PattayaPete

To celebrate finally re-opening we are having a party from 1pm to 6pm. We have lots of giveaways from our suppliers and will have free sangria as well. Come and blow off the past two years of misery. Everyone is very welcome.

The "health nazis" were only there for one day, yesterday. From today we will be doing what every one else is doing and anything we do will be done by our own staff.

The rumors of my sanity are highly exaggerated!

We will be open tomorrow and every day from 1pm to 10pm. We are only running 1 shift hence the shortened opening hours. As soon as turnover justifies it we will be back to normal opening times. Ten pm is still mandated closing time although the powers that be are discussing that tomorrow and may allow later closing and also the opening of bars and nightclubs. We will see. With a skeleton staff of just 20 vs the normal 100 it may take us a few days to get things humming, so please forgive any slowness or sloppiness in the service. I am fairly confident things will be fine but until we are running I can't be sure. We will tweak it as needed. On a personal note, I am stepping back from day to day operations. Twenty five years in the bar and restaurant trade in Pattaya is a pretty good run but I am not as energetic or motivated as I was in the past. Old age sucks :-). My Thai step son, Eckapon will be the new manager. He has been around me for 25 years (he is 27) so hopefully has a good understanding of "crazy" farangs. Eck has excellent English so feel free to have a chat with him anytime and your opinion on the operation and farang friendliness of the place are welcome, both in the bar and here on this forum.

I am reluctant to name a date given all the delays we have had. Our plan at the moment is to open again on 18 March. Fairly confident of this baring any new changes in the situation with Covid.

Sadly no. We are ready to open and will do as soon as the Corona (government) situation allows tourists to enter Thailand with out unreasonable restrictions and alcohol can be sold.

It seems that while closed the PBG has still been feeding the masses. Unfortunately the masses are insects and the food has been our wooden tables and chairs. The work crews are rebuilding the furniture and expunging any insect infested wood from the premises. A bigger job that I expected. We have tentative plans to re-open on 15 January for limited hours and with a limited menu. Probably 3 - 11 pm. Nothing is sure yet as the situation here remains fluid and Omicron has yet to hit heavily. It's the government response to Omicron that remains the big unknown although the health minister has stated unequivocally that lock downs will not be reinstated. We will see.

Yes, The Pattaya Beer Garden will close again (temporarily), with Tuesday 29 September being the last day for the public. We gave it our best shot, after reopening following the initial Covid closure. We have tried now for 3 months but never looked even close to breaking even let alone making a profit. I have been subsidizing the losses to try and keep the jobs going but if I keep doing it I will soon be broke. Our lease came up for renewal during all this and we have signed up for a further 3 years. As soon as the business looks even remotely viable again we will reopen. We have an internet group subscribed by all staff so it is easy to keep in touch and simple to bring them all back again. Thanks to everyone who visited during these trying times. As soon as we decide to open again I will announce it here.

Jacko, the bar area will be open, all usual services will be available.

No plastic partitions. My understanding is they were never required just an over reaction by some owners.

We will be open again from 10 am to 12 midnight from Wednesday 1 July. The staff have been busy these last few days getting everything clean and ready to go. It is amazing how many things deteriorated or just broke over the three months we were closed. However everything appears good now and we are keen to get back into it. I have no idea if we can survive and I'm expecting a hard time to even break even with no tourists in town and Cov19 fears still very much on everyone's mind. We are going to give it our best shot though. I do believe the Beer Garden will be a safe venue with ocean on three sides and a nice sea breeze to blow that nasty virus away. Amazingly our liquor supplier agreed to take back old stock beer and replace it with new stock. Still can't quite believe that happened. So break out from that lock-down and come and enjoy yourself at the Pattaya Beer Garden. Feel free to pass on the invite to others on different websites or Facebook. I know there was some speculation here and elsewhere that we would never re-open. It was all fake news ? 555 .

Frosty, I can and will definitely help through either sponsorship, advertising or donation. I am back in town after 1 March, lets get together and talk about it then.

Reviews are strange things. If you read the reviews for the Beer Garden, even just the first two pages you may think that the Beer Garden is too expensive, while being very reasonable the food is great but average the staff are fantastic but ignore you its as good as it ever was but going down hill service is very friendly but rude food is served very quickly but takes forever It gets confusing to say the least. I try to follow up bad reviews with the managers to find out what actually happened. Sometimes we just did a bad job, sometimes the customer was unreasonable and sometimes nobody remembers what is painted as a major incident. The biggest problem I think is managing expectations. Looking for a fine dining experience and looking for a cheap bite to stave off hunger are very different requirements. Your reaction to a place is probably as much about your expectations as anything else. The Shed at Dulwitch became the No 1 restaurant in London without ever serving a meal. Here is the fascinating story of how that happened -

I can confirm that he has not sold the PBG.