Gimik at Gimmick Restobar

I cannot even recall if I headed north, south or west of Jo’s. All I know is that I did not head east for that would have been the boulevard and the tempura places again hehe! No I was not yet drunk (after the 8 bottles of SMB), I just can’t remember where I went for I never cared when I took that tricycle ride… hmm, and therefore I was drunk? Probably, but part of me insists NO I WAS NOT! I just couldn’t remember really!

Anyway, as if to appease you… my hunch is, I headed to the northwest part of the city on that tricycle to find myself at Gimmick RestoBar. Just hunches really, so if you know which direction I went, please tell me! But one thing is for sure, I enjoyed being in that place!

Going there
Manong trike driver (with specific instructions from my new-found friends, the crews of Jo’s) drove me along some kind of a highway, turned left at some not so wide road, moved straight ahead at some kind of a not-so-well-lighted residential area then stopped right in front of the gate to Gimmick. How and where is that, I still don’t know until now hehe!

The place.
It’s a wide expanse of residential property that is reminiscent of Puerto Princessa’s Kinabuch’s. But here in Gimmick, there are no parked cars along with the huts. And there is no wide-screen projection TV where you can watch you favorite ball game (or soap opera when the waitresses prevail hehe). None of that here, but just the same it’s an interesting place. Am not even sure I saw any TV (big or small) at the bar or wherever else. Just the same this is a nice place.

The gate is rather uncharacteristically low and permanently manned by a guard or sometimes two! And the whole area is very well fenced off by chicken wire so you can still see what’s inside if you are standing by the road. Entering the gate, right in front of you is a big big nipa roofed single level building where the restaurant tables are located. It’s an open type kind of restaurant common in many a rural places. After the eating and/or drinking tables, there are the pool tables. Then the comfort rooms to the left and the passageway to the kitchen. I think the whole walled area to the left of the pool tables are the “administrative offices and the kitchen behind it. Moving forward to the end of this building is some kind of a new extension that protrudes to the right with its back already on the perimeter wall. This is the bar, and it’s made of generally native things like bamboo.

That wasn’t big a place, was that?!

Well, to the right of everything I described above (starting from the gate up to the bar), is very wide expanse of a garden with carabao grass some little trees, huts, tents, umbrellas with tables plus a throng of so many other tables just in the open garden. That makes it a bit like Kinabuch’s though I think Gimmick Restobar is a bit more sprawling since it does not use the grounds as parking area.

Hey over at the northwest end (how did I know that? Am just guessing) or the farthest corner from the gate is a little concrete island hovered by that common blue Winston Cigarette umbrella. And that, my friends, is Gimmick’s attempt at what you might call a stage for the performers!

The activities
At least during this visit, music in the whole place is courtesy of a band of acoustic performers. Neophyte yes, but this is the Philippines AND this is the Visayas. I’d be a fool to say I did not discern some talent from those who were performing. They were nice enough to listen to. But I must admit, not really nice to look at. Why? They’re unbelievably just kids. I think this is the effect of trying to hone talent as bar performers when they’re still too young. Imagine, the singer has a baseball cap so all you can see is his neck down. And the routine is acoustics, R&B or soul, so he’s not really moving. If you shut your ear, you’d think there’s some goon mumbling at the microphone. But when you listen, you hear great music from a talented singer! Need some more polishing but these kids delivered good enough entertainment.

Activites? Well, aside from the billiards, the main event here is, what else, drinking and giggling. The louder the banter, the better hehe! One thing I noticed is that the tables were almost uniformly filled with Red Horse such that the few SMBs trying to sparkle were a stark minority. I saw a lot of girls (okay, ladies) guzzle their beers from the bottle. And those were dark bottles therefore Red Horse! All I could muster was, “oh my, these kids… with 3 bottles of that drink, I drop to sleep wherever”!

The crowd
This is definitely a hangout of Dumaguete’s younger set. I observed it was a merry mix of the B-C-D crowd with some sporadic “A” (I guess) but definitely way down youth! I’d say the average was between 19 and 22. And I’d be a damned hypocrite if I say “I didn’t see kids below 18”! There were! There were a few foreigners here and I would understand that since many of our tourists are generally from an age bracket above this set.

The experience
Well, I cannot say I did not enjoy being at Gimmick Restobar. But many times I felt like a pathetic chaperone looking out for my wards, hundreds of them hehe. There was a time I wanted to collar a kid who obviously was smoking grass. I feel almost sure if I made a scene, I would have discovered he was not even 18. There was a time I wanted to call the attention of a girl in a sexy black tube and miniskirt combo but was so careless she opened that leg too far to reveal some kind of cycling shorts. Or was that “volleyball shorts”? Nah, probably her brother’s swimming trunks hehe! Golly!

At least I know that this place, Gimmick Restobar, stands on its name. It’s a “gimik” place for the younger locals. It’s a fun place after all. Probably because its way down affordable.

My protest AND MY PLEA
Read the story above, the last 3 paragraphs at least, please. And, if you are from Dumaguete or have some links to the place, please heed this plea. THIS IS SERIOUS!

When I silently crept out to head for the more mature Hayahay, I was so overwhelmed with the number of motorcycles parked outside of Gimmick Restobar. If I had the Mayor’s number, I would have called on him/her and ask him/her to do something after seeing the “evidence”. It was virtually a lovely sea of bikes. These motorcycles are neatly and properly parked along the sidewalks fronting Gimmick, not just on the main road but even to the side alleys. To say there was more than a hundred is probably a gross understatement!

Can you imagine? What does anyone do inside Gimmick? Didn’t I say SanMigLight was a darn minority? So the kids are merrily drinking! Now, who owns those bikes? Who else? Those are the very same kids having a good time with Red Horse (and even pot) inside Gimmick. So they’re all going home drunk in those bikes? God forbid, please!

And Dumaguete is unfortunately a “helmet-less city” by the way. Oh my! God forbid please... those are hundreds of accidents waiting to happen. And those were generally beautiful kids I saw in there!

For a chronology of stories on this trip, click the following article numbers: