Discovering the Plaza Ñuñoa.

I like where I live. Ñuñoa is a community in Santiago located just south of Providencia. It is mostly residential, lots of trees, only recently have taller buildings made there way to the community, unfortunately taking away some of the great views of the San Ramon group of mountains towards the east.

As a muncipality Ñuñoa also has a lot going for it. Its the only community in Santiago that has a recyclng pick up service. It also has a free bus in the mornings (though it doesn't get quite far enough). There are a lot of free music shows in several of the plazas, including the Plaza Ñuñoa, near where I live.

The Plaza Ñuñoa also offers some great night entertainment: breweries, theater, live music, good happy hour specials all make it an attractive destination at night.

Revista Revolver just published a short guide I wrote to the night scene in Ñuñoa. I didn't go too far in depth into the places, and I probably left out a few goodies (La Isla, Butapest, to name a couple), but it gives you an idea of what is possible if you're looking to get to know the Plaza a bit more.

Santiago places: Bar Constitución

So last weekend I made it out with Caro to Bar Constitución, located in Bellavista along Constitución (the street parallel to Pionono where all the nicer restaurants are). The place has gotten a fair amount of attention and attracts a mid twenties and younger crowd. The bar itself is set up nicely, although the wall that faces it is made of crappy unpainted wood that doesn't mix with the rest of the place. It has a DJ stand and the place fills up quickly after 11pm. The place even has some good microbrews hard to find in most bars...Mestra, Kross, Capital....all a plus.

Everything seemed nice upon walking in, but it all went down from there.

Service in Chile isn't very good in general, but this place was an extreme. The service was horrible!

The waiter took forever to even bring a menu...the first round took quite a while...the second one I had to get up and ask if I could just walk around the bar and pour myself a beer..then they just stopped attending to us at all...and it has that stupid system quite popular in Chile where you pay in one line and then go to another to get the actual drink. Then when we finally got the bill they over charged us. Plus while I was at the bar just trying to get them to bring more drinks the staff was running around with all these bills all confused like they had lost someone's tab or something. It gave the impression that there was no manager and never had been one.

So its a place that has potential as long as you don't require food or drinks!

Santiago places: La Feria

So over the weekend I made it to this place: Club La Feria. Located in Bellavista it has been described to me as the best place for electronic music in Santiago, and a really good club. Add to that the 6000 peso entry (the mid tier places usually charge around 3000 pesos and give you a crappy rum and coke) that comes without a free drink and I got my expectations up for something really nice.

The pluses of the place: The DJ knew how to DJ, how to do a transition (no trance followed by AC/DC which can happen in a place with a “typical” Chilean DJ, no 80s music..etc). The place had a fairly interesting look to it as well. The bar tenders could make a drink and take money. (Many places have two separate lines, one to pay one to get your drink), and they also were more like bar tenders, if they saw you needed something they came to you.

But the negatives: Needed something more visual, I think they have a TV, but for a place where the DJ is center stage and all he is doing is pushing play on the laptop, video is important. The drinks were a bit expensive 3500 for rum or vodka, 4000 for whiskey, 2000 for a bottle of beer, and it was very small.

So if you really want to dance to some electronic music it is worth it, but just make sure to bring enough cash.