When I was writing the initial pages for Go Cabrera I particularly mentioned a recently refurbished bar which had become the local “hot-spot”. It was packed out at weekends and even during the week, when everywhere else was quiet it still attracted clients.
As with every popular bar in Cabrera, it had good music, an area for dancing, and a D.J. who seemed to understand the right music to play to keep the customers dancing and added a bit of character to the ambience. So successful and so busy was the bar that the owner (or tenant) extended the customer area by removing what had previously been a kitchen and storage area, making the bar into an island in the centre.
So, you may be asking why has all reference to this bar disappeared from the Go Cabrera site. The answer, quite simply is that the bar is now closed and had a For Rent sign displayed yesterday. So, what happened? I don’t know for sure but I am guessing that it had a lot to do with an unfortunate trait of “killing the goose that lays the golden egg”
As soon as the bar became busy up went the prices and in some cases not by just a small amount. Compared to other bars, bottles of beer were 10 or 20 pesos more expensive, “un trago” 40 or 50 pesos more and a “servicio de ron”, a small bottle of brugal rum and mixer, 100 pesos more. The Dominicans don’t have money to waste and I am sure they decided that if they could dance and enjoy a drink in other places much cheaper they simply voted with their feet and went somewhere else.
So gradually, the bar had less and less customers, didn’t bother to open on some nights and finally closed its doors. A pity in my opinion as it did have a good atmosphere and I think if it had not priced itself out of the market could still have been a thriving business today.
