A couple of weeks ago, my friend Chris e-mailed me a link to an article in the Vancouver Courier about The Storm Crow, a newly opened fantasy/science fiction and gaming themed bar over on Commercial Drive. (For those of you unfamiliar with the derivation*, Stormcrow is one of the names by which Gandalf is known in The Lord of the Rings.)I've always felt that there was room in the marketplace for a bar that would show the third Star Wars movie instead of the fourth game of the Stanley Cup playoffs, but to be honest, details in my mental picture have been fuzzy (outside of a few unfortunately juvenile ideas regarding costumes for the waitresses). As such, I was interested in seeing what an actual implementation of the concept would look like.
Apparently the new spot has been a hit, to the point where I've read a few online comments on their difficulties dealing with the crowds. I'm off work this week, and I thought that I would take advantage of the opportunity to go over to the Drive early enough in the afternoon to avoid the rush and scope the place out in relative peace and quiet over a contemplative pint.
So this afternoon at about three, after putting on my London Doctor Who Experience 2011 souvenir t-shirt (hey, if you're going to a gang bar, you got to wear your colours) I was out the door and onto the Number 22 bus.
Fifty-five minutes later, as I was making my way up the last bit of a hill to Commercial, I thought to myself that generally I wouldn't patronize a bar that required a two hour round trip. SF and fantasy motif or not, it's a big city, there's lots of bars. However, I had high hopes that it might prove worth it now and then just for the ambience - and, you know, the opportunity to hang with my peeps.
I rounded the corner onto Commercial Drive, there was the sign for the bar, I started to unlimber my Nikon for a picture, and what do you know - CLOSED TODAY FOR STAFF FUNCTION. So I took three shots of the frontage, a closeup of their sign, and trotted back to the bus stop.
A little investigation revealed that there had been a Tweet announcing their closure at about 2:30, and the fine print on their Facebook™ page also said that they were closed until tomorrow. Sadly, I didn't decide to follow them on Twitter™ or friend them on Facebook™, I just went to their web site for the address - which, by the way, did not mention any sort of closure in their Events calendar for September 24th.
I realize that these things happen, and that no lives were lost as a result of this. I'll make another attempt to visit The Storm Crow later this week. However, I would like to suggest to the management of the bar that if you're going to be closed for a full day, you should have that information EVERYWHERE - including, perhaps, your web site.
- Sid
* There are some other genre references to storm crows, but Gandalf Stormcrow is probably the best known one.
Keep us posted as to what you think of this place, and whether or not going inside makes you think you are stepping onto the set of a Star Wars bar scene :-)
ReplyDeleteI am definitely in if they have the same band playing from the Star Wars bar scene!
ReplyDeleteChris
Review is now posted:
ReplyDeletehttp://theinfiniterevolution.blogspot.ca/2012/09/this-time-for-sure.html
As per, they were showing A New Hope, so I did get to watch the cantina scene while I was there. However, Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes were not playing at the bar itself.
(By the way, trivia fans: the performers in the Cantina band were all played by members of the production team, including makeup artist Rick Baker and animator Phil Tippett.)
- Sid
And just to throw a bit of personal trivia in the works, as a yute in the 70's in London Ontario I played with a band named, you guessed it, Stormcrow. The leader of the band actually had the listing of his home telephone number (hard wired phones back in those days) under Gandalf.
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