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Is the closure of your favorite bar or restaurant imminent?


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11 minutes ago, polpott said:

I am on the ground and regularly visit Soi Xzite to eat at Bake 'n Brew. haven't been since just before the lockdown but the large project down the Soi was nowhere finished last time I visited and it was impossible to discern what the future use of any of the units was.

 

The Avenue has never really been successful but there's nothing to say it won't be in the future, great location. 

 

Nightwish owned 2 bars on Soi Bongkot 8, J Club and one other.

In this video  (At 4'12) done 2 weeks ago you can see it was already quite finished

you can notice the big parking for the chinese buses on the front near 3 road

 

The rest of the video hasn't imo a lot of interest as the american guy doing it

present all the actual works in progress in Pattaya like a positive sign about the

future end of the Covid crisis, when in fact all of these big projects were planified 

financed and started well before the start of the pandemic. So they are the sign of nothing.

Edited by kingofthemountain
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4 minutes ago, kingofthemountain said:

In this video  (At 4'12) done 2 weeks ago you can see it's quite finished

The author of the video has only lived in Pattaya for a matter of weeks. Knows nothing. The project doesn't look finished to me, still a lot of work taking place a few weeks ago. Suggest you get a better source for your information than a Jonny come lately vlogger who has no long term association with Pattaya. Like most Americans, he has a habit of talking through his backside.                                         

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2 minutes ago, polpott said:

The author of the video has only lived in Pattaya for a matter of weeks. Knows nothing. The project doesn't look finished to me, still a lot of work taking place a few weeks ago. Suggest you get a better source for your information than a Jonny come lately vlogger who has no long term association with Pattaya. Like most Americans, he has a habit of talking through his backside.                                         

I am not saying he is right or wrong, as i said imo the video hasn't a lot of interest except

to show you where was the state of the works 2 weeks ago at this place.

 

As i live here i fortunately have better information sources than this guy.

I will be in the area tomorrow so i will see by myself  and i will let you know

if it's really finished or not unfortunately i haven't the equipment to do a video, but since you are 

yourself also in the city, i am sure you will find by yourself soon if it's still a work in progress or not

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3 hours ago, kingofthemountain said:

He has put all his eggs in 1 model of seedy girlies bar in 1 street of 1 city in 1 country

you could not make worse  in terms of spreading the risks

 

The future will show if this guy was a fool or a genius

i have my own opinion, but of course i could be wrong

 

I admire someone willing to take a risk and go in to business full hog as this fellow has done. At the same time, one does think Covid is going to be with us for some time to come and the money needed to keep bars afloat won't last forever. When the money runs out, what next? Sell off bar after bar and hope like hell things pick up before they all been sold? How long can he last?

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7 hours ago, kingofthemountain said:

yeahh he has also done recently few videos about how to do a successfull business in Pattaya lol

 

it's funny enough when you know the old and wise adage for all decent nvestissor about the eggs and the basket

 

He has put all his eggs in 1 model of seedy girlies bar in 1 street of 1 city in 1 country

you could not make worse  in terms of spreading the risks

 

The problem is he is now broke, he has no more money to invest (Even if he realises now he could be a good idea to start to diversify his activities, gym, restaurant, real estate and so on. a little bit late on this one unfortunately for him) so he can only talk, talk and talk again. 

 

At the moment he is at minima in total deny about the reality and he is talking as if all his business and Pattaya will be back at work as usual in few months maximum, when all the signs show it could take years before to start to recover, if ever

 

The future will show if this guy was a fool or a genius

i have my own opinion, but of course i could be wrong

 

In a world with limited travel opportunity spread your portfolio into different countries is a bad thing. You lose viability. Furthermore they have branched into news and forum business and "the online route" for this bars as well.  Your diversify suggestion are all struggling world wide. BTC is up, hopefully he hold a big bag. 

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16 hours ago, kingofthemountain said:

(With probably some nice traffic jams on 3 road).

With the overspill blocking up Soi Excyte and Soi Pothole?  It appears every short cut in and out of town that I know gets developed and choked off!

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1 hour ago, AlexJohanson said:

 

In a world with limited travel opportunity spread your portfolio into different countries is a bad thing. You lose viability. Furthermore they have branched into news and forum business and "the online route" for this bars as well.  Your diversify suggestion are all struggling world wide. BTC is up, hopefully he hold a big bag. 

 

The Nightwish Group (Brian Flowers) were putting all their eggs in one basket prior to Covid, so the lack of international travel now is irrelevant. 

 

They were, in effect, creating a Soi 6 monopoly. 

 

I agree with kingofthemountain.  Nightwish should have had a bar in Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai etc, and then should have had a restaurant, a legal office, a visa office etc. 

 

They probably should have had a presence in the region, with a bar in Phnom Penh - Cambodia, and a bar in Vietnam somewhere.  Instead, they opted for 25 bars on just one Soi, in just one city, Pattaya.  

 

On the point of The Nightwish Group having bars in other nearby countries, as we know, the race is on for the vaccine roll out, not only because the Thai population has to be vaccinated before the virus mutates into a strain this current vaccination may not work against, and not only to bring prosperity back to the tourism industry here, but because the first country in the region to vaccinate it's population will attract the 2021 / 22 tourists.

 

I have long said I see Vietnam as Thailand's biggest competitor in the region.  There has been articles on TV with senior Thai's in the tourism industry saying the same.

 

If Vietnam rolls out the vaccine before Thailand, you will see a big portion of Thailand's tourists holiday in Vietnam in 2021 / 22, many or the first time.  They may just like what they find in Vietnam, and never return to Thailand.  

 

The vaccine procurement and roll out competition between the two countries will be interesting.

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2 hours ago, AlexJohanson said:

 

In a world with limited travel opportunity spread your portfolio into different countries is a bad thing. You lose viability. Furthermore they have branched into news and forum business and "the online route" for this bars as well.  Your diversify suggestion are all struggling world wide. BTC is up, hopefully he hold a big bag. 

Bryan Flowers (CEO Nightwish Group) has long dabbled in BTC and even once dabbled in the idea of using it as payment in his bars. pretty sure he holds a bag. His background is in IT/web design which is what first brought him to Pattaya. Never had a serious interest in bars, just fell into it and the business grew organically. Now expanded into online media which is proving successful. Very savvy guy who will survive.

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1 hour ago, Leaver said:

to be fair he is one of a few that actually know what they are doing. He likes setting up new restaurants, can't sell his current one, so plan B get a partner. He's very hands on so I wonder how that will work

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1 hour ago, Leaver said:

I agree Hungry Hippo is the #1 most busy restaurant in all Pattaya....But I am not sure Pattaya needs more than one just now, when/if tourist return then sure, build more....

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10 hours ago, mstevens said:

 

I admire someone willing to take a risk and go in to business full hog as this fellow has done. At the same time, one does think Covid is going to be with us for some time to come and the money needed to keep bars afloat won't last forever. When the money runs out, what next? Sell off bar after bar and hope like hell things pick up before they all been sold? How long can he last?

A large number of businesses are fronts for money laundering wherever you go in the world.

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16 hours ago, polpott said:

The project doesn't look finished to me, still a lot of work taking place a few weeks ago. Suggest you get a better source for your information than a Jonny come lately vlogger who has no long term association with Pattaya.

The vlogger made no suggestion that the Soi Xzite is finished, it doesn't look finished in the vid, and in fact the vlogger specifically quoted June from one of the Thais there. Nor did @kingofthemountain say that the vlogger gave him that information (he himself misinterpreted what the vid shows), so you've simply made up that attribution. Suggest you get a better source of information than yourself--one who can read.

 

16 hours ago, polpott said:

Like most Americans, he has a habit of talking through his backside.     

But here, like most Brits, you've been caught talking out of your backside again and, moreover, failed to point out any false statement in the entire video. Usual deflection, innit? I had to correct another such provincial bigot recently claiming that it's Americans rather than Brits known for wearing socks with sandals.

 

What the vid purported to do, show big new construction, it did pretty well, best we've had on that topic. Maybe the only one? Youtube commenters seemed to appreciate it. I did, too, actually. We have a problem with it here, however. It's not following the narrative.

 

Now the vlogger did start off promisingly, acknowledging a lot of doom and gloom right now, stark streets, no lights, Chucky dolls, zombies, empty streets, empty boulevards, food lines, dark streets & alleyways. Oooh. Looked like it'd be more of that ol' doom porn we love, with amateurish black screens, stark white lettering, loud portentous music suitable for the burial of Pompeii, a trustworthy provincial Brit accent, and yet another tiresome hand-wringing hump around Sois 7 & 8 showing vacant buildings, with no info about the noteworthy characteristics (for that soi) of the businesses once occupying those buildings.

 

But alas. After the promising beginning it was all ruined with highly annoying talk of a changing urban landscape, people working and building, and an absolutely horrid suggestion, coming from the Thais, that Pattaya's death might not be Eternal after all. I'd call that downright inflammatory. It should be removed from the forum!

 

Edited by BigStar
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2 minutes ago, BigStar said:

The vlogger made no suggestion that the Soi Xzite is finished, it doesn't look finished in the vid, and in fact the vlogger specifically quoted June from one of the Thais there. Nor did @kingofthemountain say that the vlogger gave him that information (he himself misinterpreted what the vid shows), so you've simply made up that attribution. Suggest you get a better source of information than yourself--one who can read.

 

But here, like most Brits, you've been caught talking out of your backside again and, moreover, failed to point out any false statement in the entire video. Usual deflection, innit? I had to correct another such provincial bigot recently claiming that it's Americans rather than Brits known for wearing socks with sandals.

 

What the vid purported to do, show big new construction, it did pretty well, best we've had on that topic. Maybe the only one? Youtube commenters seemed to appreciate it. I did, too, actually. We have a problem with it here, however. It's not following the narrative.

 

Now the vlogger did start off promisingly, acknowledging a lot of doom and gloom right now, stark streets, no lights, Chucky dolls, zombies, empty streets, empty boulevards, food lines, dark streets & alleyways. Oooh. Looked like it'd be more of that ol' doom porn we love, with amateurish black screens, stark white lettering, loud portentous music suitable for the burial of Pompeii, a trustworthy provincial Brit accent, and yet another tiresome hand-wringing hump around Sois 7 & 8 showing vacant buildings, with no info about the noteworthy characteristics (for that soi) of the businesses once occupying those buildings.

 

But alas. After the promising beginning it was all ruined with highly annoying talk of a changing urban landscape, people working and building, and an absolutely horrid suggestion, coming from the Thais, that Pattaya's death might not be Eternal after all. I'd call that downright inflammatory. It should be removed from the forum!

 

Well he's American from the deep South so you would say that. 555. Me, I just find him a boring BS artist.

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16 minutes ago, polpott said:

Well he's American from the deep South so you would say that. 555. Me, I just find him a boring BS artist.

Why be coy? Go ahead and tell us what's BS exactly. Problem?

Edited by BigStar
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Kingo did say "quite finished" or some such when it obviously isn't, but no problem. I didn't see the vlogger's work but I walk past occasionally and I have no idea what the place is going to be. 

Parking for Chinese tour buses has been mentioned so not a beer bar complex then. A local answer to Asiatique in Bangkok? A revival of Duck Square.? 

No wonder I have trouble sleeping. 

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8 hours ago, polpott said:

Bryan Flowers (CEO Nightwish Group) has long dabbled in BTC and even once dabbled in the idea of using it as payment in his bars. pretty sure he holds a bag. His background is in IT/web design which is what first brought him to Pattaya. Never had a serious interest in bars, just fell into it and the business grew organically. Now expanded into online media which is proving successful. Very savvy guy who will survive.

When you have to do a gofundme to pay your staff, i don't really 

call it a business model ''proving successful''

they are looking at 80 000 $ (1150 $ donated so far in 2 or 3 months)

https://gogetfunding.com/the-pattaya-news-tpn-national-news-supporters/?fbclid=IwAR2scLa0BEAkp_KNFYO6RjWQ6tDlN_XztlWvG68_WLMqLtidbmFwg7_RJ-8

goodluck to them

and yes i agree with you i think Mr flowers has some bitcoins in reserve, he should be ok

i am less optimist for his bar business, i call it karma as the work conditions for the girls in the bars

weren't the best (Largely paid under the minimal wage, no social security, not paid if they worked less

than 30 days, having to buy themselves the mandatory clothes with color changing every day

packed at 3 or 4 girls or more in a tiny insalubrity room above the bar and so on)

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On 2/9/2021 at 1:19 AM, scubascuba3 said:

to be fair he is one of a few that actually know what they are doing. He likes setting up new restaurants, can't sell his current one, so plan B get a partner. He's very hands on so I wonder how that will work

This time last year Roblin said he was leaving Thailand permanently to return to UK for health reasons, so either that was a bluff of some sort, or he's realised that he can keep HH1 and with prices depressed, plus some new investment, open HH2 ready for when things do pick up....whenever that may be.

 

Or perhaps he cannot sell HH1 for he price the wants and has completely changed his strategy.

 

He was also the first person I met to get the  dates of the bars closing exactly right before it occurred!

As you say, he knows what he's about, since the first days of Robin's Nestaurant he's largely got it right due to organised business plans.

 

I haven't had any contact with him since last March (we're not friends, just casual acquaintances) but IMO he's probably got it right again - for his sake I hope so as he's a good bloke and  runs good restaurants / hotels.

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