It is Wednesday and, like Ulysse, I feel the voice of the Sirens calling me. I try to resist, after a week like last one, that has been the happiest one of my year (my best friend was visiting from Italy) but also, most probably, the most destructive one. I am seated down at my desk, overlooking a sad, orange landscape of offices and I am just dreaming about having a drink. So I decided to trick the waiting with another summary post, this time to include a question that I often find in the Google search related to my blog. I have friends visiting – someone to take out, where do I go for an easy night out?

If you have been living in Luxembourg for more than a while, you definitely know a day of the week can change everything about one place or another. With few exceptions (Paname, Urban, Goten, Tube, you name them), at most of the bars, you have been there last week on a Wednesday and it was the most amazing place ever, now on a Friday night it is creepy and boring.

Here some of my favorite – and as usual, feel free to comment with your own , I am always very happy to discover or revaluate locations:

On a Monday Evening: Come a La Maison

This is the saddest day of the week. First of all, because your friends have been drinking all the week end and now they are full of healthy life good purposes – which will last till tomorrow – and run away from whatever invitation (you have been drinking as well, but you never had good purposes to start with). Second, because most of the cool places are closed on Mondays. But it might be the case you have a friend visiting only for the night (in Italian, I would say “che culo”), that your boss is off on Tuesday morning or you want to celebrate something special (like just being Monday) and you want to go out. Not many options, but my “to go” place is Come a La Maison. Even if you might remember from here, I am not very much fan of the restaurant, on Monday night they have the Italian after-work from 6 pm to 9 pm, really Italian style, meaning with a free buffet of food. Nice Italian food, like charcuterie, suppli’, meaballs, fresh marinated fish, pizza, cheese. It is not overcrowded, above all on the terrace during cloudy days, but yet at the third bottle of prosecco you might forget it is only still Monday – I know someone around here which occurred to be exactly in the same situation last Monday.
So, to sum up: you pay for your drinks, you eat (or nibble) how much you want (for free), you have music, pleasant atmosphere (as always at Come a la Maison) and a nice surrounding of business people who are escaping Mondays like you are doing – or at least trying. If you feel your stomach is still empty (or too full of alcohol), you can even stop by for dinner.

(Pics from Come a La Maison website)

On a Tuesday Evening: Tempo Bar

Becoming old, I started loving places where you don’t go for meeting new people but just for being around your own friends and enjoying it. Consequently, I also appreciate places where the music is not that loud and you can feel a bit “off the beaten tracks” (even if it is quite difficult in Luxembourg, but still). There is a place I love during the warm season and I always find underrated under the pure “night out” point of view and it is Tempo Bar, in Kirchberg. We start from saying that the interior design is lovely and the food is generally delicious, so I appreciate coming here as well for a business lunch or dinner. But the terrace has an amazing potential that is, to me, mostly unexpressed. This is one of the place I tend not to talk too much about as I am feeling afraid to find it completely packed next time I am coming back.
What does Tempo offer you? A unique, enchanting terrace. Overlooking Mudam, with the Philharmonie and its white shape at your back. A valid drink menu for a pre-dinner or long-afterwork drink, with fair prices – among which, my favorite, is definitely Alice Hartmann Cremant. Aside from the dinner menu, a variegate, interesting “appetizer” menu to share, including classic like oysters, charcuterie and cheese platters , but with some creative twists, – I recommend you to try the mini burgers – to die for!. It does not come like an extremely cheap place regarding food – and I am happy it is not – but it is definitely worth a try, above all during sunny days and if you are with someone who is new in Luxembourg.

On a Wednesday Evening: Lady Jane

As most of the cool nights during the week are now happening on Thursdays, I tend to save myself on Wednesday night and to give my preference, in case I (really) (have to) go out, to more intimate places. At the moment, my favorite among them is Lady Jane, in the city center.
Now – you love it or hate it. The place is a speakeasy: so, the entrance is hidden, you need to book as they have service only at the table and you need a password to get in – not too complicated to obtain, but I cannot unveil you all the secrets, rights?
What I need to tell you: getting into Lady Jane, not with some difficulties if you, like me, totally miss balance, is like getting into the living room of an old aunt. A crazy one, who is hanging lamps upside down. The cocktail menu, which is changing on a regular basis and until end of summer will be just orally decanted, is amazing. Amazing meaning something you might have not regularly seen in other places around (a more polished and calmer Experimental Cocktail Club in Chinatown). For alcohol combinations and presentations. Smoke, flowers, bamboo straws are on the menu. Next to the drinks and the quiet atmosphere (when there are no DJs on the agenda), you have a nice and unexpected menu for appetizers – to share or to eat alone. Portions are fair as well as prices. A special note to the service, that still, more than one year after the place opened, it is still to me one of the best in town. The only downside? No terrace, so to smoke you have, again, to roll down the stairs.

On a Thursday Evening: Briscolino or Project LuX

On Thursday you normally would be difficult to go wrong. If you don’t want to go to your “usual bar”,  there are several nights around town in which my favorite is definitely Briscolino, the Italian after-work (here we go, again), at La Briscola. The crowd is mostly composed by young professional, you have a DJ set which intensity is going up with the night and a delicious Italian buffet.

Another similar option is proposed by Project LuX: while Briscolino, the name says it all, is always happening at La Briscola, Project LuX parties are always changing location – and sometimes also day of the week. Ikki, Skybar, Boos Café, Le Sud. Follow their page and you will be updated on a regular basis on their parties. The concept is the same, replicated at different venues: dj set, finger food, drinks, cool people. The place to see and to be seen.

On a Friday Evening: This is your free night, I leave the choice with you – my favorite list is too long, from L’Avenue to Tender, from Paname to Llama.

On a Saturday Evening: Metropolitan

Saturday is generally too packed everywhere – so if you want a cool place where you don’t have to wait ages to drink and you can also nibble something, my suggestion would definitely be Metropolitan, in Place de Paris. You will not miss a thing: you will have the “people watching” component, you will have a nice list of drinks (including a very good Bloody Mary and a lovely Sicilian red wine), you will have an appetizers (or dinner) menu served till late – go for the sliders, they are yummy! The place is always full, but, differently from some others around, you will always find a table – and I love their white benches, they are so comfortable you can forget to leave.

(Pics from Editus)

On a Sunday Evening: Scott’s Pub, Soho and B13

Here I will close our week long drinking and eating around Luxembourg with three suggestions. If you want to let your hair down, Scott’s Pub. This place does not need any presentation on my side, but I would like introducing it here again as, since they changed their menu card, I feel the urge to visit them at least once per week. My personal favorite are their Truffle Fries and their Unfiltered beer. Bonus point: the unbeatable view.

Second place, if you still feel like partying, at Soho they organize cool Sunday parties – check out their FB page to be sure you are on the right Sunday! The atmosphere is pretty on the young and fashion side, but if you go with your friends early you will get into the party mood immediately. Outside bar, nice list of cocktails (a very good Aperol Spritz indeed) and normally a food corner if you feel hungry – last time I have been there they had a pasta corner and shisha was available to smoke.
(Pics from FB)

Third place, if you are with your in-laws or if you are looking for some peace after a week-end of alcohol overindulgence – B13 in Bertrange pedestrian area – you can easily get there with bus 5/6 that are stopping just in front. This is again one of my favorite terrace in Luxembourg, they do nice cocktails, have a good choice of wine and have a pretty wide selection of dishes also to share – and if you don’t want to share, go for vitello tonnato. It does not come as very cheap, but you will start saving from Monday right?

(Pictures are mine, if not stated differently)