premier League. As I watched Leicester win their match 3-0, it became clear this was a great place to watch the game when in Westlands.
While we were sitting, I noted this was one of the pubs in town with a multiracial punter demographic – many of them looking to be professionals.
A quick recap of the venue
Good: Decent service and décor, clean washrooms, multicultural crowd, sports fanatics could get their football fix, disability friendly
Bad: Pricey, lack of some basic brands you find in the Kenyan market (Guinness)
My verdict: It may be turning 21 this year, but this is one very cool place to hangout in Nairobi even
today.