A mingle-friendly venue for 15-20 people in Helsinki

[CAD_Guy]

There is nothing seriously wrong with Belge. Sometimes our group is just too big.

That pretty much described last Saturday's meet-up, too many people and not enough seats. Then it got busy too. People start watching your seats like vultures LOL!

People don't have much money so I don't think renting a place and expecting them to pay would be a good thing.

Just would be nice to find a lounge like place where the music isn't too loud and the food is reasonable with the drinks. We'll have to try the different places and see.

[Cloudberry]

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[kalmisto]

>> I like the Belge but agree that the noise level makes conversation difficult (especially once the DJ starts) and if there's more than 8 or 10 people it's almost impossible to seat everyone together comfortably and in a way that we can mingle. I think trying the other venues out is a great idea. I'm keeping my clothes on for the Nude bar night though <<

A simple solution to the problem would be of course to start the meetups earlier, like 3pm on a Saturday ( or why not Sunday )but most people would certainly not be happy with that suggestion - or would they ?

[kalmisto]

>> I think trying the other venues out is a great idea. I'm keeping my clothes on for the Nude bar night though <<

http://www.after5catalog.com/images/pro ... 7070p1.jpg

"The Nude Bar" is not a good name for a bar that has nothing to do with nudity. It is just odd.

The English word "bar" is "baari" in Finnish.
Put those words together and you get "barbaari" :
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/barbaari

Wouldn´t "Barbaari" be a good name for a Finnish bar ? If you drink too much alcohol there is a risk that you start behaving like a barbarian ( barbaari ).

[NanaM]

Our meetups ( held on Saturdays ) start much earlier that yours ( 5pm ! ).

It sure helps.

but at 5pm it should not be difficult to find several small tables close to each other. ( Certainly much more difficult or impossible at 7.30pm )

Yes, you can do that on the second hall with individual tables and chairs. More difficult close to the bar and scene.

The other hall is full of tables for guests to sit and converse and that is where our group would be sitting.

This is where we ended up most of the times and even there it was rather noisy on Friday nights. Hope you get it it quieter on saturdays afternoon/evening. Let us know how it goes.

[sinikala]

I honestly thought you wrote 'minge-friendly'..

I almost spat tea on my monitor.

[FinnGuyHelsinki]

If I understood right, you're looking for an affordable place without a reservation, with a nice atmosphere and layout, and which people usually don't go to on Saturdays. Clearly some of the requirements are contradictory to one another. All places that are any good - and many that are not good at all - start filling up with people as the night progresses. Restaurants more often than not cannot seat a group of 15-20 people without a reservation (at least a week in advance), I don't know if any are offering (free) reservation if you are not going to eat. One possibility is to find a place (or a section of it) that you will pretty much fill it up entirely, so that anyone else won't even try to find a seat.

Kaisla as a place is nice, but inevitably will get full, as is the case with Belge. Beer restaurants have a bit quieter atmosphere, although you'd have to be early on to seat everyone (5PM, not a chance). Have you considered hotel lounge bars? (seriously, they are usually quiet and not very often favored by the locals, if only you can find a large enough place).