British Pub TAP

I made it to the Gaijin Bar. Actually, it's called British Pub "TAP", and is located very close to Toyohashi. Last Friday night, I grabbed a few street beers, and headed towards TAP. I stopped out front, looked up at the second floor windows bearing the name, built up my confidence, and headed up the stairs to PUB TAP.



I opened the doors, was smacked in the face by a wave of "Irasshi"s and looked around. I was hoping to see a bustling new bar packed with cute girls and interesting guys. No dice. What did I find?

NOT A SOUL.

There were seven people in the bar, all of them were employed by said establishment.

I took a seat by the window, and I admit, it was awkward. Let me rephrase: It was really awkward. The seven people that were working there looked at the door and waited for more people to come in, and I was sorry to disappoint them. I was meeting some friends later on, but there was none to be found at that time. I'm sure many of you have hit the local watering hole alone before. But has anyone ever gone into a new place, and found that you were the only one there??? YIKES.


The menu has the standard pub fare, and looked pretty decent. Of course, I was interested in the beer menu. I noticed that their menu just said the prices for "nama" in different sizes, but I was intrigued by the pretty impressive beer lineup (no Japanese craft beer though) in bottles on display above the taps. I walked up to the bar and asked one of the seven people staring at me if I could have a Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout. He said sure, so I asked the price. He looked at the bottle and told me 1000 yen. By this time I was already committed, since everyone was staring at me and seemed confused that I wanted to buy a beer that the staff hadn't sold too many of before. (Obviously)

The cute girl told me that she would bring me my beer, so I went back and sat by the window. Did I mention I was by myself, since I was THE ONLY PERSON IN THE BAR at 8:00PM on Friday?????




I looked up when the cute girl was coming my way with my beer. I noticed that the place where I had pointed at the Oatmeal Stout now was missing a bottle. She said the beer in front of me. It was only after I grabbed the bottle and found it room temperature that I realized: They just took the bottle off of the shelf, popped the top, and gave it to me. CLASSIC.

I drank the brew (which was tasty by the way) and said my goodbyes. I had checked out the place, and I admit with a bunch of guys, it could be fun. They had a 6 course set with all you can drink for 3000 yen, which isn't bad for Toyohashi. As I was leaving, I asked the girl if the place was always so dead. She said, "YES! It's always not busy. Please come back and bring your friends!!!!"

I might have to do that. Of course, when ordering a beer next time, I will make sure that it comes from a fridge, and not from the shelf.