PattayaPete

The kitchen is open the same hours as the bar 10am - 2am. The chef probably will not smile though if you order a big meal at 5 minutes to closing time.

Behind the beer bar complex just before the entrance to Walking Street.

Getting the girls to pose for pics is a bit of a problem. Many do not want to for various reasons and the ones that don't mind always seem to turn their beer mats over first. We do tell everyone we snap that their pic may be used on the internet.

I could easily have titled this post guys, guys, too many guys as we currently seem to suffer from both problems. Sometimes it is really difficult to get a Thai girl to do what you want. In the case of the Beer Garden I want the girls to come in early, particularly in the afternoon. The reality is that the girls have decided they will come in at night particularly after 9 pm. In fact they have been coming in in such numbers after 9 pm that we often have a 5 or even 10 to 1 ratio of girls to guys at that time. Meanwhile in the afternoon there are lots of guys chillin' but not so many lookin'. One thing I have learned over the years in Pattaya is that people will do what they want to do and there is not much I can do about that. So guys, all I can say is if you are lookin' then the best lookin' time is after 9 pm. I have been telling the girls that the best lookin' times for them are earlier and it is starting to have some impact with some of the late girls appearing by 7 pm or even 6 pm. I must say the late night girls are a pretty classy bunch. None of your beach scrubbers here. They are usually well dressed, speak good English and in the main are attractive as well. Knowing I'd be writing this blog today, I got the Pope (our trainee manager) to snap a few pics of some of the girls last night. These two in particular were quite intriguing. You may remember a few moths ago I posted a pic of a girl reading the newspaper. Well here is another first, with one of the girls reading a book while awaiting to be swept off her feet. It's a real book to, not some comic. Here she is again. Can you make out the title of the book. It sure gave me a laugh. If you can't quite make it out keep reading and I'll enlighten you. A few more of last nights visitors. Did you figure out the title of the book. Here's a close up to help . . . You just have to love it. Two week millionaires beware! The feedback we get at the Pattaya Beer Garden has been really terrific and comments received by email and around the Pattaya Forums has been very encouraging. However among the many positive reviews we do get the occasional brickbat. An Australian gentleman posted on one of the forums that he was served a warm beer in the Beer Garden. Now if you know anything about Australians you will know that they have zero tolerance for warm beer and indeed this guy posted that he left promptly and will never return. It is particularly galling to get a comment like this when we go to a lot of trouble to make sure that the beer is cold. If you have been following this blog you will know of my bad experience with fridges in Thailand, even the industrial strength ones we have in the Beer Garden. They just do not consistently keep the beer cold enough. That's why we installed the six large chilly bins which is where the beer is kept, covered in ice, prior to being served to our customers. Actually it was an Australian who recommended the system as it keeps beer at exactly the right temperature (bloody cold mate) without freezing it. We sell a lot of beer and to ensure they are served just right we go through a process. At close of business each day the chilli bins are filled with beer and ice. The beer is taken from our fridges and the fridges are restocked from the store room. Then when we open in the morning the ice is topped up in the chilli bins. The bins have a capacity of over 600 bottles but we sell more than that in one day so they need to be topped up again at 6 pm. They are only topped up with bottles from the fridges which have been chilling from the night before. We do not turn the fridges off when we are closed like most bars. From the store room to the fridges to the chilli bins and finally out to the customer. So what went wrong with the Australian gentleman's beer. As he did not complain at the time it really is impossible to say. If he had complained he would have received another and it would have been "bloody cold" mate. I know that complaints are often not dealt with well in Pattaya bars and people with experience will generally vote with their feet rather than going through all the crap a defensive Thai manager can throw at them. We try hard but I guess we will never get it perfect 100% of the time, so I've decided to provide a written guarantee that will be posted prominently in the bar. You have my assurance that every effort is made to serve your drink perfectly. If we come up short, please do not hesitate to complain. You won't cop a lot of grief and we will fix the problem! The new double sided, chillin' or lookin' beer mats have proved to be quite a hit. At first the girls were a bit taken back by them and when asked, often wanted the red side. It's been fun watching them discuss the idea amongst themselves and then surreptitiously flip them to the green side once they get comfortable with the idea. People have found many uses for them, including turning them into ear rings, attaching them to the forehead or just flashing the green side at likely looking candidates. Maybe we should offer a prize for most creative use. Finally I'd like to introduce you to my current hero. This is Des from New Zealand. Des is 83 years old and travels alone to Thailand twice a year. He's been quite a hit with the girls, no doubt helped by a generous inclination to buy lots of drinks for attractive ladies. He is often flanked by four or five beauties and appears to be having a ball. His wife is 81 and prefers to stay at home and enjoy the quiet life in New Zealand. I did ask him what she did while he was a way and with a twinkle in his eye he said "don't know, don't care". If I have half the energy Des does when I'm in my eighties I'll be a very happy man indeed. See ya in the beer garden. Pete

Damn it Monkeyman I hadn't even noticed that. Can't blame the printer though as I did the final design and we now have 10,000 of them. Looking on the bright side they could be like a mis-printed stamp and be very valuable one day.

When I set up the beer garden, one of my main worries was that the girls would be too pushy and upset customers who just came in to chill out. As it transpires the opposite has been the case. Many of the guys and girls have been too shy to approach each other. Now it is true that some people don't want to be approached and some girls may be sitting at the bar waiting for their boyfriend to turn up. However most people at the bar are looking to make a connection. To ease any shyness and to make everyone's intentions obvious we have a clever new idea in the beer garden. Chillin' or Lookin' beer mats will hopefully make everyone's intentions a little more transparent. The beer mats are green for go on one side and red for stop on the other. Anyone showing red will be strictly left on their own. The new beer mat design. So far it seems that most people are in green mode but you can easily change your mind with a simple flick of the beer mat. The bar staff will ask you if your chillin' or lookin' when you have your first drink and turn the appropriate side of the beer mat up. Most are going for green. Really it's just a bit of fun for all to enjoy.

I've been meaning to hunt out some of the short time places close at hand. Probably the best in town is Galaxy Suites above Heavens Above in Soi Diamond. Small rooms but very well appointed. Five hundred short time and 895 for all night. There is a door right next to Sweethearts in Walking Street which leads upstairs to a ST establishment. Three hundred baht and I've been told quite clean and nice. There must be a few in Pattayaland 2 and 3. Anyone know?

Update 8 August 2008 Apologies for the delay in getting this update posted. I really have been stupidly busy with the music video system instead of doing the important things like updating the blog and getting the new menu into operation. It all began last month when a few people complained to me that the music system was too loud. If you have followed this blog, you’ll know that while I’m a bit of a music nut, I am also dedicated to making sure you can easily converse in the beer garden. Too loud music is NOT part of the plan. The problem was that some videos played much louder than others so while the system was set at a user friendly volume the occasional track would blast everyone out of their seat. I hate that and sadly the Thai staff seem to be immune to volume. Even the managers seem incapable of detecting when it is too loud and turning it down. The solution was a new player program that locks the sound absolutely to the volume set. It’s a professional broadcast program and it really is cool. The big problem with it was that every one of the thousand or so tracks in the system needed to be re-encoded to a proprietary format. Re-encoding takes only a few minutes but with a thousand tracks to do it was over 60 hours work slaving over a hot computer. The good news is that the work is finished and I am now 100% confident that the music levels will always remain at a comfortable volume. The wife thinks I am crazily obsessed by this but it is a good feeling to get it right! Life at the Beer Garden has settled into a good routine. Systems are working, the staff seem happy, the freelancers although still too few in number, turn up regularly and our customers seem to enjoy using the place. It still amazes me how many people seek me out to thank me for the place. It may not be the ultimate bar or anything like it but those who enjoy it really seems to love it. Thanks for all the emails as well, more than making a baht or two, happy customers really do inspire all of us to make the beer garden as good as it can be. There were a few complaints on some of the web boards about cooking smells seeping into the bar and being unpleasant. This really confused me as I had never smelt them and we did pay a nice Thai company a small fortune to install massive extractor fans over the cooking area. The massive extractor fans – can you spot the fatal flaw? So I’m worried about this but have no idea how it can be fixed short of converting the open kitchen into a closed off room. That would be expensive and disruptive and anyway I really like the fact that customers can see their food being prepared. So about a week later I am sitting at the bar right by the kitchen and I catch my first whiff of a cooking smell. Donning my Sherlock Holmes investigating hat, I rush to the kitchen to see what is causing this odor. There is nothing unusual being cooked although I do notice that the extractor fans are unusually quiet. Sticking my hand up I can’t feel any air moving inside. I ask one of the cooks how long the fans have been this quiet for. He says, you have to turn them on to hear them. WHAT!!!!!!!!!! It seems our esteemed head chef had taken the decision to save on power bills by turning the fans off except when cooking “extra spicy”. **&&**&($%$%@#$&^(*ing hell. We have a few words and the fans are now deployed when anything is being cooked. Boss chef with a big smile after we sorted the cooking smells. We have four daily newspapers available for our customers to read in the Beer Garden. The Bangkok Post and The Nation from Thailand, The Daily Mail from England and USA Today from the States. We actually have today’s edition of each newspaper through the marvels of technology. We have experimented with other titles and you could have knocked me over with a feather when I walked in one afternoon and saw one of the freelancers reading the newspaper. During 10 years in Pattaya this was the first time I’d ever seen a TG reading the paper. I was so impressed I rushed over to get a photo of this unique event. The paper was one of the English sports paper which seems to feature more naked girls than anything else. TG was very impressed as she had never seen a naked girl in a newspaper before. We had a few new staff members start last month. We are slowly increasing staff levels to keep a good level of service going. At last count we now have 46 staff. For some reason I can never remember this girls name. She always has such a huge smile though that I’ve just taken to calling her Smiley. Always gets me a bigger smile. Another big smiler. This is Om (nice braces). I wasn’t to sure about Chan when he applied for the job. He looked like a bit of a tough character and seemed super serious. His English was great though and we really needed another guy on the staff so I decided to give him a try. He’s turned out to be one of the best staff members in the place. Super efficient and a magic personality which cracks me up and often has other staff and customers laughing out loud. He’s very hair proud and seems to sport a new hair cut every week. Do compliment him on it if you see him, he’s sure to puff up with pride when you do. Chan doing his thing. The new walking street sign sprung into action this week. It seems if nothing else it will be great for a bit of advertising although I can’t help feeling the old sign had a bit more character. Taken from outside the entrance to the Pattaya Beer Garden We do have lots of freelancers visiting the bar in the evening, especially after 9 pm. Daytimes can be a struggle in this area with usually only a few in before 6 pm. We are working on educating Pattaya girls to the fact that we are open all day and only the most hansom guys can be found in the afternoon. The biggest problem continues to be that day time customers in the main are there to drink with friends, read a newspaper, use the free and fast wifi or eat a meal, with the girls a very distant fifth. Some of the guys report great experiences with the afternoon girls but sadly, most afternoon girls go home alone. Come on guys, I am sure you can do better. If nothing takes your fancy in the afternoon, remember that the bring your own freelancer and receive a 100 baht discount promotion continues to run. Please ask for “The Freelancer Discount” when ordering. The Pattaya Ghost a much more serious blogger than me did a great review of the Beer Garden in a recent article on his site. I enjoy his site and give him full respect for having the guts to say what he does. Not everyone agrees with his opinions which are some times controversial but I appreciate the amount of effort going into this blog. Check it out here http://www.pattayaghost.com/2008/07/10/whe...ya-beer-garden/ I’ll leave you with just a couple of pics of some visitors taken last night. That’s it for now. I’ll try to be a bit more diligent in keeping things up to date around here. See you at the Pattaya Beer Garden. Pete

The site is working fine for me here in Thailand. Is any one else having trouble accessing it???

Well Pattaya Talk is still my home so I'm bound to do another vid or two once I get some spare time again. Yes, you can buy a bottle and we'll hold it for you.

We now have two months of operation under our belts and I am feeling very positive about the future of the Pattaya Beer Garden. There have been no major changes or innovations, which is why my updates have been less frequent. We have our basic business model which seems to be working as planned so now it's just a matter of getting the word out that we exist and concentrating on giving the best service we can. Although readers of this blog and the forums on which I have been posting it are well acquainted with the bar they represent only a small portion of visitors to Pattaya and expats. Every day one or two visitors express their amazement that we exist but they have never heard of us. I've been spending plenty of money on advertising and we are currently on 15 baht buses, in Pattaya People and the Walking Street Journal, After Dark magazine, The East of Siam magazine and have handed out about a gizillion flyers. I'd be surprised if we have reached even 5% of our potential customers with the effort so far so we will continue to spend too much money on advertising. We will also be adding some TV to the mix shortly. One of the odd things about Pattaya is the huge number of media outlets available for advertising. For a small city we have an incredible number of newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations. While this is a great service for the population its a bit of a curse for advertisers as there are so many it is impossible to be in everything. The odd thing about all this is that while the general public remain oblivious to our operation, the sales staff of every single publication and media outlet in town seem to have discovered us. It's been interesting to see the skill level of the various reps with some being excellent and others being terrible. Top marks to Mark for the Baht Buses and Jintana of The East of Siam magazine. True professionals who know their stuff. Brickbats to the Pattaya Mail for not even knowing how many copies they distribute or being able to answer any of my questions (and they have the most expensive rates as well). On the subject of newspapers we will have free copies of the Daily Mail (England) and USA Today (USA) as well as the Bangkok Post and the Nation each day from tomorrow. These are for reading, not keeping. The international papers will be the current edition which means you will be reading it before the people in England or America have even woken up. The papers will be delivered at 10 am each morning, so if you want to have an early breakfast and catch up on the news then you know where to come. On Sunday we will also have The News of the World so you can see what has really been happening during the week The work of the husband of the owner (that's me) is always varied and seems to include a bit of social work as well. Recently one of our customers decided to kill himself by jumping off the balcony of the bar. Three of our tiny female waitresses managed to stop this 6 footer before he could jump. I sat with him for an hour or so as his tale of life in fun city got more and more bizarre. Seems he had bar fined a girl the day before and then after an argument, dispatched her without paying for her services. He told me how all the Thais knew of this transgression and were out to kill him so he decided he may as well end it all himself. As we sat in the bar he pointed out Thai people (our staff actually) looking at their cell phones and told me they were all sending his photo to all the other Thais so they could find him and kill him. Eventually I calmed him down and walked with him to the bar where the girl worked. We managed to find her and I asked her if there was a problem. She said (in Thai) that the guy was nuts and she didn't want anything to do with him but it would be nice if he gave her the 1500 baht he owed her. He duly paid up and I left him nursing a beer and looking much relieved. It's a funny old town. Thanks for all the feed back on the pool table issue. Although many were in favour, an equal number were against. Some people were quite passionate about it seeking me out at the bar to say please do not ruin the laid back atmosphere by adding the tables. My own gut feeling all along was not to do it but so many people asked about it that I was doubting my own decision. Now that so many have come out against them it is an easy decision and we will not be adding them. As others said there are literally hundreds of places to play pool in Pattaya and adding one more is not going to achieve much. For the pool players, there are tables right at our front door, run by the beer bars in front of us so you only have to walk a few feet if you feel like a game. There are no photos in this update. I know people like photos but I've been suffering from rejection syndrome. I've asked many ladies and visitors if they wanted to be on the website but my advances are being rejected. It seems too many guys and girls have too many secrets. Actually I got so fed up with being rejected I passed the official mantle of photographer on to our trainee manager. He had a day or two of glory and his photographic efforts appeared in the one month update. However he soon suffered rejection syndrome as well and has been performing his duties so poorly I have nothing to show for this update. Did you know the Pope works for us? Well actually our trainee manager is named Pope. You will see him looking officially important most days between 3 pm and 11 pm. As he is the official bar photographer, he would be really happy if you asked him to take your photo and if you do, you could end up being displayed right here. You know everyone deserves their 15 minutes of fame. It would be helpful and greatly increase your chances of getting into an update if you are accompanied by an attractive Thai girl. We have worked out most of the kinks in the system and the bar is running well. The biggest issue is coping with demand at evening meal time. We are still too slow at getting the meals out as we get a huge spike in demand from 7 pm to 9 pm. We can have up to 30 groups of people waiting for their food at these times. We are looking at more cooks and more cooking equipment to deal with these spikes but it's a bit tricky as we cope quite well the rest of the time. A few part timers may be the answer and we are looking into that. Most visitors seem to enjoy the bar, the atmosphere and the music and the ladies are turning up in greater numbers as well. There is a lot of buzz on the internet and I really do appreciate those who have gone out of their way to get word out about the place. Remember if you tell two friends and they tell two friends . . . in about 50 iterations the whole world will know. I have been feeling a little greng jai about posting my blog on this forum. Thanks to the mods for putting up with me. As the bar becomes more established i am going to write shorter entries to the blog about some of the many amusing things that occur. I think I'd be pushing my luck to post those here so I'll restrict them to to the blog at www.pattayabeergarden.com. With the mod's forbearance, I will continue to post major updates here. I'll leave you with a very nice review that Baron Bonk, a well known Bangkok commentator wrote about the beer garden. If you want to subscribe to the Baron's newsletter you can do so at www.baronbonk.com

Pattaya Mad - I do not altogether disagree with you evaluation however I'd add the following . . . As you can see from the responses freelancers are indeed turning up and hook ups are being made. However, as you say this can be hit and miss. We have had up to around 30 freelancers in the bar at one time but also plenty of times when there are just one or two. The good news (for me and the future of the Beer Garden) is that we don't need the freelancers to make a viable business. All the positive points you mention, like cheap beer, good, well priced food, the view and ambience of the place, means we are already doing sufficient business to survive quite nicely. The chicken and egg situation with freelancers will continue for some time. Plenty of girls and no guys looking to hook up means some girls do not hang around. Plenty of guys looking for hook ups but no girls means some guys do not hang around. I am confident this will resolve itself over time and already see positive signs of this happening. We now have a regular but small group of girls who drop in on most days and often make a hook up. They have learned that they have to be patient and that they have to be receptive to smiles and waves. Their number is growing all the time. Most of the guys we get in are not looking to hook up but some will if the right girl attracts their attention. We still have plenty of guys coming in looking for a girl and then failing to approach or signal their intentions to the available girls. Everyone is kind of feeling their way, somewhat blindly, towards the best way to do it. I am 100% confident we will get to a similar situation as the Bangkok Beer Garden eventually. They have a 20 year head start on us so it will take a while to catch up. It may take a few months or even a year but we will get there. We have been open for seven weeks and have already made giant strides in the right direction. The most important thing in all this is my resolve to make it work. I know now we could run a successful business somewhat like Kilkennys or Shenanigans, just on the food and bar trade alone. That is not what I want or what I am going to settle for. One of the main reasons I set the place up is because I like the way the Bangkok operation works and it is going to be fun for me to replicate their success. Personally I don't like Kilkennys or Shenanigans and I have no interest in operating like them. You can help speed up the process. I understand that you (the reader) have no particular interest in making my job easier but I do know a lot of people are rooting for the bar to succeed. What we lack at the moment is enough guys who want to make a hook up. The serious mongers do not hang around long enough or visit often enough to inspire the girls to stay longer and try harder. Our existing customer base is great and make the bar a profitable venture. More hard core mongers will make it a successful freelancer venue as well.

No, but I did think about it. Definitly no connect 4 or jenga but checkers, chess and backgammon could be good for those who enjoy a game. Anyone else interested???

Pattaya Beer Garden – 15 June I missed my weekly blog update last week. Possibly because I felt a weekly missive was a little too much and I did not want to bore the pants off everyone or just maybe it was a touch of laziness sneaking in. Well, OK, it was just laziness on my behalf but I have decided to update the blog once a fortnight from now on. One of the fun things about the PBG is the fans we are accumulating. I am not so naïve as to believe we are particularly special or amazing in some clever way but it is clear that a certain percentage of the traveling public and expat community do find the beer garden to be particularly suited to their tastes. I’ve been getting lots of emails and personal comments in the bar from people who really, really like the place. So thanks to all that have written or gone out of their way to find me in the bar and pass on some very encouraging comments. I appreciate it muchly and do try and reply to all the emails. There are others of course who do not like the place or the concept and I fully understand that as well. We are not and can not be all things to all people and those looking for a party atmosphere are inevitably disappointed. A place to chill out, with spectacular views, cheap drinks and quality food at reasonable prices is what we offer, rolled into a place where you can meet single, unattached, independent ladies. No employed bar girls, no barfines, no lady drinks. Meet a girl at the PBG and what you do or what you pay is your business, not ours. One aspect of the bar that I didn’t anticipate is the success we are enjoying with couples, threesomes, foursomes and so on. Lots of guys have been bringing their barfines in for a meal or a drink before heading off for wilder pursuits. Almost universally their girl du jour enjoys the place and the “getting to know you” phase of the liaison is successful. In fact this has been going so well I sent my spies (well the wife really) to question the girls and find out why they liked the palace so much. The number one answer was that the staff treated them respectfully. While it was good to hear that, it was not what I expected. It seems that many of the eateries in Pattaya have staff that look down their noses at bar girls and in that ,oh so subtle Thai manner, put them down. As a freelancer bar I always knew we had to be nice to girls who chose to use the PBG as a base and so instructed the staff that independent ladies were our most important customers and were to be treated as such. It seems that attitude is working wonders with the bar girls as well. Other comments included the food, some of which is directly targeted at Isaan palates, the ambience which allows intimate conversation and the prices which are cheap enough to ensure their man du jour has plenty of money left over to be generous in the morning. Most say they dislike the music which is most commonly described as stupid. From the guy’s perspective, the girls seem to have a good time and as the most expensive Thai item on the menu is 100 baht and the Som Tum is free the pain in the wallet is not too bad.. That means if you get into the three or four friends tagging along mode you won’t be taken to the cleaners. I am seeing more and more guys turn up with two or three or four girls in tow. One dude arrived with eight girls . . . I think he had a spectacular night. The guys almost universally describe the music as great. Don’t be shy about bringing your girl or girls in and sending them off to Som Tum corner to make their own for free. It is there to be used by anyone who wants to and the girls often enjoy the process of making it just the way they like it and meeting and socializing with the other girls making their own. If DIY is not your girls style they can of course order Som Tum off the menu but that costs 60 baht and is often not done just the way they like it. We have sorted out most of the teething problems now and are settling into an established bar pattern. The staff are getting better and more accurate in their order taking. The mysteries of steak cooking, potato styles and sunny side up eggs have slowly entered their consciousness and they usually get it right. Still not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but certainly improving all the time. Our worst issue at the moment is the food can be a little slow in being delivered. The bar is deceptive with its size and different areas. You may think the place is quiet when in fact there are 60 or 70 people dining. We have three chefs and two kitchen hands working the busy evening shift but if 20 or 30 orders come through at the same time. as often happens, then things can get a bit slow. The way the staff were processing orders was a bit off as well with some being cooked out of order. I’ve fixed that and we are looking to improve our speed as well. If you ended up waiting too long for an order I apologies and we are working to improve. Our fleet of baht busses hit the road this week. Getting the message out about the Pattaya Beer Garden is an ongoing mission. We now have 15 PBG baht busses cruising the streets of Pattaya. Pool tables are an ongoing issue. More than anything else people have been requesting that we put some in. I am worried that they might disturb the laid back atmosphere of the place but so many people have asked it is getting hard to ignore. What do you think? If you have a strong opinion one way or the other I would like to hear your comments. We are still getting far more freelancers and more business at night. Plenty of guys are in during the day but the number of girls in the daytime can be quite low. We are always encouraging girls to come in earlier and with that in mind we are changing the happy hour times. Happy Hour(s) will now run continuously from Midday to 4pm every day. I wrote some time ago that I was not sure if opening at 10 am would be sustainable. I am happy to report that the breakfast trade is growing and we will continue to open at 10 am for the foreseeable future. So if you are an early riser (10 am is very early for Pattaya) and feel like a nice cooked breakfast with a view, then drop in and say hello to the morning staff. You will be very welcome. We were visited by the smoking police last week who after inspecting the place declared that we were OK to allow smoking as we are an open air bar. The only requirement was that we place a sign designating a smoking area. After seeking further clarification it appears that people can smoke anywhere as long as we have a designated smoking area somewhere. Huh? TIT! We do like to comply with the law so the sign is up and smokers may smoke anywhere in the bar. Non-smokers should not be bothered by this as the place is big enough and the breeze strong enough to allow the smoke to dissipate easily. We seem to have lucked out with our wifi connection. There have been lots of reports of very good speeds being enjoyed in the bar. Wifi is of course free at The Pattaya Beer Garden and we seem to have one of the better connections around town. Getting a good connection is usually a matter of luck in Thailand. Depending on who your connection is shared with by the ISPs so goes your speed. Our luck so far has been great. That is it for this fortnight. As always we hope to see you sometime soon at The Pattaya Beer Garden. Cheers Pete

We are open from 10 am to 2 am. No plans at this stage to stay open past 2 am although our licence does allow us to do so.

Soft drinks and soda are 30 baht and coolers are 60 baht. Water is free for the girls.

It’s a new calendar month and The Pattaya Beer Garden seems to be settling into a nice working routine. The biggest nightmare during May was undoubtedly getting the computerized check bin system working properly. We seem to have got there and even the cashiers now like the system. The other computer system that gets a lot of comments is the music video system. All the music is played on the computer, not off DVDs. Many, many people have asked me how it is done, why the picture is so clear and can I give them a copy of the DVD. The reason so many of the videos look so good is that they are in high definition. HD videos can not be played off DVD. We do pay for a licence to play these videos and it is more than my life is worth to give away copies. The record companies are very mean and are quite pro-active in suing easy marks like us if we do something illegal. Giving away or selling copies is a definite no no. Warning . . . boring techy stuff follows. Move on to the next paragraph if you don’t want to know. The other thing about the TV system in the PBG that makes it look good, is that all the TVs are wired digitally, using HDMI amplifiers and distribution boxed. It was quite difficult and expensive to set up but if anyone wants to know how it is done I am quite happy to explain it in person. Be prepared to spend quite a lot of baht though. Reading the forums I see a few people wondering if we can make it through the low season and expressing concern that we may not be here by the time they arrive in Pattaya. Please do not worry and I can guarantee we will be here for a good many years to come. When we set the place up we had enough working capital to sustain losses for over a year and the tenacity to do so if we had to. As I said last week we actually broke even in the first month of trading which is unusual for a new business in Pattaya particularly one trying something different. From day one we have had consistently good business. The bar itself can be a little deceptive because of the size and the four different areas. Fifty people can virtually disappear and it takes over 100 people to make the place look slightly busy. For me this is a great advantage as the relaxing, chill out atmosphere is not spoilt even when we are busy. There were also a few complaints about slow service when ordering food. We actually have five chefs working through the busy evening meal time but last week we were particularly busy for meals around 7 pm. On several days over 200 people ate dinner at the PBG and it is difficult to get the staffing levels right as demand fluctuates. If you had to wait too long please accept my apologies. We are working hard to stream line the system and get the food out quickly. It will take a while to get it right. This week we doubled the number of Thai dishes on the menu and also added a few western dishes. We also changed many of the main courses so that instead of getting French fries by default you may now choose fries, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes or fries. Lots of people asked for this option so it is now available. The menu will continue to evolve and your feedback is appreciated and listened too. Please just remember that our prices are very low and we want to keep them that way. To do so we must rely on local products, produce and meat. We have good suppliers and we do not compromise on quality. In the end though, a Thai steak will not be as nice as an imported Argentinean or Australian steak. However they are almost as good and cost half as much. Beware of the Isaan dishes. They are meant for the girls and are extremely hot. Try with caution. The freelancer situation is evolving and getting better all the time. We are always promoting the beer garden to the girls and building up a nice set of regulars. New girls stumble in every day and overall I am satisfied we are on the right track. It is still a bit hit and miss and will probably remain so for a few more months. You just have to try your luck and maybe wait for a while for new girls to wander in. I have mentioned busy times before but I think it is a bit self defeating to do so. Last week I write that I was surprised by the number of girls arriving after 10pm. On Friday night we had about 25 girls sitting at the bar at 7 pm and 5 guys. By 9 pm that had changed to 25 guys and 5 girls. Sometimes the balance is right and sometimes it is not. I am sure this will continue until we are better known. I saw a comment on a board last week about the rules of engagement. Basically the poster was saying he was not going to approach the girls and if they did not approach him nothing was going to happen. That approach will work in just about every bar in Pattaya but it will not work at the Pattaya Beer Garden. You must make first contact. If you can’t or won’t do that then the PBG is probably not for you. If you approach a girl at the bar I can almost guarantee that you will not be rebuffed. The girls are there to find a man after all. Even fat old balding people like me are seen as desirable meat mates. So don’t be shy just say Hi. The rest will follow naturally and without pressure. We are in to out June promotions now. The freelancer discount continues. Bring your own freelancer and receive a 100 baht discount off your order. Please ask clearly for "The Freelancer Discount" when ordering. Happy hours are 3 pm to 5 pm and then again 9 pm to 11 pm every day. All bottled beers are 50 baht (except Corona). This week we have permanently lowered the price of Corona and Strongbow. A new thing we are trying in June is the "Sunset Promotion". The PBG is a great place to watch the sunset each evening around 6:30 pm. It can be quite spectacular. From 5:30 pm to 7 pm each night we are offering the "Sunset Special". A plate of Thai h'orderves and a Sundowner cocktail for two hundred baht. The Thai snacks are very tasty and farang friendly (will not blow your head off) and the Sundowner cocktail packs a bit of a wallop with three shots of the hard stuff. Sunset Special 200 baht. I hope to see you at the Pattaya Beer Garden sometime soon. Cheers Pete

It's true, I swear it. More than a few guys expressed the opinion we would not be able to survive at our pricing level and felt they would rather pay more than see the bar go broke. Honest, I couldn't make this stuff up.

Yep, that was a bit of a coup (oops wrong word for Thailand). Here is a link to the story Nation Newspaper Article 24 May 2008

We have been open 1 month now so its time to review progress. The thing about starting any new business is that you have to build it first and spend all the money to get it right and then hope it works. You can ask people, do surveys and conduct focus groups but in the end there are no guarantees that it will work That is why most new businesses fail. Paattaya is harder than most places to get a new business going and many, many people have blown a lot of cash trying. The bar business is the most notorious and can suck up cash faster than a Soi 6 stunner. I’ve been involved with successful and less successful businesses before and the first month is the most critical. You can generally tell after one month if it is going to work or not. So what is the verdict on the Pattaya Beer Garden. I’m predicting it will be a great success and will become an important part of the Pattaya scene for a significant number of people. Operationally we broke even in the first month which is a pretty amazing feat. It’s never happened with any other business I’ve been involved in. More importantly though, it’s clear that we already have some very staunch supporters. The numbers are still small but a significant portion of both freelancers and customers are extremely enthusiastic about the new venue. It’s not just talk either as both groups have been showing their support in the most important way, by using the bar regularly. So a big thank you to everyone who has visited. For those who have not made it yet, I hope to see you soon. I write these posts every Sunday. Last week I wrote about the changes that various people have suggested, including making it more like a disco, turning up the music and changing the style to suit the girls more. When I got to the bar on Sunday evening, Ann rushed up to me and asked what on earth I had written. She explained that she had been called over by a number of customers who begged her to not listen to these suggestions. They were so passionate about it that she was worried I’d written something bad. Don’t worry the basic format is not going to change. We will be fine tuning and tweaking it over the next few months but no major changes are envisaged. Although I have a very good feeling about the place I am not complacent about it. We still have lots of problems to sort out and even with the great start nothing is guaranteed. There is still plenty of room for us to stuff it up and even the most successful bars can see their fortunes fall if the owners and staff loose the plot. We are far from perfect and have a lot of work to do to raise the standard to an acceptable level. Freelancers are still light on the ground, particularly in the afternoon and early evening. While I think time will take care of that, we are actively working every day to promote the bar to the girls. We are looking at extending the Thai food part of the menu. Presently we are selling three Thai meals for every one farang meal but the girls have been complaining the choice is too limited. We will be adding further Thai items this week. It may sound strange for a bar but last week we added a lot of ice cream treats to the menu. We can now do a full range of Sundaes, Parfaits, Floats and Milk Shakes. The afternoon crowd particularly seems to appreciate the cool treats and while not being good for the waist line it is very pleasant sitting on the balcony in the heat and devouring an ice cream creation. In keeping with the spirit of the bar, the ice cream specials are cheaper than you will find in the ice cream bars on Walking Street. As May comes to an end, so do our opening promotions. Many people have availed themselves of the very cheap happy hours, freelancer and barfine promotions. For June I want to concentrate on the most important thing which is getting more freelancers into the bar. To this end, the Freelancer discount will continue through June. Bring your own freelancer and ask for the “Freelancer Discount” and you will receive a 100 baht discount off your bill. Please ask your waitress clearly for the “Freelancer Discount” In addition to the discount we will give the girl a voucher for a free drink for her and three of her girl friends on her next visit. Free Som Tum continues to be available for the girls all day. They make it themselves but all the ingredients are laid out for them. Quite a few guys have been trying this as well. You are welcome to try your own culinary skills also if you can handle this favorite Thai dish. Maybe get your girl friend to show you how. Girls cooking up a treat. Even farangs can get involved. Happy hours will also continue through June with all bottled beer at 50 baht, except corona. Happy hour times are 3 pm – 5 pm and again 9 pm – 11 pm, every day. Our permanent low prices on Spirits continue, all day, every day with most drinks costing 65 baht. Thanks again for the enthusiastic support we are getting. I promise we will be working very hard to try and exceed your expectations. Pete

And what a week it was. I lost my cool for the first time and yelled at some staff members. I hate that but Thai’s and Computers can be a trying mix. It all started last weekend when we had a really busy Friday and Saturday. Both afternoons and nights were very busy and the staff did not handle the pressure well. We just did not have enough bodies to deal with the numbers of customers and our manual check bin system started to fall apart. Staff were so busy getting the food and drinks out that they were forgetting to write the check bins. Several honest people called me over to say they had 6 drinks but only two drinks appeared on the bill or they ordered food and drink but no bill was written out for the food. Our prices are cheap but giving the stuff away for free is definitely not in the business plan. Many thanks to the people who pointed this out to me. It was always my intention to install a computerized check bin system but originally I thought we would wait a few months and get the manual systems all working properly first. With money walking out the door waiting was no longer an option so I called in the computer gurus on Monday and by Wednesday three shiny new computers were installed and working. The night cashier (who had no computer experience) took to the system instantly and within 10 minutes was producing new bins like a pro. She made a few mistakes the first night but thereafter her performance has been perfect. The day cashier on the other hand was a complete nightmare. On her first day with the system it took three hours for her to get the idea and she made way to many mistakes. On the second day she tried it alone and really screwed things up badly. By day three she was suffering constant brain freeze and kept pushing the wrong buttons. It was a nightmare. Day four she started to understand and today is day five and I’m mildly confident she has got it at last. I yelled at her more than once and felt stressed to the max as she produced bill after bill of nonsense. A big thanks to the many customers who got screwed up bins and waited patiently while the mess was sorted out. Very frustrating for all involved but its amazing how understanding most people are when they know the reason for the cock ups. We also obviously needed more staff and luckily we have had some great new people start this week. I think the word is getting out that we pay quite well and we had some good, experienced people apply for work. We are only taking on those with good (by Thai standards) English and reasonable experience. Six new people bring the staff numbers up to 41. I suspect we will end up with close to 50 which seems an amazingly large number to me but it’s what we need to deliver the level of service I hope to achieve. Now that things have settled down with the computers I expect the quality of service to improve greatly. Please ask for the Manager or me if we do not meet your expectations. We can only fix things if we know that they are wrong. There is something about the Pattaya Beer Garden which seems to excite a lot of interest in the place and the concept. Lot’s of people have told me they just love it but many have added their ideas for improving things. Some of the ideas are great and are on the list of things we will add over the next few weeks. The funny thing is that quite a few people want me to change it to be more like other bars or discos. Suggestions like put in a live band, add a dancing area, turn up the music volume, play music the girls like and so on come thick and fast. It seems to me that doing these things would just make the place the same as 50 other bars that do that already. We will not be following up on these suggestions. It is easy to tell already that the concept works and the bar is going to be viable with its present format. So a chill out place with good rock music played at low enough volume to allow easy conversation and selling very reasonably priced food and drink, where you can meet freelancers if you want or sit alone or with your friends without being bothered, is what we will remain. I understand that not everybody wants this. Those looking for a party are best to head elsewhere. We are not and never will be a party bar. One internet poster stated that we had it all wrong and that the formula for success was to cater for the girl’s tastes in music, environment and food and the guys would then surely follow. That is in fact what most bars do which is why you see 50 year old guys shouting above thumping techno music in an environment they would not usually go near. They put up with it because they are chasing the girls. Nothing wrong with that but we will not be copying that concept. Our mission is to provide a comfortable environment which caters to the tastes of western males older than the techno / hip hop generation. If the girls can put up with that then fine, if they can not then they can head off to the hundreds of other bars that cater more to those tastes . . . no problem. Our freelancer numbers are increasing daily so I guess there are still some girls who understand that the paying customer need to be catered to and a place where men like to hang out can be a good hunting ground for them as well. Some girls actually like rock music and being able to have a reasonable conversation with their potential conquests. I never thought we would be a late night establishment but I’d really like to stress that we often have more girls than guys in the bar after 10 pm. Some of the disco girls are making a nightly stop in the PBG before hitting the disco. To date the number of potential guys at that time has been disappointing. Last Thursday night at 11 pm I counted 25 girls and 6 guys. Just two hours earlier we had 65 guys and 10 girls. It would be nice if we could get things a bit more balanced. I’m sure it will all work out once people see how things are working. There have been a few internet jibes about skanky girls potentially flocking to the PBG and scaring off the stunners. Some times these guys make me laugh. I’d like to set there minds at rest. Yes we get some girls who are not what you might call beauty queens but they do not scare off the better looking girls. On the contrary, the stunners feel real good about how they look in comparison. Anybody who has spent any time in Pattaya, quickly realizes that one mans skank is another mans idea of the perfect woman. There is room for the beautiful and not so beautiful in Pattaya and the Pattaya Beer Garden too. The less attractive girls also add to the fun of people watching in the PBG. It has always fascinated me how people connect. Beautiful girls with skanky old men (like me) is not an uncommon sight in Pattaya but more interestingly when any man, old or ugly, rich or poor can easily hook up with a stunner, many choose a girl of plain looks. Everyone has their own idea about what is right for them and I certainly will not be imposing my ideas about what sort of girl a guy should go with, on anyone. It is all up to you. That is what makes Pattaya great. As I said last week I have noticed that the really old and ugly girls have passed through the PBG but do not return. In the main the girls who come in are in the middle range of looks peppered by a few stunners and a few canines. The perfect mix for a freelancer hang out. I enjoy the diversity. Some of the late night girls have been really stunning and it saddens my heart to see them head off into the night alone, so come on stunner hunters, get with the program. No new photos this week. Sorting out the computer stuff meant the camera stayed firmly locked away all week. I’ll try and do better next week.

Vidman Bar or restaurant - you can call it what you like but as 80% of the customers come to drink and 20% come to eat I think of it as a bar with a restaurant - up to you. Likewise as most customers come to drink, handing them a food menu makes little sense. That is why we have separate menus. The wholesale cost of bottled water and soft drinks are about the same. As most bars charge 60 to 90 baht for a water I think 30 baht is pretty good. If people think its too much I will look at revising it. Hovering syndrome is tricky. We are new and still getting the service staff sorted. I'd prefer too quick than too slow. There is no pressure to leave as the place is so big we can easily accommodate those who just wish to sit and enjoy the view. I have had many comments on the low pressure nature of the service. Maybe you made the service people nervous so they tried harder. I'm not sure but if you come in again why don't you make yourself known to me and we can compare notes. i agree that the lights are too bright. We are looking at alternatives at the moment. The number of freelancers varies at the moment from none to quite a few. Six o'clock is a dead time for them as most people are eating around that time. The best time for them at the moment is 3 - 5 pm or 9 - 11 pm. Interestingly we are getting more than a few coming in between 10 pm and midnight. Often more freelancers than guys at that time as the girls have their pre-disco drinks. In any case the freelancers are a long term project. I think it will be a couple of months before we really become well known by the girls. Jai yen yen, we will get there. Thanks for your thoughts, I appreciate them. Harvey I look forward to that drink in a few weeks. Mightyone Thanks for the great review. Cheers Pete

Location, location, location. The old adage for a successful business seems to once again hold true. We have had a fantastic week at the PBG which has left me tired, surprised but definitely a happy chappy. We are two weeks old today but are already reaching customer levels I did not expect to see for at least three months. I’ve been gathering lots of customer feedback which has in the main been extremely positive. Nearly everyone mentions the location. It is pleasant sitting at the bar or on the balcony with the ocean on 3 sides and usually a pleasant breeze blowing through. The food has also received a lot of positive feedback and we are already seeing quite a few bar owners and general customers using the place as there regular dinner spot before going on to a night of working or cruising the bars. The breakfast trade is still a little slow and may never pick up. Ten in the morning might be just too early. We will carry on opening at 10 am for at least two months though to give it a decent try. The lunch crowd is solid but really does not get going till about 1 pm. Pricing is of course a key issue, and we have received more than a few complaints that we are too cheap. I am happy with our prices though and if we continue to see the volume of customers we have now then I see no reason to raise the prices at all. At 50 to 65 baht for bottled beer and 65 baht for top shelf, name brand spirits we are making a small but acceptable profit. The food prices have been well received too although a couple of people have said they are too expensive. Most have been happy and many have returned for a second, third or fourth meal as well. We are not at the very cheap end of the food market but certainly no where near the top end either. The idea has been to serve generous portions of good food, well prepared and presented at reasonable prices. I think we are close to achieving that. We have five cooks on staff covering two shifts so one thing we are working on is getting consistency between chefs. We are not there yet but will continue to work on that. Freelancer numbers are increasing daily although remain inconsistent. Sometimes we have plenty sitting around and sometimes none. I have been impressed with the overall quality though and we do seem to be on the right path in this important area. Generally speaking we have the most girls in from about 3 pm to 6 pm and then again from 9 pm to midnight. I am pleasantly surprised to see that we seem to be attracting ever increasing numbers of the late night disco girls. They start arriving around 10 pm and move on about 12:30 am. They seem to be using the beer garden as a starting point and a cheaper place to get a few drinks in before the discos start hotting up. More than a few never make it to the disco though as they find their true love for the night at the PBG. We have had a lot of girls through the place to check out what we have got. Some beautiful and some frightening. Interestingly the frightening ones do not come back. It seems they are happier on the beach or wherever else they ply there trade. The better looking (and better dressed) girls are the ones that find the beer garden environment more to their liking and we already have quite a few regulars who tell me they really like the place. Hook ups were slow the first week as nobody seemed to know what to do to make it happen. I’ve been telling the girls they have a better chance of scoring if they sit at the bar rather than on the balconies and to watch for subtle signals from the guys, like smiles or waves. Some are still to scared to approach the smilers or wavers and need to be approached with that ever faithful and 99% successful pick up line . . . “hello”. We will never let the girls be aggressive in the PBG as many of our customers only come in to enjoy the ambience, cheap beer and good food. Those looking to hook up with a girl need to be a bit more outgoing than they would be in a go go or beer bar but rest assured the girls are available if you call them over or go and speak with them. The second week has been better in this regard as the girls and guys start to understand how it all works. Our service staff have been great but service is a little slow at times. We have been much busier than anticipated and we just do not have enough staff yet. We have 35 now but across two shifts that is still a little thin at busy times. We are actively looking for more but are being quite selective and trying to only employ those with good English and a clear understanding of good service. We have been doing a lot of training. I spent an hour just teaching the breakfast menu last week. How you would like your eggs cooked is a biggy, with so many possible answers it makes the poor servers heads spin. We pretty much have it covered now. Hash browns or baked beans also caused some difficulties. Thais really find it hard to say baked beans and it was coming out more like hash bown or bashed ben. Hard to understand that one but we are practising every day and getting better. Our 40 baht promotion is now finished but for the rest of May we will be doing all bottled beers for 50 baht (except Corona) during happy hours. The freelancer and barfine discount continue till the end of May. Details are here Pattaya Beer Garden opening promotions If you take up these promotions please state clearly when ordering “Freelancer Discount” or “Bar Fine discount”. I watched a guy the other day ask for the free barfine promotion and the waitress said, “no we don’t have bar fines”. They know and understand “Freelancer Discount” or “Barfine Discount” but if you use different words you are likely to get a blank look in return. I have been really slack in the picture taking department this week. I am really going to try and take far more next week as we have had a lot of cuties in and I know lots of guys really appreciate the photos. I’ll be posting them in the gallery at The Pattaya Beer garden Website each day if you want to check them out. Finally a big thanks to everyone who have visited the PBG over the past two weeks. It’s been an amazing response and I’m pretty much blown away. If you have not been yet then I hope to see you there in the coming weeks or whenever your next trip is on. I’ll leave you with the few pics I managed to grab this week. Pete

Good idea jimmac. I have just added it to the website. You can access it direct using this link Pattaya Beer Garden Menus

It’s been an eventful 7 days at the Pattaya Beer Garden as we break the place in. We have certainly had plenty of teething problems but over all I would have the rate the launch and first week an incredible success. Thanks of course to the many people that have come in to check out what we have to offer. We have had plenty of problems but the staff seems to have it pretty much sorted now. The biggest issue I had was some complaints about the beer not being cold enough. A beer garden serving warm beer is just not a good look. The problem appears to be with our industrial strength beer fridges which I touted as being just the best thing. Well that’s what the manufacturer told me but they are not keeping the beer cold enough. This always seems to happen in Thailand. The solution is to return to the tried and true. We have installed 6 large chilly bins which are filled with beer each day and then packed with ice. It’s low tech and it’s not very pretty but it does keep the beer frigid and that’s what counts. The kitchen kicked off on Tuesday and so far has been getting rave reviews. Prices are very reasonable and most people are finding the food excellent. I’ve eaten breakfast and dinner there every day this week and I’ve been really happy and full. I’m still refining the menu with the head Chef but we are close to having it locked down. I would appreciate any comments on the food, the price and what’s available. The biggest problem with the food side is getting the orders right. We have the makings of a good service team already but a brand new menu and limited understanding of farang food can cause some frustrations. The service guys and girls can learn the questions by rote, such as how would you like your steak cooked and which sauce would you like with that. The problem is that the answers can vary immensely and really test their language skills. We have been practicing every day though and The Big Breakfast challenge has been met. “Hash browns or baked beans. How would you like the eggs cooked. Tea or coffee”, and then one bill including food and drinks seemed like an impossibility at the beginning of the week but I’ve now seen it done correctly at least once . There have been plenty of ladies visiting in search of true love or at least a new friend for the night. As always in a freelancer place some are beauties and some are not. It is still hit and miss with numbers at the moment. Sometimes there will be 20 or 30 girls in the bar and sometimes none. We are working hard to spread the word and our work does seem to be paying off. I don’t think this aspect of the operation will be great for a month or two but it is getting better every day. This week we will continue with our team rounding up ladies of the beach, streets and discos each day to come and have a look. Between 3 – 5 each afternoon and then again between 9 and 11 they have been arriving in considerable numbers to check us out. Free Som Tum and a small financial incentive seems to be a big attraction. To make sure there are plenty of guys in the bar at these times we were offering 30 baht drinks. Sadly the 30 baht drinks have finished now, however for all this weeks all drinks will be just 40 baht at those two times 3 pm – 5 pm and again from 9 pm – 11 pm. If you are not busy at those times we would love to see you in the bar to meet the new ladies and at 40 baht a drink including all top shelf liquor, it’s hard to beat the price. I thought we may have a problem with overly aggressive ladies annoying the customers but that has not been happening. In fact my worry now is that everyone is a bit shy. A lot of guys so far do not understand the concept and think the girls are a bit stand-offish or not available. That is absolutely not the case BUT if you are interested in a lady, you have to make the first move. All it should take is a wave although some girls have been a bit slow to pick up on that. The foolproof approach which I have not seen fail yet is to walk over to the girl and say hello. After that Pattaya and nature take their course easily and hassle free. Remember there are no barfines or lady drinks at The Pattaya Beer Garden so after you say hello it really is completely up to you as to what happens next. Some guys told me they were worried that a particular girl was not available so they did not approach her. I think most internet guys have this sussed but if you don’t, here is the answer. If they are sitting alone or with a group of girls in the Pattaya Beer Garden, they are available. No doubt about it. Just say Hi and all will flow from there. The free wifi is in and working right now. On Tuesday we will be installing some additional power points near the inside seating for people who need juice for their laptops. The power points will be the multi-international style that plugs from all countries can fit into. Just be aware that its 220 volts. Not a problem for most lap tops these days but check your computer documentation if you are not sure what voltage your computer can take. It is usually written on the power brick as well. If you have read this far you have done well. I know I can get a bit wordy, so I’ll leave you with a few photos from this week. I’ll be adding a few new ones every day to the Gallery on the Pattaya Beer garden website at www.pattayabeergarden.com. Don’t forget the freelancer discount and bar fine discount continue to the end of the month. Pete