rooftop patio @ West in Scotia Centre

[urban.one]

Im excited about this place possibly filling the void of rooftop patios in downtown Calgary ever since the old Ceili's was closed down.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Calgary-AB/WEST-Restaurant-and-Bar/108078972558278?ref=mf

[JfuckinC]

Bunch of my lady friends will be working there and they said the patio is going to be pretty bomb. I'm excited for it to open also!!

[masoncgy]

Yeah this sounds pretty sweet. I know one of the investors and he's excited about it opening up!

[Speed_69]

I thought opening day was today?

I'm suppose to be going here on Saturday.

EDIT: NVM Opening day is this Thursday

[Kinjou]

Says opening day is Friday on the FB ad. I walked past it this afternoon and there were twi hostess at the door so I dunno whats going on..

[CUG]

Awesome! Good find, will check out.

[Canucks3322]

I hope it's 25 and up only with dress code....what a waste of a classy venue if it's a Cowboys/Roadhouse type crowd.

[Crymson]

No, it's on 8th. That means that friday it will be the after work crowd and saturday it will be brown guys and asian gang members.

[cam_wmh]

Originally posted by Crymson
No, it's on 8th. That means that friday it will be the after work crowd and saturday it will be brown guys and asian gang members.

Lol!

[2Valve0]

Originally posted by Canucks3322
I hope it's 25 and up only with dress code....what a waste of a classy venue if it's a Cowboys/Roadhouse type crowd.

So you mean like whiskey? Where they say 25 and up but really it's only to deny the idiots entry?

Why would you justify a place being 25 and up? I can see dress code but age limits are just idiotic. I know a few guys that got the doorman job at this place, seems like its going to be great I'm excited.

[2Valve0]

Originally posted by Crymson
No, it's on 8th. That means that friday it will be the after work crowd and saturday it will be brown guys and asian gang members.

Haha probably not with the music they are playing if you checked. It said Fri/Sat nights are 70s,80s,90s

I'm not sure many gang members or brown teenagers are into that haha.

[CUG]

Originally posted by Crymson
No, it's on 8th. That means that friday it will be the after work crowd and saturday it will be brown guys and asian gang members. Better than decked out 18 year old dudes leaning awkwardly against things with their sunglasses on trying to look hardcore.

[Shogged]

600 person patio should be pretty cool!

[Dycker]

Thinking of heading there for lunch. What is it being compared to for the food?

[Cos]

I heard this on CJay yesterday. Sounds really good, even the guys who made it sound excited for it to open. Something like a 16,000 sq ft patio and really high quality food.

[TorqueDog]

Originally posted by CUG
Better than decked out 18 year old dudes leaning awkwardly against things with their sunglasses on trying to look hardcore. Dude, you're so out of touch with today's youth.


18 year olds today wear girls jeans and makeup. Go to Melrose for lunch sometime and sit on the patio, you'll see what I mean.

[taemo]

we stopped by on monday mornign while going for timmies.. looking forward to try the prime rib burger out.

question though..how do you access the bar on a saturday evening or on sunday?

[broken_legs]

Originally posted by 2Valve0


So you mean like whiskey? Where they say 25 and up but really it's only to deny the idiots entry?

Why would you justify a place being 25 and up? I can see dress code but age limits are just idiotic. I know a few guys that got the doorman job at this place, seems like its going to be great I'm excited.

People over 25 usually avoid places where there are too many people under 25.

Despite the fact that there are probably a lot of cool and well behaved under 25s out there, most of them are a bit obnoxious when they drink.

Just going out on a limb, but im guessing over 25s probably spend more money at the bar too. As a business decision I think it would make sense to have an age limit.

Edit: for the record, im 28 and im still obnoxious when I drink :D



I'm probably going to hit this place up this week. Looks pretty cool.

[JfuckinC]

Originally posted by broken_legs

Just going out on a limb, but im guessing over 25s probably spend more money at the bar too. As a business decision I think it would make sense to have an age limit.


I don't agree with that at all! This place will not be over 25, but i do think the crowd will be naturally older just like most places down 8th.. I don't think age makes a difference, I've met a ton of loser drunks over 25 haha

[KO22]

Haha I work here.. well once get I get back from vacation.. the age their looking to promote is as they said "high class downtown core" and not so much as a younger crowd, I'm stoked to start working next week

[KO22]

And for the record, it opened monday... after a while, in a few weeks or so.. Fri & sat's or maybe just saturdays i forgot.. the second floor will turn into a "nightclub atmosphere".. theres a huge stage and a 100,000 dollar dj booth put in place, roof top patio wont open asap but will soon, no money spared for sure.. and doesn't at all affect the prices, but prices and venue in town no doubt

[wintonyk]

I think for the most part you don't have 25+ people puking in bars like you do with the younger crowd. Not saying that the young can't handle their liquor, but they are less experienced and able to handle themselves in an intoxicated state.

What I have found also is that expensive drinks leads to less stupidity. When I was working at Rawbar, I almost never had 18-22 year olds come in for a drink.

I love the rooftop patio. When in Halifax, the Argyle was incredible all summer long.

[Crymson]

I just went a did a walk through.

The main floor (2nd floor, scotia centre). Was very nice. lots of unique accents. Lots of wood, and soft lighting. Very cool - think, i dunno. Modern saloon? Who knows. Very nice.

A girl showed me around the second floor. Very neat. VERY open, lots of bar area to floorspace area ratio, should be easy to get a drink when it's busy. Nice looking dance floor, lounge area.

There is a few very secluded, semi private, easily bookable lounges around the main area. Each stylistically distinct and probably specialized in some way ie, whiskey bar, wine bar. The girl described them as their 70's and 60's bar.

I think it's going to be a cool place.

Definately more upscale -- there is no way a douchtard in an edhardy shirt and a highschool beard is going to feel comfortable there, and they probably won't be able to afford too many drinks anyway. I like the look of this place!

[89coupe]

They should have tinted the glass on the +15 level, who wants to be on display for people walking by?

[Bismarck]

I'd like to give a heads up to anyone who is going to be working for this company. Keep track of your hours and any events you work. Make sure you're getting paid properly and that you're not getting dicked around with scheduling. I've seen a lot of people get screwed over by this company and for the most part, your well being isn't a concern of theirs. Obviously it's too early to say, but I think their employees deserve fair warning.

On another note, I think having a rooftop patio downtown is going to be great, but I am skeptical as to the success of this venue.

I question how a company that is letting a venue like Flames Central go down the drain thinks that they are going to make an even bigger venue succeed and right across the street to boot.

I haven't checked West out yet, but do they have an entrance directly to the outside? Scotia Centre closes before 8pm, as does the +15. I'm sure that they wouldn't get into this without these considerations but it doesn't seem in Scotia Centre's best interest to have late night hooligans wandering around their shopping centre. Again, I haven't gone and had a look at it yet so we'll see.

Not trying to ruin a name, I give the company credit for being innovative and taking huge steps in bringing some originality to Calgary, but for anyone concerned with behind the scenes, proceed with caution!

[Crymson]

There is no external enterance. I asked and apparently they're going to open up the +15 somehow.

[2Valve0]

Originally posted by broken_legs


People over 25 usually avoid places where there are too many people under 25.

Despite the fact that there are probably a lot of cool and well behaved under 25s out there, most of them are a bit obnoxious when they drink.

Just going out on a limb, but im guessing over 25s probably spend more money at the bar too. As a business decision I think it would make sense to have an age limit.

Edit: for the record, im 28 and im still obnoxious when I drink :D



I'm probably going to hit this place up this week. Looks pretty cool.

I would rather hang out with a douchebag younger crowd wearing edhardy/affliction then stuck up douchebag older people wearing ed hardy/affliction.

Point is dbags come from all walks of life and all ages. Go to tantra, a bunch of 30 year old men trying to act 20, its pathetic. It doesn't have anything to do with age, its with your attitude and the way you present yourself.

I don't know about the spending more either, most 18-20some year olds work so they can party and see people spend their weekly salarys at the bar to impress girls or act cool. :dunno: You could argue the fact that 25+ have more money, but unless your attracting a crowd well into there 30's how much more money will they really have to spend?

Either way as long as you look good and don't dress like a dbag im sure there will be no problem getting in. I just hope it doesn't turn out like flames central. :banghead:

[Speed_69]

Originally posted by 2Valve0


I would rather hang out with a douchebag younger crowd wearing edhardy/affliction then stuck up douchebag older people wearing ed hardy/affliction.

Point is dbags come from all walks of life and all ages. Go to tantra, a bunch of 30 year old men trying to act 20, its pathetic. It doesn't have anything to do with age, its with your attitude and the way you present yourself.

I don't know about the spending more either, most 18-20some year olds work so they can party and see people spend their weekly salarys at the bar to impress girls or act cool. :dunno: You could argue the fact that 25+ have more money, but unless your attracting a crowd well into there 30's how much more money will they really have to spend?

Either way as long as you look good and don't dress like a dbag im sure there will be no problem getting in. I just hope it doesn't turn out like flames central. :banghead:
:werd: This guy has it dead on!

Douchebags come in all ages. I see so many older people acting immature and also wearing Ed Hardy crap.

I'm only 23 right now but I spent A LOT more money at the bar/clubs when I was 18 to 21. I would use all of my money after paying for my car expenses to party on weekends. I would spend up to $400+ on weekends just on booze when I was a student. Now that i'm abit older, i'm thinking more about my future and have less disposable income because I'd rather save money for more important things.

I'm asian so i'm kinda dissapointed that this place isn't going to be a top 40/hip-hop lounge.

[Idratherbsidewayz]

Originally posted by Speed_69
I'm asian so i'm kinda dissapointed that this place isn't going to be a top 40/hip-hop lounge.

Don't worry, every other bar in Calgary is more than willing to satisfy your terrible musical tastes...

Rooftop patio sounds sweet, can't wait to see it.

[Gainsbarre]

Originally posted by Bismarck

I haven't checked West out yet, but do they have an entrance directly to the outside? Scotia Centre closes before 8pm, as does the +15. I'm sure that they wouldn't get into this without these considerations but it doesn't seem in Scotia Centre's best interest to have late night hooligans wandering around their shopping centre. Again, I haven't gone and had a look at it yet so we'll see.



Oh I wasn't aware of that. I work at the Scotia Centre now and the +15 seems to be open at night, well past 8pm -- in fact, the major South-North artery of the +15 along 2nd street (from Gulf Canada all the way to the Canterra tower, as well the bit that stretches out east to the Petro Canada/Suncor Energy Centre) seems to be open until about 11pm any given weekday, and on weekends from my experience. There's tons of uniformed security at Scotia Centre (maybe because it's too close to the C-Train tracks?), but I've never really seen them do anything.

Oh and the "rooftop" patio is only 3 stories up on a 40 story building...sounds silly, but I was a bit disappointed when I learned that "rooftop" didn't mean the actual rooftop of the building. At least it's facing 8th ave (rather than the other direction)

[Speed_69]

Went to West Restaurant on Saturday night for dinner. Definitely not impressed. The place is nice and big and the stairs to the second level are never ending. I was expecting something better that took 20 months to renovate. I understand that this is a new restaurant and service might be lacking but this was to the point where it was just unacceptable. Waitress took forever to come take our drink orders. Once they were taken, took 20min to actually get the drinks. After another 20min, our server took our appetizer order. She did not want to take our entree order yet. We chose the Springs rolls w/ crab meat for our appetizer and it tasted decent. After eating our appetizer, it was about another 20min later that she took our entree order. I had the Chicken Louie which consist of rotisserie chicken, Baby Back Ribs and Fries. Chicken was SUPER DRY, baby back ribs were soft but didn't taste great and fries weren't tasty as all. We had a party of 10, none of us enjoyed our meals. The appetizers weren't bad though. I would've rather ate a rotisserie chicken purchased at Superstore or had Mcdonald's and would've been 10x happier.

Got there around 7:30pm and didn't get our entree till about 9:30pm I believe.

Their cocktails and Martini's are fairly good and fairly priced.
I'm most likely never going to return here for dinner but may come back for some drinks/appetizers.

When the second level turns to a lounge after 8PM, the place fills up with a whole bunch of 30 to 50 year olds ready to get their groove on. For those who are interested, definitely a lot of cougars will be hanging around here.

[Crymson]

Awful. They need a few months to figure out how to be a bar.

The music was terrible, i realize that it was supposed to be 80's 90's but it CAN be done well.

You couldn't get a drink to save your life. I'm not kidding. It was "busy" but it wasn't packed but you'd literally stand at the bar for 25 minutes before a bartender would come by. And the tarts behind the bar would all have to get together and talk for 5 minutes if they happened to run out of tonic or some liquore. I swear a bunch of them looked they were going to cry a few times. The only saving grace was that one of the back bars cleared out and you could get a drink there.

I'll try it again in a few months when the rooftop patio is open, but as a "bar/nightclub" it was a disaster. Hopefully the crowd will be better than the usually industry skeezies on an opening night, so i don't want to judge the people there just yet.

on plus side, the girls there were good that sort of "lookin for a sugar daddy 23-29 - could be an escort you don't know" kind of thing going on - very minimal fat chicks and notties. The bartenders and waitresses that knew what they were doing were pretty fun and quick, the place is easy to navigate and it's easy to lose people you don't want to have to talk to.

It's also good for smokers, because it's a LONG treck to have a smoke -- so you don't go out that often.

[HuMz]

I'll probably wait a month or two to check it out. I've worked at the openings at a few restaurants as well as been to a few and theres usually always a grace period before the food and service gets up to par.

Ideally it should be perfect right when it opens but it just very rarely seem to work that way, which its usually worth it to wait....or at least judge it fairly.

[kaput]

.

[Canucks3322]

^ hahaha wtf...maybe you just have digestion problems??

The music is 80's and 90's?? What kind though, top 40? Hip Hop/RnB?? disco? or rock??? I'm guessing it's pretty much like a giant Met then according to the comments.

[Kinjou]

Originally posted by Canucks3322
^ hahaha wtf...maybe you just have digestion problems??

The music is 80's and 90's?? What kind though, top 40? Hip Hop/RnB?? disco? or rock??? I'm guessing it's pretty much like a giant Met then according to the comments.

Pretty much.

[kaput]

.

[yourmom]

I have been there twice now. It is pretty nice inside, and the HR department did a good job of hiring good looking waitresses. To bad they are painfully slow at getting drinks. The food was pretty good, we sampled 4 appetizers. The value for money wasn't bad, but it wasn't that great. My biggest complaint was one night we went after the plus 15 was closed, and we couldn't get in. We had to rattle the door until security came and let us in.

All that being said, I will go back again. I think once they get the kinks worked out it will be a great place to go for after work drinks/dinner.

[rage2]

Originally posted by Crymson
I'll try it again in a few months when the rooftop patio is open, but as a "bar/nightclub" it was a disaster. Hopefully the crowd will be better than the usually industry skeezies on an opening night, so i don't want to judge the people there just yet.

on plus side, the girls there were good that sort of "lookin for a sugar daddy 23-29 - could be an escort you don't know" kind of thing going on - very minimal fat chicks and notties.
Went there last night, and that description pretty much sums it up right there. Not my kinda crowd.

[Kinjou]

Originally posted by kaput


Definitely not, I hadn't eaten anything else earlier that could have caused that. I had the west coast melt which is 3 or 4 different kinds of fish mixed together. No question that's what it was, their kitchen staff obviously have no idea about food safety with seafood.

A friend of mine had the same thing yesterday, no complaints yet..

[l/l/rX]

I was there on saturday night for drinks/ friends birthday. If you're looking to club, this is not the place to go. If you're looking to lounge then ya maybe. But get there early, there are plenty of other good lounges in the city where you wont have to wait in 2 separate lines for (1 outside to actually get into the building and 1 at the actual entrance).

The eye candy is for sure superb to other places in town at the moment, but it is also for sure a way older crowd 25+. Service was pretty good, we had a couple tables and the waitress was really good at getting us drinks everytime we were low/ done and the bar shot them out pretty fast considering how many people were standing around the bar ordering drinks.

On the tv screens you can watch all sort of guys get shot down left right n center trying to pick up girls on the dance floor, you can also watch them dance really off beat to the music, annnd observe other people watching the tv's pointing n laughing at them. LOL!

I went, I saw, I probably won't go back for a while. Only reason I'd go there again is if a friend has a birthday there or something.

[roopi]

Did anything ever open up where the old rooftop patio was located?

[bjstare]

A certain popular beerhall is opening another location there in the coming weeks.

[roopi]

National? That's unfortunate.

[l/l/rX]

Originally posted by roopi
Did anything ever open up where the old rooftop patio was located?

It's still West Patio, then national, and goro + gun underneathe.

[Graham_A_M]

Interesting, seeing a thread thats just 4 years old, and seeing how many people aren't around anymore, definitely strange. CUG, JfuckinC, so many others that are gone now for whatever reason.

:confused:

[BrknFngrs]

Originally posted by l/l/rX


It's still West Patio, then national, and goro + gun underneathe.

Doesn't seem to be the case; we had a corporate event booked with West on their patio and National called to let us know they were taking it over.

[sexualbanana]

Originally posted by BrknFngrs


Doesn't seem to be the case; we had a corporate event booked with West on their patio and National called to let us know they were taking it over.

I believe it's going to be another National, at least until Stampede is over.

[JfuckinC]

Originally posted by Graham_A_M
Interesting, seeing a thread thats just 4 years old, and seeing how many people aren't around anymore, definitely strange. CUG, JfuckinC, so many others that are gone now for whatever reason.

:confused:

What do you mean, i'm right here :D

Just busy these days lol..... But any thread about a bar peaks my interest....

[Graham_A_M]

WTF? That was random lol. Just out of no where you show up. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[toyboy88]

+1 that it is National taking over/moving in to the (old) West spot.

Sat next to one of the co-owners of the group that owns National (and others), on my flight last month to Chicago, and he said they were going to be open in time for Stampede.

[ExtraSlow]

West was very poorly run, hope national can do better, that's cool real estate.

[Maxx Mazda]

West WAS cool when it was new, then it turned into douche central.

National's food is horrible, but hope they can make something of the patio.

[JfuckinC]

I love national, but ya the food sucks haha.. I am trying to avoid that place, it get's me in trouble :D

Probably wont be avoiding the patio though :poosie:

[Canmorite]

Patio is in pretty poor shape right now...

http://s17.postimg.org/5320qnhm7/West_patio.jpg

[n1zm0]

Originally posted by Maxx Mazda
West WAS cool when it was new, then it turned into douche central.


This is so true, awesome atmosphere, decent food, the patio during stampede. Then it turned into an overwhelming bro team meetup.

[max_boost]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
West was very poorly run, hope national can do better, that's cool real estate. Same ownership group anyway.

Beer halls are taking over!