Hard Rock Cafe coming to Chiang Mai

[robertson468]

One has opened on Koh Samui.  We found the food to be fairly basic, albeit well cooked and presented and the prices outrageous!  Sorry, not going there again!

[Gonzo the Face]

....any old timers remember back about 27-28 years ago, or so,  a one legged Vietnam era MASH nurse, by the name Roxanna [Anna] ???  Care to admit it or comment ??  A life that could have been a movie.

[Dante99]

20 minutes ago, Gonzo the Face said:

....any old timers remember back about 27-28 years ago, or so,  a one legged Vietnam era MASH nurse, by the name Roxanna [Anna] ???  Care to admit it or comment ??  A life that could have been a movie.

She the one that took over the old Hard Rock from the yank who had it near Taipae Gate and moved it to Loi Kroa?  Never knew how that ended.

[cmsally]

25 minutes ago, Gonzo the Face said:

....any old timers remember back about 27-28 years ago, or so,  a one legged Vietnam era MASH nurse, by the name Roxanna [Anna] ???  Care to admit it or comment ??  A life that could have been a movie.

I copied this from the Chiang Mai Mail for anyone interested. She had quite a life and died in very sad circumstances. I met her a few times.

Quote

A Tribute to the late Roxanna M. Brown

(1946-2008)

A celebration of the life of Dr. Roxanna M. Brown, one of the world’s leading Southeast Asian art historians, and a tribute to her courage and determination was organized by the Informal Northern Thai Group and held at the premises of the Alliance Francais recently. Below are the recollections of a friend and colleague, and her tribute to Dr. Brown’s scholarship and expertise in her field. Dr. Brown’s tragic and sudden death raises questions which must be answered by the US authorities.
Patricia Cheesman: I first met Roxanna in 1977 when I invited her to come to Laos to examine some ancient ceramics that had been found there. I was working with the UN on ceramics development projects at the time and wanted to research the traditional ceramics of the region so as to base my teaching on Lao historical art forms. At that time no official archeological excavations had been made and the few pieces that were available had been dug from two sites in Vientiane and Luang Prabang by local people or simply found on the surface. Several dozen pieces were in a collection at the ceramics centre where I taught and I wanted Roxanna to see them. She had just published her book, “The Ceramics of South-East Asia - Their Dating and Identification,” and I was impressed by her knowledge.
We soon became friends, as we enjoyed the same interests - ceramics, music, reading material and entertainment and we believed in the goodness of humanity. We had both experienced Asia at “grass roots” level and felt at home here. She felt she had been Asian in a previous lifetime, even before she became a Buddhist. She was very beautiful, petite and full of energy with bright blue eyes and dark golden hair, which she sometimes dyed black to look more Asian. Although she loved to party, Roxanna was a very private person. She once told me she had learned not to “wear her heart on her sleeve,” (a common defect of Westerners in Asian eyes), when she was a teenager. She had a very high IQ and was taunted by her classmates for it, especially the boys, so she decided to keep her opinions to herself and start dating. Her quiet nature gave her an immense presence and although she seemed reserved, she sheltered a quiet inner strength that saved her life later on and earned respect amongst her Asian colleagues.
Roxanna was born in Illinois, USA, on a chicken farm owned by her father, whom she feared for his temper and old fashioned ideas of a woman’s place in society. She first came to Asia in 1968 after she had graduated from Columbia University at age 21. With a degree in journalism, she headed for Vietnam where her brother, Fred Leo, had been serving in the US army. There she earned a living as a foreign correspondent and taught English. She went into villages and war zones as the youngest correspondent on location at the time. Roxanna’s compassion for humanity was deepened by her wartime experiences - she witnessed events that evolved into a great love for the Vietnamese people. It was during this time that she first came across kiln sites and ceramics in the Vietnamese bush that became her passion and subject for scholarship. From 1970 to 1975 she was based in Cambodia as a correspondent and continued her personal research in ceramics without any outside funding. At the same time, she enrolled for a Master’s degree at Singapore University, (from 1971 - 1973), and studied under the famous art historian Professor William Willetts. She was one of his favorite students, as she fulfilled his criteria of having “boundless enthusiasm, personal ambition, tenacity, intellectual curiosity, the ability to sacrifice personal comfort and a natural flair…” Her book was an expansion of her Master’s thesis on the identification and dating of South-East Asian Ceramics and Professor Willetts remained her mentor until his passing some years later. In 1975, she moved to Hong Kong and became assistant editor of the prestigious magazine Arts of Asia and in 1979 she launched the first International Asian Antiques Fair together with two partners. It was an enormous success and brought together Oriental art dealers and collectors from around the world to Hong Kong.
If wealth and comfort had been Roxanna’s goals in life she would have continued and succeeded in the corporate world and given up her treks into the jungles of Asia. But in the late 1980s, she started researching Thai and Lao ceramic sites and met Jo Ngerntongdee in Bangkok, a tall, dark and handsome Thai man of Mon origins. They were deeply in love and married soon after, but the foreign community were shocked that he was so many years her junior and from a totally different social class. She moved to Bangkok and became editor of Living in Thailand magazine. She published my first article on Lao Textiles and continued to encourage me to research this subject until her death. She was my mentor and unofficial research advisor and I contributed to her research in a very small way with my knowledge of ceramic technology. I lost touch with her temporarily when I moved to Australia in 1981, just before her son Jaime was born.
Life seemed good in those days but fate played an evil hand in early 1982 when Roxanna was knocked off her motor bike and crushed by a ten ton truck. She remembered the whole horror of it vividly throughout her life. The truck driver, on seeing that she was not dead had backed up to finish the job, as is not uncommon in Thailand, but she was able to roll her flattened body to the side of the road in time. Eye witnesses noted the number plate of the truck and took her to hospital, where she was left for dead until an intern noticed her hand twitch and the work on her smashed body began. All her ribs and internal organs were crushed but her head was uninjured due to a good helmet and unbelievable luck. She had to have one leg amputated above the knee and was in a coma for many months. The prolonged effect of the antibiotics and pain killers on her system left her with horrendous migraines and an incurable buzzing in her ears. It took her 3 years to recover enough to walk and often she would tell me that it was the love and joy she received from her son Jaime that had saved her life.
As if this ordeal was not enough, she awoke from her coma to find that her best friend, (a foreigner), and her Thai lawyer had made a deal with the trucking company and back-dated the records of the truck ownership to a poor farmer in Phitsanulok. When she was awarded 4 million baht damages by a Thai court, she was unable to claim a penny of it. Handicapped, depressed and penniless she returned to the States where her brother and mother nursed her back to health. As soon as she was able, she returned to Bangkok with Jaime, limping on a prosthetic leg and started work at her old editing job. Her bravery and resilience at this time was amazing. She was in great pain as the prosthetic leg was poorly fitted and caused heat rash, blisters and infections for which she was often hospitalized. At home, she used a wheelchair but found it difficult to get around in Bangkok, which even to this day is not wheelchair friendly.
In 1986, she and Jaime moved to Chiang Mai after much coaxing from me. Roxanna’s self-confidence was at an all-time low but with an invitation from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Chiang Mai University, she started teaching ceramics history as part of the Southeast Asian Art and Culture course in the Thai Art section; the brain-child of Ajarn Vithi Panichapant. She often mentioned to me that this rescued her and the community of the art school was a great support for her psychologically. She continued to teach there part-time, even after she had left Chiang Mai.
Roxanna was a convener of the INTG here and was very happy in Chiang Mai but her income was barely sufficient to pay the school fees for Jaime and her home and medical bills. Constant pain and noise in her head required sleeping pills and pain killers. She was covered in scars from her accident that never fully healed and her bones were very fragile. Nevertheless, she opened the Hard Rock Café near Thapae Gate for added income and was well known for her humor and generosity. Her trusting nature was often taken advantage of, as when she tried to buy a tuk-tuk but the man who was taking her final payment to the suppliers drove off with it and disappeared. She then had a motorbike remodeled, and drove everywhere in all weathers, unstoppable as usual! A company that she assisted in their designs of walking sticks, wheel chairs and other handicap support equipment fitted her with a comfortable prosthesis, which made an enormous difference to her life.
Her new-found confidence took her back to the US to take her PhD, her life’s ambition. Her dissertation at UCLA was on marine archeology, which subsequently became a main focus for her work. She traveled from Indonesia to Malaysia and Vietnam, Hong Kong and Singapore with ease and lectured at conferences world-wide. At a seminar at the Princess Sirindhorn Centre in Bangkok in 2000, she met Khun Surat Osathanugrah, founder of Bangkok University, who gave her the opportunity to curate one of the largest collections of ceramics in Southeast Asia and edit a newsletter dedicated to the study of ceramics of the region. The museum was unofficially opened in 2002 and Roxanna gave workshops and watched over the museum’s 2,000 pieces with great pride. Her integrity and knowledge were impeccable and her articles in the museum’s newsletter would make a fine publication.
Roxanna loved to be stylish and invented a look that became her own - a long fitted top made of silk or cotton over black pants with a short jacket for warmth. This gave her the cover-up she wanted, in beautiful hand-woven Thai fabrics, (thus supporting the weavers, who wove special fabrics for her) and was her only luxury.
It was a great shock to me that she was accused of fraud in high-end antiques, the world of the rich and corrupt. Her financial situation showed clearly that she was not receiving dishonest money - she was such a sincere and honest person it is hard to know why the US authorities went after her. She was well aware and critical of others whose fraudulent research had brought job advancement and financial gain - I have not a single doubt of her innocence. The cruelty of this final insult to her reputation is compounded by her extraordinary life and state of her physical health. A person familiar with the US judicial system tells me that she may have been used a pawn in their game to reach the real crooks. On Friday, May 9 this year, Roxanna was arrested in Seattle, Washington and she died in custody 6 days later.
The circumstances of her arrest have been summarized by Professor Charles Keyes in his petition, (signed by over 460 people, most of whom were academics and colleagues of Roxanna’s), to the federal detention center in Seattle. Dr. Brown had been invited to present a paper, “The Sea Trade from China to Southeast Asia,” at a conference on “Maritime Asia in the Early Modern World” sponsored by the East Asian Studies Center at the University of Washington on May 10. Arriving in Seattle on May 8, she booked into the Watertown Hotel; on May 9, Professor William Lavely, the organizer of the conference, went to pick her up at the hotel. When he called her room, she told him she was being arrested. Professor Lavely reports that the arresting officers identified themselves to him as federal agents. He talked briefly with Roxanna, who told him she knew the arrest was about “that thing in Los Angeles. I made a mistake. I faxed my signature.” When he checked with the hotel later, he was informed that she had checked out.
Dr. Brown, according to local media, “was the first person arrested as part of a five-year undercover investigation into smuggled Thai artifacts at some Southern California museums and galleries.” The primary targets for this investigation appear to have been Jonathan Markell and his wife Cari, who run Markell Imports in Los Angeles. Local media stated that Dr. Brown was “accused of allowing her electronic signature to be used on appraisal forms for items that were donated at inflated prices to Southern California museums so collectors could claim fraudulent tax rebates”. Although Dr. Brown was arrested, the Markells, who were the primary focus of the investigation, have yet to be charged.
After her arrest, Dr. Brown was taken to the federal detention center at Seatac, a suburb of Seattle. She was to appear in court on May 12, but by then was too ill. It was not stated what her illness was, nor whether she was being treated. On May 13, she did appear in court, but died at the detention centre on May 14. An autopsy stated the cause of death as a perforated gastric ulcer. A spokesperson from the detention centre confirmed that Dr. Brown’s death was being investigated. Dr. Brown’s brother is pressing “wrongful death” charges, and all charges against her have been dropped.

 

[FolkGuitar]

3 hours ago, ChangMaiSausage said:

Don't want to sound the grump but I come on vacation to get away from all of this commercial b*llsh*t restaurants. 

Did/do people not want to travel away from their home countries to experience other cultures including culinary dishes. 

I am in full 100% agreement with you! When I go on vacation, I want to experience all that the other cultures have to offer. If I'm visiting Japan, I won't eat in McDonalds. I want Okonomiyaki, Tonkastudon, good Sashimi, and Yakitori.  If I'm in Singapore, I really do want to eat 'Chili Crab,' 'Hainanese Chicken Rice,'  and 'Laksa.' Likewise, I'm sure that the Singaporeans visiting Chiang Mai don't want to eat Laksa here, they want to eat Khao Soi. Fortunately for them, there are plenty of places serving Thai food!

But I live in Chiang Mai. I've been here a long time. And while I usually do eat Thai food in restaurants, cook Thai foods at home, and recommend Thai foods to my visiting friends, there are times when I want to eat Italian food, German food, Indian food, and yes... even American-style dishes.  I eat 1,100 meals every year. I see no problem with having a restaurant with an excellent reputation for good American-style food open in Chiang Mai. It will NOT be competing with the Thai restaurants, and it may just cause some of the other western-style places to up their game in regards to menu.

[TheSiemReaper]

2 hours ago, ChiangraiTony said:

Hard Rock food in my opinion is over priced for a basic meal. The Duke's is more affordable and the quality is just about the same. 

Within in the next couple of years many of the Seafood restaurants in the Night Bazzar area will leave there. I heard this from the owner last year.  The owner of the land (Chang Beer) has been increasing the rent and the owners already know about the future plans. Chang Beer Co. Have different plans for that area. 

 

Dukes wishes it was close to the quality of Hard Rock. Hard Rock is expensive but generally, apart from Siem Reap, they deliver a consistent quality of product, service and atmosphere. 

[WinnieTheKhwai]

8 hours ago, kalbo123 said:

I wonder when they are open how many pages the TV thread will get about the prices of beer and  hamburgers....

Already looking forward to it!

At least these people have the good sense of opening it in the right area:  intersection of Loy Kroh and the Night Bazar.

[Chicog]

9 hours ago, jobin said:

I'd prefer Hooters. Hard Rock is so out-dated but boobs never die.

I was at Hooters in Long Beach recently. I think the brand should be renamed Gluters to be honest.

 

[Chicog]

7 hours ago, stephenterry said:

769 baht for a burger? They won't get many local ex-pats as customers. The Red Lion should survive as it's always done, albeit the food is mediocre, IMO.

769 baht? Jaysus you can eat a Gordon Ramsey poseur burger cheaper than that.

 

https://gordonramsayrest-2938.kxcdn.com/assets/1-Menus/USA-Restaurants/GR-Burger-Menu-2016.pdf

Edited August 2, 2016 by Chicog

[khwaibah]

1 hour ago, WinnieTheKhwai said:

At least these people have the good sense of opening it in the right area:  intersection of Loy Kroh and the Night Bazar.

 

I can hardly wait. The new HRC next door is the Red Lion on one side and Burger King on the other side. Directly across the street is McDonalds and next to it is  the Duke's.  Just up Chang Khlan is Pizza Inn and there are two Starbucks on that drag. Now all we need is for the new Hooters to locate in that area.

 

[BadBouy]

23 hours ago, jobin said:

I'd prefer Hooters. Hard Rock is so out-dated but boobs never die.

 

From my experience if they are going to maintain standard dimensions it would be hard to fill waitress positions.

[elgenon]

On 8/2/2016 at 7:37 AM, jobin said:

I'd prefer Hooters. Hard Rock is so out-dated but boobs never die.

The girls have boobs regardless of the establishment's name! Have you noticed?

[L&J]

The good news /bad news depending on how you read it. Hard Rock Cafe generally promotes the

planned openings of HRC around the world on their website. There is no mention of any planned for

Chiang Mai so would be very surprised if one is happening.  The possibility of a fake HRC opening is

slim as Thailand has gotten so much crap about copyright infringement that the blatant advertising of a

fake one wouldn't go down well with the generals, unless one of them is the chief investor.

 

Must give note to  HRC  for one thing- no matter where you eat in one anywhere in the world you are going to

pay the same inflated price for your food/drink-no discounting for their costs or the slave wages they are paying the staff.

[suzannegoh]

On 8/2/2016 at 8:16 AM, FolkGuitar said:

If this Chiang Mai edition IS part of the corporate chain, and maintains the standards for food served, it will significantly raise the bar for mid-priced high quality Western foods!

 

Why do you think that it will be midpriced? 

[FolkGuitar]

46 minutes ago, suzannegoh said:

 

Why do you think that it will be midpriced? 

 

Well, I'm pretty sure that the restaurants at the "Dhara Dhevi Chiang Mai" and "The Shangri-La," as well as "Le Crystal," and perhaps one or two others might be charging considerably more, but there are also several good restaurants in town that will charge less.

 

That left me with 'midpriced.' While it's more than I'd want to spend on a daily basis, yet less than I'd be willing to spend for an anniversary dinner, I'll stick with 'mid-priced.' But remember my original caveat... I said "if" the food was as good as I've had in other country's Hard Rock outlets, I'll be happy to pay the price now and again.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 3, 2016 by FolkGuitar

[Chiengmaijoe]

3 hours ago, L&J said:

The good news /bad news depending on how you read it. Hard Rock Cafe generally promotes the

planned openings of HRC around the world on their website. There is no mention of any planned for

Chiang Mai so would be very surprised if one is happening.  The possibility of a fake HRC opening is

slim as Thailand has gotten so much crap about copyright infringement that the blatant advertising of a

fake one wouldn't go down well with the generals, unless one of them is the chief investor.

 

Must give note to  HRC  for one thing- no matter where you eat in one anywhere in the world you are going to

pay the same inflated price for your food/drink-no discounting for their costs or the slave wages they are paying the staff.

 

 

If it wasn't happening I wouldn't have posted. If I wasn't sure I would have said it is a rumour.

[Diplomatico]

Job advertisement (posted 2 Aug 16) for a General Manager for the Hard Rock Cafe Chiang Mai:

 

http://th.jobsdb.com/th/en/job/hard-rock-cafe-general-manager-300003001175973

[kalbo123]

Positive thing about Hard Rock cafes in general is that they have very decent life music.

 

In most places in SE Asia they have bands from the Philippines!

They actually know what words they are singing in English, and are good musicians.

 

Just what Chiang Mai needs,  good life music is hard to find these days.

[dave2]

re

 

There is no mention of any planned for

Chiang Mai so would be very surprised if one is happening.

 

well someone is doing something to the building where the op says 

 

we will just have to wait to see who ?

 

dave2

 

[khwaibah]

Just for info the building that the HRC is going into is the building with scaffolding just to the right of the small round BK sign.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

I'm still positive, but a 360 degree picture of that spot will show Chiang Mai with a Burger King, McDonalds, Hard Rock Cafe and Starbucks.. 

 

Anyway, whatever, it's the Night Bazar area which has been a disaster for as long as I can remember, and doing anything at all to it would be an improvement.   It might actually contrast nicely with the next intersection up where the old Big Market area is.

[dru2]

I have never been in a Hard Rock Cafe in my life. What do they offer? Is it just American fast food, or something more?

[Chiengmaijoe]

22 minutes ago, dru2 said:

I have never been in a Hard Rock Cafe in my life. What do they offer? Is it just American fast food, or something more?

 

http://www.hardrock.com/cafes/bangkok/menu.aspx

 

[FolkGuitar]

Hard to call a menu like this 'fast food.'  I've eaten in Hard Rock cafes in many different places, and the food was the same, excellent quality in all of them. I do hope that this new one maintains the tradition!

[dru2]

Yep - now I see the menu, definitely not fast food. Thanks!

[sappersrest]

Got to be good for the Red Lion, hungry people will be flocking next door once they see HRC prices, 750 baht burger in HRC or 250 baht for delicious fish and chips plus a few pints of London Pride you can't go wrong.

[sappersrest]

I would hasten to add London Pride is not included in the fish and chip meal.

 

 

[suzannegoh]

Got to be good for the Red Lion, hungry people will be flocking next door once they see HRC prices, 750 baht burger in HRC or 250 baht for delicious fish and chips plus a few pints of London Pride you can't go wrong.

Not so sure about that. Maybe it will help Red Lion to sell booze and beer but even free is too much for Red Lion's food. Their mushy fish and chips are just plain vile.

[Chiengmaijoe]

On 06/08/2016 at 3:11 PM, suzannegoh said:

Not so sure about that. Maybe it will help Red Lion to sell booze and beer but even free is too much for Red Lion's food. Their mushy fish and chips are just plain vile.

 

I hope you told the staff, as they have a no quibble policy of either replacing food that you aren't satisfied with or not charging if you don't want it replaced. They do it for two reasons - firstly to ensure that the genuine customers are happy, or in the case of the people that get enjoyment from complaining, and who will go out of their way to find fault, to leave them with  nothing to complain about, thus spoilng their night out.

[Loaded]

On 4/8/2559 at 2:36 PM, FolkGuitar said:

Hard to call a menu like this 'fast food.'  I've eaten in Hard Rock cafes in many different places, and the food was the same, excellent quality in all of them. I do hope that this new one maintains the tradition!

 

 

The menu is primarily burgers and sandwiches. Only somebody with the palate of a plastic bag would call this excellent.