Paddy Irish Bar

[binnsy]

Good news it has reopened and hopefully will remain so.In my opion it is by far the best bar in Buriram and if the expats use it will remain open.

[PaddyThai]

Good news it has reopened and hopefully will remain so.In my opion it is by far the best bar in Buriram and if the expats use it will remain open.

So, are you the owner?

Do you have any photos?

[Disting]

So apart from its looks, what makes it the best bar in Buri Ram?

I went in once, very hot inside and had a little plastic fan to share between us. Drink prices were expensive to say the least and the softies had to come from the corner shop. Didnt make a good impression I'm afraid.

[torrenova]

Well he'd better get some staff, make sure he has some drinks in the fridge and sort out his menu if he is going to survive. No point to have an aircon system in place if you can't afford to run it. One fan is a joke as well.

[Dave the Dude]

So apart from its looks, what makes it the best bar in Buri Ram?

I went in once, very hot inside and had a little plastic fan to share between us. Drink prices were expensive to say the least and the softies had to come from the corner shop. Didnt make a good impression I'm afraid.

Woa

I wonder what the others are like.

As I have said before, it seems like Buriram has the drinkers and Surin has the Bars

Dave

[binnsy]

Fair comments.

He has the Air Con but i guess he does not wish to have it on if only the odd customer in.

When i spoke to him he was stating that getting a regular customer base was his first objective.

As for the prices i think 70 baht for a large LEO is fine and on par with other watering holes in Buriram.His imported beers are Bangkok prices.

The reason i say its the best bar is it has a pub fealing to it in my opion where as the rest are resturants.

[Disting]

IMHO, if I was trying to build a customer base and someone came in, for their first visit to my bar, on a 34 degree day, I would put the aircon on or at least offer it to them. That to me is how you make someone come back, not by giving them a table fan to waft hot air around.

As it was not on or offered we went to the French place just up the road where it is more open and cooler and had a nice meal and drinks there instead.

I must admit that I didnt see any aircon in the bar, must be well hidden.

[torrenova]

Fair comments.

He has the Air Con but i guess he does not wish to have it on if only the odd customer in.

When i spoke to him he was stating that getting a regular customer base was his first objective.

As for the prices i think 70 baht for a large LEO is fine and on par with other watering holes in Buriram.His imported beers are Bangkok prices.

The reason i say its the best bar is it has a pub fealing to it in my opion where as the rest are resturants.

Chicken and egg scenario but in business you have to offer first and see if your business model attracts customers. One thing he seriously has to sort out is his billing. It is no good just t have bills kept on pieces of paper behind the bar with no names and dates on them. There is or was no feeling that any degree of accuracy was maintained.

If he was hoping to achieve a regular customer base then he failed miserably, perhaps because he lost / sacked all his staff, had no aircon, had no fans, opened at times to suit him, had food prices far to high, had no food on more than one occasion, did not have a trustful billing system, had no beer on numerous occasions and generally ran just about the worst operated bar I have ever seen in 25 years of using bars around the world.

The potential is there but I seriously wonder if the current management is in the right trade.

IMHO, if I was trying to build a customer base and someone came in, for their first visit to my bar, on a 34 degree day, I would put the aircon on or at least offer it to them. That to me is how you make someone come back, not by giving them a table fan to waft hot air around.

As it was not on or offered we went to the French place just up the road where it is more open and cooler and had a nice meal and drinks there instead.

I must admit that I didnt see any aircon in the bar, must be well hidden.

He has built the aircon into the wooden panelling which is great if it is used. However, he has made the bar enclosed and thus needs the aircon operating. Vinyl, the French place you mention, is open on 1 1/2 sides and has far more fans despite having some fresh air.

Not putting ceiling fans in Paddy's Bar is foolish.

[barryofthailand]

Come to Korat, we have plenty of bars and good places to eat.

Barry

[fruity]

IMHO, if I was trying to build a customer base and someone came in, for their first visit to my bar, on a 34 degree day, I would put the aircon on or at least offer it to them. That to me is how you make someone come back, not by giving them a table fan to waft hot air around.

As it was not on or offered we went to the French place just up the road where it is more open and cooler and had a nice meal and drinks there instead.

I must admit that I didnt see any aircon in the bar, must be well hidden.

The Irirsh pub would be great had the owner opened it in Phuket or Pattaya, anywhere with plenty of tourists. The prices in there will never get him an expat following aircon or not:)

What is the general concensus of opinion regarding the french place,Vinyl? I see in passing it has already attracted the local farang alkies, who will sit from breakfast time till closing hugging their Chang. I have tried his breakfast on two occasions, hoping that on the second occasion it would have improved; it hadn't! Must rank as one of the worst I've ever had the misfortune to eat.

[torrenova]

For reasons unbeknown to me, some people were or still are boycotting the Sawatdee Krap bar on the other side of Sala Loy. Given that Paddy's Bar was closed for ages and has it's own problems, Vinyl picked up some of the trade in the area.

I've tried the food in Vinyl twice and that is enough. For a French place, the French onion soup was a disgrace.

However, customers nursing a tin of Chang as I have seen is not going to make anyone rich.

I think that if Sala Loy was much smaller, say half the size or less, then it could have become the focal point for the town in terms of eating and drinking. As it is, it is far too large and it will never attract enough businesses of quality to attract the limited number of locals who care to spend their money on such things.

[Dave the Dude]

The attractions of Surin seem to improve the more I read about venues in Buriram

Dave

[stevo2]

I can't understand how just about every "Farang" that opens a bar in Buriram town messes it up within such a short space of time. Paddy's will never work as the majority of punters don't wish to sit inside a stuffy place in hot weather, with or without aircon.

Vinyl only servive on beer sales as there are not enough people wanting to eat bad French food,the Thai food is also bad, and beer at his prices.

The Bamboo is just a rip off. I let them off the first time my bill was well over but not been back since the second time.

Has anyone been in the new place over the road,just down from where the red ribbon used to be. I went there about a week after he opened. The breakfast was absolutely fantastic and only 120 baht. Since then,about 3 months, the food has gone badly down hill and he seems to thin that over 100 percent profit on his beer is OK. Well I don't. By the way. Sausage and mash on the menu at 199 means exactly what it says. Not the lack of an "s" on the word sausage.

I tend to drink in my local area. 3 bottles of Archa for 100baht. I can speak the local languages so don't feel the need to go looking for farangs for a chat.

If I am in the town I drink in one of the many Thai places where you can get cracking food and cheap beer. It wouldn't take much for a few farangs to start going to a particular place on a regular basis and then put some money into the "local" economy and create a new,affordable and pleasant meeting place.

[kamalabob2]

Certainly one of the best Thai owned Restaurants that consistently serves delicious Thai food and "Farang" food at fair prices with a good selection of Thai brewed beers at a reasonable price is "Book and Bed" Restaurant on Hanchana Road which has the Wong Thong hotel down the street. This clean restaurant is own and run by an English speaking Thai person, Khun Man who attended College in a Southern State of the USA and California. I enjoy his "Farang" food and my wife and her nieces rate this restaurant as being superior to any other Thai/Farang type restaurant in Buriram or Satuk. The inside is cool with his five a/c units, the bathrooms clean, and the outside patio quite pleasant. In the thirty times I have dined at this establishment I have NEVER had a problem with the "check bin" being padded and my wife is happy when I take visitors to this place as we will not have "problems" over messed up food orders or funny business with the bill. Sure we can eat for less than 149 baht a person at many Thai only restaurants in Buriram, but I can't think of a better place with a/c AND a patio with both Thai and Farang food done CONSISTENTLY well. It is easy to see why many Farang dine and socialize at this establishment and why they have had the success with the fickle Thai clients. It seems to me that Thai patrons will only give a restaurant one chance and if they are disappointed they will find yet another place to patronize. I've never ordered the breakfast, but Lunch and Dinner appeal to my palate and resident pocketbook.

[Chaimai]

Paddy's looked remarkably closed and shuttered when I stopped by this afternoon

[lukey1979]

Some blinding critisism around here. Some excellent pointers to aid any potential reataurant/Bar gaffer in Isaan.

Martin hel_l the <deleted> have you manged to keep it up for so long ?! Most seem to mange weeks max

[Chaimai]

Some blinding critisism around here. Some excellent pointers to aid any potential reataurant/Bar gaffer in Isaan.

Martin hel_l the <deleted> have you manged to keep it up for so long ?! Most seem to mange weeks max

I almost hesitate to say that most successful businesses have, at their core, a sound business plan stemming from extensive research of the respective industry, market, locality and competition. Coupled with a sound financial plan, adequate funding (cash being preferable to costly borrowed money) and a large slice of luck this should stack the odds against failure. Oh ! you also need the desire to succeed, resilience when everyone else tells you that you have got it wrong and the awareness that, in Thailand, it is likely that you are going to have a lifestyle business rather than another Microsoft on your hands. Remember also that the 50% cash flow contingency invariably gets spent on capital over-spend and losses !

[bergen]

Some blinding critisism around here. Some excellent pointers to aid any potential reataurant/Bar gaffer in Isaan.

Martin hel_l the <deleted> have you manged to keep it up for so long ?! Most seem to mange weeks max

We've been around a few years as well and although we're not getting rich soon

with owned property, no loans, a bit of farming, and a modest income we'll survive (hopefully)

until I get my pension.................................................................which is years from now .

Edited November 22, 2008 by bergen

[lukey1979]

Bergan you seem like a pleasant bloke mate. Would like to have a couple of drinks with you sometimes. Im an ex Royal Marine so have a few good Norway piss up tales!

Luke. Sangkha.

[bergen]

Bergan you seem like a pleasant bloke mate. Would like to have a couple of drinks with you sometimes. Im an ex Royal Marine so have a few good Norway piss up tales!

Luke. Sangkha.

Looking forward to meeting you Luke ................ Btw........I'll send you a pm.

[torrenova]

Well glad I didn't bother to venture out tonight as I was thinking about a few beers and was going to get dropped off at Paddy's Bar. I suspect he might have opened but at a time to suit him.

From that I suspect that he still has no staff. His pregnant girlfriend cannot do it all and he cannot do the cooking etc. I suspect his previous staff left because of no cash / laid off for the same reason and perhaps he is not trusted now. In any case, he needs staff.

As a business plan, you don't take a lease on a property overlooking arguably the best view in Buriram and then enclose your business and make it into a little furnace do you ? Well I would not. I'd have brought the inside out onto the small pavement terrace and had some fans installed in the roof and smaller variable direction ones all over the place.

By the way and at the risk of alienating some fellow locals here, I will state that I have never met a town in the whole of Thailand (and I've been to and lived in quite a few) which has a greater number and higher percentage of real hard core cheap charlies. I've seen them in the bars, seen them constantly complaining.

As for Bamboo (irrespective of other issues), just what is expensive about a large Heineken at Bt90 ? It costs around Bt65 to buy, they give you free ice, a glass, chairs, fans, toilets and someone to serve you and all that on a Bt25 margin ? Now the business is in town, has some moderate food and has sports and news on TV. They even have a copy of the Bangkok Post ! Just how cheap do some people want ?

Anyone from the UK ever have an off license next to the pub ? And can you remember that beer was cheaper in the off license ? And did people kick up a stink about it ? No, we did not. So why do we live half way around the world and complain that the beer in a business which offers the equivalent comfort of the pub is more expensive than the no facilities off license ? Madness.

[fruity]

Well glad I didn't bother to venture out tonight as I was thinking about a few beers and was going to get dropped off at Paddy's Bar. I suspect he might have opened but at a time to suit him.

From that I suspect that he still has no staff. His pregnant girlfriend cannot do it all and he cannot do the cooking etc. I suspect his previous staff left because of no cash / laid off for the same reason and perhaps he is not trusted now. In any case, he needs staff.

As a business plan, you don't take a lease on a property overlooking arguably the best view in Buriram and then enclose your business and make it into a little furnace do you ? Well I would not. I'd have brought the inside out onto the small pavement terrace and had some fans installed in the roof and smaller variable direction ones all over the place.

By the way and at the risk of alienating some fellow locals here, I will state that I have never met a town in the whole of Thailand (and I've been to and lived in quite a few) which has a greater number and higher percentage of real hard core cheap charlies. I've seen them in the bars, seen them constantly complaining.

As for Bamboo (irrespective of other issues), just what is expensive about a large Heineken at Bt90 ? It costs around Bt65 to buy, they give you free ice, a glass, chairs, fans, toilets and someone to serve you and all that on a Bt25 margin ? Now the business is in town, has some moderate food and has sports and news on TV. They even have a copy of the Bangkok Post ! Just how cheap do some people want ?

Anyone from the UK ever have an off license next to the pub ? And can you remember that beer was cheaper in the off license ? And did people kick up a stink about it ? No, we did not. So why do we live half way around the world and complain that the beer in a business which offers the equivalent comfort of the pub is more expensive than the no facilities off license ? Madness.

I totally agree regarding the Bamboo bar, on the occasions I've been in there I've never had any cause to complain. The staff are very pleasant, it is inexpensive & without a doubt serves the BEST English brekkie in town.

I also agree re the cheap charlie take; when that red ribbon place opened, it really sickened me to see the same farang faces sitting out on the pavement EVERY time I drove by Chang in hand. The owner was making 5-10 baht on drinks & had to serve this crowd ALL day. Went to the atm at the SCB one morning at 7.30, some of the 'regulars' already in situ! I often wonder what the Thai's think of these farang alkies?

[binnsy]

also agree re the cheap charlie take; when that red ribbon place opened, it really sickened me to see the same farang faces sitting out on the pavement EVERY time I drove by Chang in hand. The owner was making 5-10 baht on drinks & had to serve this crowd ALL day. Went to the atm at the SCB one morning at 7.30, some of the 'regulars' already in situ! I often wonder what the Thai's think of these farang alkies?

So you have never seen the Thai's drinking at time???

[fruity]

also agree re the cheap charlie take; when that red ribbon place opened, it really sickened me to see the same farang faces sitting out on the pavement EVERY time I drove by Chang in hand. The owner was making 5-10 baht on drinks & had to serve this crowd ALL day. Went to the atm at the SCB one morning at 7.30, some of the 'regulars' already in situ! I often wonder what the Thai's think of these farang alkies?

So you have never seen the Thai's drinking at time???

Of course I have seen Thais drinking at that time of day, who hasn't? My own wifes mother starts the day with a bottle of chang, in much the same way I start mine with coffee. However, there IS a difference. What I should have said was I wonder what Thai's think of these farang alkies who sit around from morning until night, rarely moving,drinking all the while!

Nobody likes a drink more than me, yet I still find seeing the same old faces day in day out sitting in the same place drinking beer sad. I have often wondered just what they can find to talk about all day.

[Dave the Dude]

with owned property, no loans, a bit of farming, and a modest income we'll survive (hopefully)

until I get my pension.................................................................which is years from now .

Yea right

Wot you Norse geezers get them at 100 then??

Be good to see you again sometime, Bergan. A few of us are meeting in Buriram 2moro BTW.See other thread.

Fruity

Nobody likes a drink more than me, yet I still find seeing the same old faces day in day out sitting in the same place drinking beer sad. I have often wondered just what they can find to talk about all day.

That sounds remarkably like Weatherspoons in Eastbourne A.K.A. Gods Waitingroom!

[johnsurin]

Of course I have seen Thais drinking at that time of day, who hasn't? My own wifes mother starts the day with a bottle of chang, in much the same way I start mine with coffee. However, there IS a difference. What I should have said was I wonder what Thai's think of these farang alkies who sit around from morning until night, rarely moving,drinking all the while!

Nobody likes a drink more than me, yet I still find seeing the same old faces day in day out sitting in the same place drinking beer sad. I have often wondered just what they can find to talk about all day.

What remarkable athletes these farang fellows must be. I shouldn't wonder.

John.....

[lukey1979]

Of course I have seen Thais drinking at that time of day, who hasn't? My own wifes mother starts the day with a bottle of chang, in much the same way I start mine with coffee. However, there IS a difference. What I should have said was I wonder what Thai's think of these farang alkies who sit around from morning until night, rarely moving,drinking all the while!

Nobody likes a drink more than me, yet I still find seeing the same old faces day in day out sitting in the same place drinking beer sad. I have often wondered just what they can find to talk about all day.

You will probably find the the local Thais look at these guys with an element of envy that they have the opportunity to sit around and have a booze all day and not worry about work.

Whats wrong with sitting around drinking all day with your chums on retirement?

[Dave the Dude]

URGENT GROUP BROADCAST :- If you live in Buriram and worry about 5baht increases in your cheap Thai beer, don't bother to read this>

Hi All

Having ventured out of Surin into the depths of Buriram to meet up with a few 'Rambo's' yesterday, we had a flying visit to 'Paddy's Bar' after having a good time at the Bamboo Bar. I write this after re-reading all the comments above & being a complete <deleted> novice about Buriram.

The bar is very well themed and has a nice 'Celtic' feel about it. A real pub, if anyone can remember them! It is clear that Aiden (the Paddy owner) &wifey are trying hard to establish the place. He showed me photo's of his handiwork together with the most beautiful hand painted/gilt pub mirrors I have ever seen. Once us rabble were all in he closed the doors and ensured the fans&A/C were OK for us. He has a huge selection of varied Music DVD (even more than me ) of which favorites can be requested. His family are into the Pub referb business and this has caused past absences. He intends to remedy this by employing a quality chef to help him and his wife. He had DRAFT John Smiths & Kroney 1664 with Guinness and Stella on its way.

Things to look forward too at the bar might be some girlie helpers (that will please my pissed Aussie friend,Tony ) and Christmas dinner with Irish Band (if he can get his mates sober and over here in time ). As he's Irish,I suggested having Xmas dinner on boxing day so I could turn up having already booked my meal at Mountains Place (as my Thai wife calls the FC,Surin )

Sure there are some 'if's & buts' but he is starting out and trying very hard. I would definitely agree with Torrenova's comments about it being an enclosed bar. I think, if part of the front was opened out using bi-folding doors, passing trade would see this guys top rate handicraft and the moans about A/C would go away. It would also have the added bonus of customers being able sit, drink a quality beer whilst ogling at the sexy lady joggers across the road running around the lake(Don't tell my wife, I spotted that please).

The next meet-up is likely to be in Surin, so I would like to suggest the January one should be held at Aidens place.

This must be the longest post Ive ever done so I'm going to have a lie down now

Dave (No1)

[lukey1979]

Sounds like a great place to hang out.

IF!! thats the standard that is maintained everyday I wouldnt have any cause to moan.

In the long run i wish the bloke good luck.

[lampard10]

[ so I could turn up having already booked my meal at Mountains Place (as my Thai wife calls the FC,Surin )

I trust that refers to the size of my meals rather than the size of me!!!!!!!!!!!