The Board Room

[ALHOLK]

Hi!

quote:

---

THE meeting place for members of the

various forums

, including this one, on Thai sanuk who happen to be in town.

---

This might be one reason why it wouldn't work. There are quite a few Thailand related boards with a large variation of members. To try to set up a bar for the whole scale of personalities would probably pave the road for conflict and confrontation.

A poster suggested a bar that a meeting point for members of another infamous (now underground) board. This means that a small clique of expats would take control and a large number of posters would not be welcome.

Any functional bar has to cater to a reasonably homogenous group of customers.

As a infrequent short time visitor to BKK I would appreciate a bar wher I could pop in for a beer and meet other board members. I would have no use for another expat hangout wher no one would be welcome if they don't live their lives in the same way and harbour the precise opinions that are approved of a small expat clique.

regards

ALHOLK

[Mekong]

Sarasin, I read this thread just after you posted it yesterday, so now I will add my own 25 satangs worth.

I understand the thought behind a Bar aimed at board members, but I just cannot see it work.

Look at Woodstocks on a Friday, 7-9 PM 20 Odd board members in there, and then everyone disappears to other forms of entertainment.That level of clientel will not support a business.

Then off course there TLR, for me the best located / operated expat bar in BKK (only about 200 meters from my condo but I am not biased). The reason why people like meeting up there is because it is basically equidistant from NEP and Cowboy, with CEP right there.

I also understand how visitors would like to meet up with other board members whilst out here. Well I can tell you the white board in TLR is not working, it has been up a month now and it has been the same names on it all the time, it does not reflect who is in the bar, but rather who was / is / will be in BKK.

We have a MEETINGS Section of this forum, Internet cafes are everywhere, especially Lower Sukhumvit, it would be easy for someone to post a message under the heading of the days date:-

"Will be in *** Bar from *PM- *PM, anyone wanna join me then look for(brief description of self)"

Anyone interested in hooking up will only have to check out this section on that day. I personally have met up with many people using this method, on both this and other Thailand based forums.

This is just my own opinion and experiences, and is not meant as a negative reply to your posting. I have actualy had a similar idea myself before, but I decided that the cons outweighed the pros, and filed it under "another one of my hair-brained schemes that will never work" and believe me there are many of them.

Choke Dee whatever you decide Meks

[Guest]

In my humble opinion you would need the following things to make it a success.

1. A good location

2. Great food

3. Reasonable prices

4. Pretty and friendly female staff

5. confortable seating

6. Weekly or monthly promotions

With all of the above and good management, you would stand a good chance for success. But with laws and rules changing from one day to the next. I would be very carful about investing much money in this backward Country because you could easely loose it all.

MCJIMMYS

[Hidy Ho]

We're all for "sanuk" .. and whether we post on this board, or other boards, we're after having fun in Thailand. To me, this defines the "homogenious" group and not a specific board.

A poster suggested a bar that a meeting point for members of another infamous (now underground) board. This means that a small clique of expats would take control and a large number of posters would not be welcome.

I don't want the debate the merit of this statement, but it seems to be the person that controls the bar is the owner. If you are referring specific to TLR, it's big enough for everyone.

[Hidy Ho]

Interesting topic ...

Based on what I read here, it appears that The Living Room is most likely venue ... has pool tables, very nice TV room, food, drinks and etc. It has girls working there but it's not "in your face" like go-gos or beer bars. Only downside is that I think Woodstocks' food is better than TLR. Currently, TLR serves Meeting Place food only.

While I do not have any financial connection to the place (other than paying bills), I do spend a considerable amount of time there when I am in LOS. It's nice place to hangout. Regardless of board affiliation, I would suggest each individual to check out the place and form their own opinion of the place. Who knows, if there was enough interest, the owner may do VIP discounts for this board members.

Prior to Big Boy burning down, I hung out there a lot. Nice pool tables, good mix of tourists and locals (guys and girls), TVs and food. Given that this place is no longer in business, I think TLR is the best alternative on Suk.

I do not know of any similar place near Patpong. However, I do know someone who is in the midst of building a nice place in Patpong that will become a mix of Big Boy & TLR. As far as I know, this person does not post on any Thai boards. I will share more information as it becomes more public.

[Guest]

I would think real hard before opening up a bar. Lets go thru the figures of clientel.

This board has approx 3000 members, other boards like nanapong, asfo, TTG and all the others how many?

But how many are regular visitors

How long do they stay?

Would you go to the same bar every day?

Are they good drinkers?

During off season without girls how are you going to survive?

You can't rely on the guys that live in BKK as they don't have the money to party everynite.

What happens to places like woodstock and to a lesser extent warblers after the meetings the places are dead.

I would forget the idea, it would not work

Mike

With no girls you will not get visitors

[Guest]

Hmmm. Well, I really do hate to be exclusionary, but I just took another look, after a good long while, at the ajarn.com message board. It's become even more vicious and nasty than I remember. If those guys are going to end up hanging out at The Place, I'm not sure that I would hang out there.

This makes me think about what other boards are out there. I don't really spend that much time in the Internet, at least not as much as some of the people I know. Just sort of stumbled across this one a couple of months ago. I'd seen the one at ajarn.com sometime last year and was generally horrified and actually started wondering if there was something wrong with me for NOT hating Thailand and all things Thai like THOSE people do.

I know there are other boards out there. Are there boards for pedophiles??? Boards for people with "unpopular" local political views??? Or is that board at ajarn.com just an aberration, the ONLY aberration, and I can safely think that I will feel comfortable in an establishment peopled by the contributors of most of the boards out there?

I gotta tell you, the prospect of spending an evening with the denizens of ajarn.com just plain leaves me cold.

[Guest]

I'm going to toss a number of thoughts into this "stew".

First, to show what can be done with pretty little investment, take a walk down Sukumvit Soi 10, until you reach a vacant lot that is to the rear of the Museum Plaza labrynth. Turn right into this vacant lot, walk forward about 50 meters, and on your right you will see a building with a sign outside proclaiming it as Tippler's Tavern. Inside, one pretty rough pool table,and some friendly (but not gorgeous) barmaids. It's owned by Alex, formerly of Bart's bar in Soi Zero. Location is a bit odd, but not really very far off the beaten path. Something like this place could be turned into a nice "clubhouse" for a network of board members. (for those who wonder - I am not connected with Tippler's; I've only been there once, and I don't know Alex).

I'm in the process of starting a company in Bangkok - mainly as a manufacturer's rep firm for industrial products. But in my company registration papers, I registered to do a number of other things (including export trading and running a bar/restaurant) - so that I can someday have a Trading Division and some sort of "public house" (to be called "The Indo-Siam Club" - give me a few years!).

In connection with the above, I wandered the streets, and found one location that is probably awesome - back at the end of Sukhumvit Soi 11, turn right, then an immediate left up a dead-end soi that heads toward the San Saeb canal. About 200 meters into the soi, on the right, is a place called the Albury Mens Club. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a private gay club (!) It would make a great getaway place. Just a short walk from "Q Bar". Lots of parking, and several good routes in and out (Soi 11, Soi 3, Sois 13/15/19/21). There is even a set of modern townhouses being built accross the street.

I'm the guy who once posted a "business incubator" thread that ended up in the Careers/Finances section. A lot of the ideas there evolved from a brain-storming session once about creating a bar with a multitude of concierage services attached. Basically, offer a menu of services that visitors could access - both to draw in customers, and to make a small premium off the services. Examples: Assistance accomplishing the following: getting a drivers license, getting a hand-phone, opening a bank account, arranging a visa extension (or "express/virtual visa renewal"). Provide car service with (trustworthy) driver, travel agency service, currency exchange, photo processing, photocopying, printing, business center services, internet shop services, watch/camera batteries, etc.

As someone pointed out, you have to develop a workable business model - an income/expense spread sheet with numbers that stay in the black. A regular BKK bar has a limited number of income-producing "profit centers" - basically only four: drinks, food, pool table fees, barfines. Maybe also cigarettes/cigars. Maybe also condoms)?). But you have an almost endless list of expense items.

A good portion of the expenses are fixed costs, or are close enough to fixed that you can assume them as being fixed. Against these fixed costs, bringing in more customers really helps you get ahead.

The "concierge" model offers some additional potential profit centers, if you have good people running it right. A lot of visitors could do their errands themselves, but for folks who have more money than time, a bar like this could make a lot of the "housekeeping" headaches go away. And a lot of errands that are "no sweat" some times of the year get a lot nastier during the really hot months, or the rainy season (of course, visitor numbers are also down in those periods).

The "concierge" model would be based on just creating a venue, and then enlisting already existing small service businesses to support the "bar" - the bar serves as quality control (signing up only "best of breed" sub-contractors), and maybe negotiates a volume discount for services, which becomes its profit (the end customer pays the normal fee - but to a "valet" at the bar). The customer can drink and relax, while his task gets done.

All this is just a brainstorming exercise - trying to find some new income streams. Particularly important if you are taking barfines out of the basic income-producing portfolio.

Last night I visited "The Office" back off Soi 33 for the first time. I was really impressed by the layout/format/employees/atmosphere. It would be a fairly good model for a physical layout.

End of rambling message. Just a mind-dump.

Good luck with your efforts, In answer to the original question: "Yes, I would most likely patronize a place where (somewhat) like-minded souls convened."

I am one of the folks who patronizes The Living Room for that reason (and I even play DJ there most Thursday late afternoons/early evenings).

"Let the good times roll!"

Bangkok Butterfly

[ALHOLK]

Hi!

Jazz

quote:

---

We're all for "sanuk" .. and whether we post on this board, or other boards, we're after having fun in Thailand. To me, this defines the "homogenious" group and not a specific board.

---

There are clearly more than 3000 posters on the different boards. I don't know how many of them actually travel to Thailand but it should be quite a few of them. Furthermore there will exist many different definitions of sanuk and also many posters that have other motives to come to Thailand. To call this a homogenous group is ridiculous.

I do find it suspicious that a frequent poster on another board jumps into this thread and suggests that the prefered meeting place of that board should be used by all the boards. They have in the past rather strongly promoted businesses of their choice. They have also in the past displayed a will to control what is posted on other boards and a complete intolerance for diverging opinions.

Don't bother to state that every single poster on all boards is welcome because you know just as well as the rest of us that it is utter bullshit.

regards

ALHOLK

[Guest]

Don't bother to state that every single poster on all boards is welcome because you know just as well as the rest of us that it is utter bullshit.

I don't know where this idea came from, but if you are talking about The Living Room, you're way off base. All customers are welcome. The majority of the employees there know nothing about any boards. On any given night,maybe 60-150 customers pass through. Perhaps 5-15 have any connection to on-line forums. Everyone is welcome, provided they have money, and behave in a reasonably civilized manner.

Unless you go out of your way to proclaim yourself a member of some board, and somehow announce your board sign-in name, basically no one at TLR will know or care about that apsect. You will be "evaluated" based on how you act, not what "board" you are from.

If someone is an asshole, that is attributed to them individually - not what "board" they come from. Even an asshole is "welcome" to stay, spend money, and chat up the ladies (they are used to enduring jerks) - up until you get outright violent, or intimidating, or otherwise cross the line that will get you tossed from most bars in the world.

Some people may take their board personas (and those of others) a bit too seriously. If you have a life, and an identity, and a sense of humor, and some stories to tell - in person - those are the things that will establish your on-the-ground reputation here. Forget the cyberworld - it means little out on the ground here.

"Let the good times roll!"

B-Fly BKK