201 North 1st Street
Keewatin, MN 55753
Itasca County
Phone: (218) 778-6265
Fax: unknownWebsite: no website on fileEmail: no email on fileHours: unknown
Vene Qua Bar & Lounge - About Us
No Description Available for Vene Qua Bar & Lounge.
Website Description and Information
No Website Description Available for Vene Qua Bar & Lounge.
by John Q. on There is a varied* array of nightlife in Jackson Heights. Unfortunately as someone with a predilection for laid-back bars featuring a choice beer and whiskey selection and at least the slimmest of possibilities that I may meet the woman of my dreams on the premises, none of the neighborhood's drinking establishments fit my ideal. There are gay bars. A gay nightclub. A miserable dive attracting staggering middle-aged drunks. A small sports bar populated by a limited cache of regulars. Lounges that long to be in the meatpacking district, if only they were sleek enough to be obstructed by a velvet rope instead of a vinyl strap. Some spots where latino immigrant laborers renumerate their fellow latina immigrants along the lines of $2-$3 per cancion to dance with them. As well as a number of latino-oriented bars which are typically staffed by a pair of provocatively attired bartendresses** and perhaps a similarly dressed waitress on Friday and Saturday nights; where the overwhleming majority of the clientele is male and most of those males hablar espanol as their primary language. La Jungla falls into this latter category. A miserable excuse of a liquor selection is offered at La Jungla. Aguardiente, aka Colombian jaegermeister is the most popular libation served. Whiskey drinkers tend to opt for the nasty Buchanan's blended scotch whiskey, while the more refined sip Johnny Walker Black. Forget about finding a palatable bourbon here, not even Wild Turkey is available, at best you're stuck with Jim Beam. An unnecessarily large variety of brands of vodka reside upon the top shelf, but if that's not your spirit of choice you're short on suerte. The typical array of watery national pilsners are found: Bud, Becks, Heineken, Corona; Aguila too, since this is a Colombian-run bar after all. For a brief while Blue Moon was actually served, though one had to bring their own oranges to accompany it. Generally I ordered a Negra Modelo# to escape the drudgery of Budweiser. Always with a glass to avoid the foil on the neck of the bottle. Aside from the availability of dark beer, the other redeeming feature of La Jungla barely elevating it from the tepid mediocrity of two stars is an aquarium running the length of the bar. The problem being that from time to time an angry or sloppy drunk leaves a crack in the glass, even a substantial one. A plethora of fish call this aquarium home, but I particularly loved the pair of turtles I'd watch swimming the length of the fish tank, often sharing this observation with the bartendresses or fellow patrons. "¡Me gustan las tortugas! ¡Son mis favoritos!" "Um, O.K." A backyard with generous seating adrons the rear of La Jungla, a rare feature in Jackson Heights. Special events were hosted on occasion, from comedians drawing an unusually high proportion of female customers to strippers who did not. I noticed few non-latinos in La Jungla. Once an Asian woman was dancing to bachata with a male patron, he seemed reluctant to allow her to part when she'd had enough and decided it time to leave. During another visit I was hit on clumsily by a fellow white male who was apparently unimpressed with the action at Friends' Tavern next door. Generally, a trip to La Jungla was an opportunity to practicar mi espanol.# When I first moved to Jackson Heights there was a bevy of stunning Colombian beauties bartending and waitressing at La Jungla, over time turnover led to the previous eye-candy receding to a rather average level.*** In short, La Jungla is a semi-acceptable, if uninspired spot to grab a drink in Jackson Heights, but it could be worse. It could be The Ready Penny Inn. -------- *so varied it helped drive me out of the neighborhood. that & the utter lack of a tree or blade of grass. check out Travers "Park" while in the area and you'll commiserate. -------- **yes, I'm politically incorrect, but no more so than the guys running these sorts of bars. note the window in any one of them, there's always a "Barmaids Wanted" sign posted. -------- ***yeah, I know, I should talk, but I'm not the one being paid for my sex-appeal in a short skirt and a cleavage-bearing halter top. -------- #I had the following conversation, more or less, on a number of occasions in various area bars while living in Jackson Heights; obviously I will never make it to fluent level in conversational Spanish: Me: Quiero una negra modelo por favor. Bartender: ¿Como? Me: Negra modelo. Bartender: ¿Como? Me: Negra modelo. Bartender: ¿Como????? Me: Nay. Grah. Mow. Day. Low. Bartender: ¡Ah! ¡Negra Modelo! [[[ that's what I was saying all along!!! Arrrggghhh!!! ]]]
by Roni R. on Average food + Annoying waiter = Mediocre Business. So my friend and I walked in by chance to check out their brunch on Saturday morning and we were the ONLY people in the entire resaurant. The entire restaurant was empty! Being that it was brunch and about noon -- we were confused. The waiter was kind enough to show us the buffet which appeared decent enough -- so we stayed. At first, what appeared a nice young waiter (his name Dwayne or Dwight or something w/the letter D) ... talkative, attentive, etc. turned into an annoying person -- interrupting our meal every 2 minutes to talk about how the restaurant food is AMAZING and how the owner owns all these other restaurants and his girlfriend and partying. We thought he was the owner for a second b/c he kept going on ... and on ... and on ... and on. The food was nothing to write home about -- totally tasted like a substandard El Torito. Oh and we ordered coffee at the end of our meal and we had to wait for them to make it -- TWICE. It was so pungent and bitter the first time that it was not consumable. So, they made a second pot and it was worse than the first time. They admitted they did not know how to make coffee. So, we sent it back again (but it was annoying b/c we had waited about 20 minutes total for the stupid coffee. They also didn't have any hot chocolate even though they had it on their menu. The food is edible but I'd skip this place for the service alone. Who wants to be annoyed throughout their meal? Maybe it was b/c it was empty and the server was bored and it may be better at dinner or lunch. So, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt that others may encounter more pleasant experiences. But I wouldn't return.
