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 ma

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 Lo

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 th

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.

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 t

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 co

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

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

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 s

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 s

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 foo

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