Taipei is now full of burger restaurants. In this blog i've chronicled how my favorite burger joint has changed over the years, and currently I'm in the hunt for a new favorite spot since my previous one closed down.
A few weeks back I decided to give Bongos a try. It was one of the O.G. burger spots in the city, and very popular with foreigners because of it's "take a book, leave a book" library.
But when I went there, it was gone. Which was surprising because it had always been so popular. After doing some research I found that it had actually moved down the street. Not only that, but it had moved in with a local cafe, Coda. So now this place serves the cafe food of Coda and the burgers of Bongos.
If you have been keeping up with this blog, than you might see how shocking this is. this is really outside the box thinking in Taiwan, where business is very paint by numbers. Even when something is illogical, or losing money, and better alternatives are there, if that is not the way things are done in Taiwan, than expect to here them say "nooooooooo" in the tone of (wow that is a great idea and will work, but i'm just too scared to do it cause it's not the same way that everybody else does things). If you learn anything about Taiwan, it's that people feel they must be like everybody else, almost as a way of taking no personal responsibility. As if they fail, they can say it was society's fault, and not their fault, cause they just followed the way everybody else does things. This excuse is often offered up when some employees make a mistake, or when some business struggles.
Meaning it truly was a surprise to see this sign. It also made me anxious to go in and see what was going on. The first thing i noticed was that the book library from Bongos was there, and the huge round table from Bongos was also there. At first I had been thinking that perhaps Coda just bought Bongo's menu, but this appears that they at least bought their things as well.
On a second visit, I actually saw the owner of Bongos there cooking, so it seems like these two places could actually be working together, which is even more unique than Coda just buying up Bongo's remains if it had gone out of business.
The next time I'm there I will ask exactly how it all went down, as in Taiwan this is extremely fascinating. However it might be awhile before I go back. On my last visit, I had a cobb salad and while good, the cheese was way too strong for the salad and every time I think about that place, I can still feel the cheese over powering my delicate palate.
