English café! Where? Bangkok. When? Now!

[snoop1130]

English café! Where? Bangkok. When? Now!

by Robin Westley Martin

 

 

These were the thought processes early in the New Year of 2020, of my daughter Sara, my partner Noi, and myself. I had recently returned from a trip back to the UK with Sara, and we had visited the quaint and historical city of Bath. We explored this spot extensively (very popular with Thai and Asian visitors) and to rest our tired tourist toes we had plonked ourselves down in one of the many cafes offering a traditional English afternoon tea. Sara and myself stayed there rather longer than we had intended, sampling several of their cake offerings, and Ye Olde English Scones. My daughter was enamoured with the homemade cakes and the whole cafe atmosphere, and it had planted a seed of an idea in both our minds. Last Christmas, over a family meal, we discussed our trip to Bath, and we decided that to offer a similar experience in the heart of Bangkok would be a good idea. 

 

Sara began scouting locations, and Noi, myself and she eventually decided upon the Ari district, a very popular area in which to hangout. We found a site, premises, and set about making our dream of an English café in Bangkok come true. Our research had discovered that Bangkok, over the last few years, has been the most visited city in the world, with 22.7 million international visitors per year. The next closest cities were London and Paris, with about 19 million.

 

All these plans, of course, predated the onset of the Corona virus pandemic that bombed out international air travel, and devastated the hospitality and service industries worldwide. But we had made our bed, had begun fitting out the café, signed contracts, and made heavy investments already. There was no going back. 

 

The first problem we encountered was the supply chain for our fixtures and fittings, that we had carefully chosen for the restaurant, much of which was going to be shipped from China. Uh oh! The epicentre of the outbreak. However, it did not turn out as badly as we expected. China was the first to suffer the consequences of the deadly spread of Covid-19, but was also the first to start its recovery. The lockdown in China began to ease in April, and shipments out of the country once more resumed.

 

When we had initially signed our contracts with the owners of the complex in which our café was to be located, the opening date had been set for April 1st .  Bangkok was deep in the throes of lockdown, and the city was as quiet as a teashop in an English country village might be. There was no traffic on the roads or on the pavements, and hotels, pubs, restaurants, and cafes had all been told to shut their doors by the Thai government. Opening in April was a no no.

 

For us budding restaurateurs this was a very worrying time. The first of April approached and receded. The first of May approached and receded. When were we going to be able to open our restaurant that we had sunk all our money into, and how would the business fare in the ‘new (ab)normal’.

 

We were looking closely at the effect this global disaster was having on businesses, and people’s lives in general. Millions of small to medium businesses around the world are not likely to survive the losses they have made during the enforced closure of their premises, which was enforced to avoid the contact spread of the virus. 

 

And the further burdens placed upon them, such as the restrictions on inner city mass transit systems means that footfall will likely be reduced. Places that rely on customers will also suffer from a reduction in clientele within their premises due to social distancing rules, resulting in less seating and table space. The extra costs of regular cleaning of their public and private spaces, and the cost of hand gel, etc, etc all have to be taken into account. All of this is going to eat into the profit margins, even of those establishments that survive and are able to reopen.

 

Full Story: https://expatlifeinthailand.com/lifestyle/english-cafe-where-bangkok-when-now/

 

-- © Copyright Expat Life in Thailand 2020-09-17

 

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[geisha]

Loved your story ! I’m not an expat but spend quite a bit of time in Bangkok when there, and I do love a good cup of tea and a scone .I hope to be seeing  you sooner than later, good luck !!!!!

[natway09]

Welcome to the club.

There are many of us in the same business situation, we  are just about breaking even since being closed for 4 months so looks like 2020 will end up as a negative year 

As one poster said, refinance or close. Hang in there

[BritManToo]

Good story, good idea, unlucky with the timing.

While you're waiting for customers you can try my recipe for Scones, which I make fairly often.

240gm all purpose flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp citric acid, 1/2 tsp salt (or 3 tsp baking powder)
50gm SamSon palm oil, 50gm sugar, 100ml milk

Mix together until like crumbs, then stir in the milk until dough.
Fold until fairly smooth (quick, quick when you've added the milk, you're wasting rising time)
Cut the rounds about 1/2-3/4 inch thick.
Rub milk on the top.

Bake at 180-200c for 10 minutes

 

And to go on top, here's my recipe for microwave raspberry jam.

2 glasses of mostly frozen raspberries and a few blackberries (from Makro) 280gm (200 + 80), 3/4-1/2 cup sugar 140gm

Microwave on 800w for 15 minutes 30 seconds, stirring every few minutes.
Pour into a jam jar, leave to cool, then put in the fridge overnight to set.

 

 

Edited September 18, 2020 by BritManToo