It seems the last few months have been cruel to a few aspiring entrepreneurs in Bangkok, although I am not sure the calamities were not mainly created by those that got bitten!
Soi 4 (Nana) Sukhumvit, one would have thought, was a reasonably good place to do business, but two of the biggest public denouements have been within the environs of that soi.
The largest casualty was Privilege, the no hands dining operation set up by French Thomas with the aid of investors. The original management has given up on the whole operation including the strange blue and chrome operation called Blue Wave. It is clear that the “no hands” bit was a miserable failure, which is unfortunate because elsewhere in Bangkok there is a similar operation that has survived for years.
I am not surprised about this failure, not because I thought it would not work, on the contrary I thought it would work. However the failed management clearly had little idea what the word management meant. The operation promised a great deal but quickly became inept, and the marketing (yes that funny business of selling and getting customers) was non existent. And if ever there was a business that needed to be marketing driven it was Privilege.
One of the luckless investors in this operation was Boss Hog. He has now taken over this interesting site on Sukhumvit road twixt Soi 2 and 4. The first rumour was that in a fit of pique BH was going to trash the whole building and start from scratch. What the hell you do with the upstairs area, where Privilege operated is anyone’s guess. Personally I would have thought it an excellent site for something like (you’ve guessed it), a “No Hands” restaurant! But of course an operation run by grown up people with some idea of what they are doing, particularly in the marketing field. However there is now discussion on what it will become? Boss Hog fancies a high end jazz club with sexy lady dancing on the grand piano. And of course the Boss normally gets what he wants! I do not know why, but I kind of feel another disaster looming!
As for Blue Wave, that has been reprieved and will stay basically as it is with BH’s sidekick and manager Swanoff in charge. I am pleased to see that Swanoff has managed to turn Big Dogs and Lucky Luke’s round by the well tried management technique of being nice to staff and customers alike. I am told there will be changes at Blue Wave with no live music, and more girls to entertain.
At one stage a Pub (Brit or Irish) was proposed. We had an interesting night thinking up pub names. A few of the gems we came up with were: The Tit and Swallow, The Shag ( a bird!!!!) and one I was particularly proud of The Peelers Alms (you may need a Brit over 40 to translate that). We also insisted that it would need some farangs working there, beyond the luckless Swanoff supervising that, and BH’s Nana bars. Anyway for the time being that idea is shelved, but knowing Boss Hog I suspect, in the not too distant future, the urge to remodel will become overpowering, and then we will get an American version of a British pub. Oh dear I feel another disaster looming!
Buy Swanoff a drink: he is going to need several! And yes Boss Hog is clearly on the way to that small fortune!
The other Soi 4 disaster was totally predictable. Having said that, I think with a little oomph Paradise City Roadhouse, Rajah Hotel car park, could have worked. Although re-reading my article of early February I sort of hinted that I had severe doubts about this “Coyote Ugly” style operation. My conclusion was: I fear that the PCR will need to somehow attract a good crowd if the atmosphere is going to be anything like the one sought. Exactly where they will come from is another matter. I think Smoking Eddy and Graham are going to have to work hard on promotions and parties to earn enough to pay for the H2O to make the grass green in this Paradise City.
Okay I am not always around Soi 4, but I heard little, well in fact nothing, about parties or promotions, certainly nobody sent me anything and they had my e-mail address. So yet another one bites the dust, and whilst I have severe reservations about the Rajah Hotel car park, and in particular this space, there was again no real marketing. The French who had Privilege might naively argue they had a prime site, and foot traffic should have produced the customers, there is no such excuse in the Rajah Hotel car park!
Now the good news, and whilst we are on the subject of Boss Hog, it was the man himself who introduced me to Pendolasco (Soi 2, Sukhumvit, 02 254 3745). With my foraging range limited but my recent op., I have been able to get through the Rajah Hotel car park and down soi 2 in an electric buggy provided by Eco-brand the electric bike specialists (http://eco-brand.com). For that I am grateful as Pendolasco is about 100 yards down Soi 2, towards the blind end, from the said car park. It is a new restaurant in an older house with a small garden and the ground floor sensibly divided into bar and restaurant area. There are several tables in the bar area for the new criminal class (smokers). Also upstairs there is a terrace and a private dining room. It is all pleasantly “done up” and owned and managed by an amiable Italian called Marco. Marco also has operated successful restaurants in Saigon and the Italian Alps, so he is no slouch in this business. Thankfully as well as adequate capital he has a marketing strategy, although the main impetus in customer creation will come from reputation, which he is already beginning to acquire.
I really like their starter selection of several mixed dishes which allows a party to order 2/3 plates and pick at will. The portions are generous, for starters, and 3 such platters will make four very happy. With an Italian chef at the stoves the main courses, pastas and risottos are first class. Among other dishes I have had an excellent ossobuco and a noble Porcino risotto; both well worth a detour. There is a sensible wine list and the staff are attentive, helpful and speak English. All in all a very good addition to the eateries in the Soi 4 environs. My only complaint is the awful pictures in the menu; I reckon food pictures in menus should be confined to tourist traps for bus loads who speak no known language!
So that is what has been happening in my rather limited world. I shall be back in full cry, with fortnightly reports once again, in the autumn, by which time I hope I have a substitute for the appendage that I seem to have rather carelessly misplaced. Although the incompetence of medical facilities out side Bangkok may share more than a modicum of the blame!