I went trice to Café des Art's, once inside and twice on the Terrasse and during these shorts visits I left after 21:00 or a few minutes later. During these visits I didnt realise any noise or any unhappy incidents from our group. If they dont want us to visit them anymore, Im sure there are adequates or better locations around Basel.

I dont know what others think.

I am shocked. the more I read the reply from Café des Art's, the more shock I get, this is a scandal. Basel which is supposed to be tolerant, and friendly towards Expats. The State of Basel offers a Welcome Event and is greatful that the Expats chose Basel as a place to work, and now this Scandal. Somebody please tell me this is not true. I cant believe what I read. Should we accept this nonsense?

I have attended a couple of glocals events in Cafe des Arts since Eshaan started organising them. I dont think there were any before. So it must be recent situation. From my experience there was a livley crowd and nothing more. At about 10 pm. two thirds of the crowd would be gone and maybe about 10 ppl. still hanging around with absloute no disturbance more then everage cutomers.

However, on my visits before on "unofficial occasions" i have experienced unfriendly attitude from some of the stuff.

Example; while waiting for a friend I ordered a stange (small beer). Having drunk half of it a friend arrived and sat down at the table with me waiting for me to finish as we were going to move on. She was made unwelcome to sit there without ordering anything! Explaining that we are moving on after i finish did not change the attitude... and only a few  customers were sitting outside...

I have more examples.. but to summerise, i was avoiding this place anyway..  and i have no regrets not to go there agian..

Hi

I'm surprised and disappointed too! However, after giving this issue careful and detailed thought, my considered response would be "f**k 'em! We'll go somewhere else!"

Nick

no regrets.. they have the worst caipirinhas in town !! they are enough alternative places to go instead.

As a Geneva local since over 20 years, and knowing that place since about 5, I can say I never found it friendly. I went two times: terrible service. The first was ok because we (a group of 6 friends, not from Glocals) and no other clients. The other was for my birthday. We waited 2h30 (no exageration) to have a miserable tiny little brunch. Never again.

+ I'm fluent in German. The way they answered was really not acceptable and absolutely not profesionnal. I'm schocked by the content. Is it supposed to be a place for old depressive people looking for absolute silence ? They'll end up getting what they want if that place doesn't get a better management.

Wait, is this the Cafe des Arts in Geneva or one in Basel ?

Thats the one in Basel.

The one in Geneva still sucks. I guessed it was weird they'd wrote in German ROFL

Nadine, doesn't matter ..  seems like these two places are very much alike!  

Quiet funny the Restaurant next to Café des Art's just forgotten its name, used to be frequented by the Elite of Basel, dont know if that is still the case.

Now I have the name

"We are simply the wrong place for this kind of group."

WOW!!!!!!!!! 

Hello everyone! I co-organize the Bern group for weekly gatherings and I have to say that Bern, been a smaller city, has allowed us to create a very lively group where everybody knows everybody and yes, we laugh a lot and can be a bit loud for swiss standards. But it's always fun, no smashing the place, or molesting other people, nothing like that, just the jokes and bringing business to an otherwise empty location.

Now, I find this posting quite interesting cause we experienced something a bit similar in a bar called Abflug. We used to go on Tuesdays, but since people in the group have become friends, some of them went on a Saturday, somebody got drunk...go figure! In a Bar!!! And the next time we wanted to go, they asked us to leave...literally...they said, you can have a beer and leave 'cause customers have complained about you being too loud....customers....so what are we then? too loud? In a bar? The place was empty on that night!!!!

Needless to say I wrote to the owner and I'll never set a foot in that place, ever again. Just as I'll never go to this Café des Arts  in Basel.

Thank you for this information, and honestly, I feel like collecting these experiences and send them to the newspapers. I'm aware they reserve their right of admission, but what is it based on?  I love this country, I've lived here 20 years, I've had many great experiences and won't criticise my children's homeland. But this kind of situations make me wonder if I have not only created ice castles in my mind.

Cheers to all and go look for more places!

We were at a different bar yesterday where I recognised a former bar-keeper from des Arts. I asked him about the Café des Arts and boy, did he have a lot to tell. He talked about the good old times, when Frank Hablützel owned the bar (most of the art comes from his collection) and as he passed away in 2004, things started to go south.

The new owner then bought the bar and then wanted to transform the clientel to new social standing (after having married into a weathy family). He told lots of stories, like from a rich couple, who were drinking a lot and when the woman asked for a glas of tap-water, she was denied (even though they had 22 cocktails...(on a sidenote, can anyone drink 11 cocktails?)).

The bar-keeper also said, that hardly any of the people who had worked there with F. H. are still there.