New Zoning/Early Closure Thread

[bibblies]

power24 said:

lotus said:

The biggest immediate problem for NEP is the fact that the punters seem to have disappeared. That's the reason for the dour atmosphere and that girls are giving up and going home, not direct fear of the impending rules. Part of the reason for the lack of punters is the negativity of sites such as this! So we get a kind of snowball effect.

 

 

Agreed Lotus but I bet if some of the NEP bars started charging reasonable prices for drinks and friendlier service they would soon get the punters back in.

 

I disagree with both of these reasons for lack of punters. I.e. Soi 0 has always had better, friendlier service than Nana and cheaper prices.

 

The reason for the lack of punters at NEP is simply the lack of tits on display. Tits, tits, tits.

[Guest]

Part of the reason for the lack of punters is the negativity of sites such as this!

Isn't this a bit liking blaming the messenger for the message?

 

I did see something encouraging on the legal issues site. It is worth checking out. Although NEP will not be the same if it must close at 12 midnight, it suggests possibilities for NEP and Patpong. As I read the post, a restaurant can be open 24 hours a day and sell beer. Summarizing from memory, a restaurant cannot have hostesses or entertainment, must look like a restaurant and must sell more food than beer.

 

Hmm...start a 24 hour "restaurant" in the Patpong, NEP or Soi Cowboy area, serve food (make it decent food so you run up a decent food bill - and besides, a tasty late night snack will help draw customers), make it BG and punter friendly in a layout which is conducive to social interaction, have interesting decor (perhaps a bit upscale and Q bar-ish) so that it looks like a restaurant and is, well, a pleasant place to hang out. I am sure this can work if someone applies a bit of imagination to the challenge. Most important, structure the menu so that when you order beer you also automatically get food, and that food constitutes 60% of the price. Be realistic - not 100 Baht beers, where 65 Baht of the price is for peanuts. Perhaps 170 Baht orders, where the beer is 75 Baht and some snack (have choices) is 85 Baht. It will be a bit expensive - well maybe not by Crown Group standards - but it will be nice, and if you are in the right location, it might work

[Guest]

Seriously a reasonable idea Gadfly and very similar to an operation I ran in CM many moons ago. The operation becomes self sustaining because both the punters and the girls know where to find each other. A meeting place, rather than an entertainment place.

 

Beer Garden on Soi 7, but more cleaned up and upscale........ I expect Gullivers to be the first on the block to do this, as IMO they are already more than half way there. Open 24/7 ......... we can only hope. I'm pretty sure that there is a way to do it in a location/operation such as this.

[Guest]

I expect Gullivers to be the first on the block to do this, as IMO they are already more than half way there. Open 24/7

Yes, Gullivers seemed like a good model when I posted that message last night. But I didn't know it was open 24/7. I know it is a popular early evening meeting place, but is it also an after hours meeting place these days? If allowed to stay open 24/7 it seems like the perfect place. Certainly better than the skanky Grace and Thermae - for my tastes, at least, and probably for most Thais concerned with appearance.

 

Even if restaurant/meeting are allowed to stay open for 24/7, and they are strategically located around NEP, I still think NEP is going to have a tough go. Midnight is an unnaturally early closing time for bars. Often the evening is just starting to get interesting at that point. For people who want to have a somewhat late night (I find it hard to describe a night that ends at 12:30 am or even 1 am as a "late night" on a Friday or Saturday, and I am an earlier riser), Patpong will be a better bet. A restaurant/meeting place near Patpong would be ideal since will probably attract a crowd that wants a later night.

 

Or Pattaya. I have not been down there for awhile (recent reports anyone?), but it sounds as though they are ignoring the current closing times, and at least according to Baronbonk they will fare fairly well under the new zoning rules. From the Baron:

The man who seems to have got the measure of this government is the mayor of Pattaya. He has increased the size of Pattaya?s entertainment zone so that it is just about the whole of Pattaya. If he gets away with this, Pattaya looks like being a major beneficiary of these new rules.

Someone else here (it is getting hard to keep track of who has said what) mentioned that some of the Pattaya bars are expecting new recruits from Sukhumvit if the new rules are enforced. With the new international airport about a third of the way Pattaya, I am wondering if many tourists will skip Bangkok altogether and simply head straight to Pattaya. Of course that is only the "very small minority" of tourists who do not come here exclusively for temples and culture. ::

[zion]

Gadfly1 said:

These rules will apply to every bar outside the desiginated entertainment zones, which means you cannot start the evening in Gullivers or head down Soi 4 or across Sukhumvit to Q Bar when the bars close at midnite in NEP because no bar in the Sukhumvit area will be allowed to open before 9 pm or after midnite.

 

I was at Bed club on Friday night and several of the staff working there mentioned that they had "special permission" to open until 1:30 post March 1. Not sure if their info is accurate or not, but they had already enforced this new time and last call for drinks was about 1am (or just after). Was really quite empty around that time. The staff also mentioned this timing also applied to Qbar.

 

Maybe this info is totally wrong, but if true, then no doubt other venues will be negotiating exemption separately - if collectively they can't get the new rules changed. For instance i can't imagine the hotel clubs like Spasso closing at midnight.

[Lusty]

Someone else here (it is getting hard to keep track of who has said what) mentioned that some of the Pattaya bars are expecting new recruits from Sukhumvit if the new rules are enforced

 

And lets hope the "Sukummvit recruits"are not expecting Bkk pay rates !

[Khun_Kong]

Swishtz said:

... If you know where to go in Patpong you can have a great time.

 

And the current winners are...?

[..]

Hasn't changed in years! Go-go: Pink Panther Hostess bars: Cosmos, Executive. Quality guaranteed in both places. Others: YMMV.

 

Cheers,

SD

[Guest]

I was at Bed club on Friday night and several of the staff working there mentioned that they had "special permission" to open until 1:30 post March 1.

If true, it demonstrates just how unworkable these new regulations are.

[christo23]

Maybe there´ll ne exceptions for places that are considered to be upscale such as Bed, Q, Riva´s, Spasso. Thisn will of course make the rules and their enforcement even more complex.