Telephone Bar Review And Recent Experiance

[toptuan]

The cook in @Richards is a middle-aged woman.

Couldn't he find a gay man to be the cook? This woman is not even a lesbian sister!

...Sexism and Ageism are all issues that the community needs to address.

Does anyone else notice the blatant reverse-discrimination this poster is guilty of?

He is blasting the very thing he is promoting.

Makes one wanna...

[popshirt]

The cook in @Richards is a middle-aged woman.

Couldn't he find a gay man to be the cook? This woman is not even a lesbian sister!

...Sexism and Ageism are all issues that the community needs to address.

Does anyone else notice the blatant reverse-discrimination this poster is guilty of?

He is blasting the very thing he is promoting.

Makes one wanna...

Anyway, it is really a non-issue in Thailand. The OP sees Thailand through the western lens of political correctness taken to the extreme. He will learn that not only doesn't fly here, but isn't even understood.

My Thai partner just interjected why anyone would care if there is a man or woman cooking the food? He further said, and this is a direct quote, "food at Richard good, food at Telephone suck!"

[flightcrew1]

Popshirt! I do apologize...your right I need to stay on the ground! ha ha! Your post about it being a press release is right on! No more using the internet for me after long flights! ha ha

[popshirt]

Popshirt! I do apologize...your right I need to stay on the ground! ha ha! Your post about it being a press release is right on! No more using the internet for me after long flights! ha ha

Of course. Very easy to do with pasting posts and replies. Thanks.

[pauleddy]

I too have really gone off the Tele. bar, despite knowing a lot of people there.

The food is DIRE. Last week, a mate took me to the Balcony for a meal, and the food, although not cheap or Michelin starred, was a good deal better. I find also that the food in Sphinx is excellent value for money. The fillet steak is about 320b with all the trimmings and veg., and it's good.

I have found that the boys behind the bar in Telephone can be surly and moody, apart from 1 or 2. One day last year I was legless in there, celebrating a birthday, and I am sure that I was overcharged when the bill came.

The TB also has some mad and bad MBoys, as well as some nice MBoys. Both kinds are those u can see on the "circuit"...Babylon/Soi4/DJ most days. Balcony seems to be less seedy, somehow.

xxxxxxxx

[camo007]

Firstly anybody calling my post a Press Release is crazy. Yes i love the place and the people that know me know I am in BKK 4+ times a year.

But rest assured I would never own a business in BKK and any of you that do i respect and feel you have guts.

I love the Telephone pub and you will find me in that venue every night I am in BKK.

Good advice by the owners has made every trip something to remember.

As for the Boys, well they treat me with great respect so i have nothing bad to say about them.

[jdinasia]

"The original cook from Telephone is now @Richard's"

The cook in @Richards is a middle-aged woman.

Couldn't he find a gay man to be the cook? The gay community has hundreds of qualified experienced gay chefs searching for employment. This woman is not even a lesbian sister!

To me this shows inherent flaws in @Richards philosophy of being a community resource. By employing a woman he is not supporting the gay community. Or does Richard believe that a Thai woman's place is in the kitchen; catering to the whims of her farang employers?

Racism; Sexism and Ageism are all issues that the community needs to address.

LOL ... "By employing a woman ... he is not supporting the gay community ....." followed by "racism; Sexism and Ageism are all issues that the community needs to address"!

NOT employing a woman ... just because she is a woman ... would be sexist .... choosing to hire a qualified staff member that applied for the job would be good business! Assuming that other sexism exists (other than that inherent in the post) is silly!

That being said ... gay bars hire gay staff typically to deal with their customers ,,, and they try to hire a variety of what other people consider "cute". There is an inherent bias in this! it is neither a good thing or a bad thing ... just a thing ... but to carry that bias into areas that do not deal with contact with the clientele would be ludicrous! Well; perhaps not if you want Thailand to generate a gay ghetto atmosphere like is common in the west! Thankfully ... outside of tourist ghettos ... gay people that are openly gay meld far better into the community at large than anywhere I have been in the "West"!

<<PS .... did anyone else notice that the OP has since been banned ... and only a few of his posts remain? ...>> wonder if he's one of our 'new' posters?

Edited March 13, 2007 by jdinasia

[Acquiesce]

The cook in @Richards is a middle-aged woman.

Couldn't he find a gay man to be the cook? The gay community has hundreds of qualified experienced gay chefs searching for employment. This woman is not even a lesbian sister!

I find this comment interesting, i'm just trying to imagine the gay contingents reaction if a similar coment had been made in the general forum, only this time complaing that a straight bar has a gay cook.

What a double standard.

[Scott]

This thread seems to be hanging around a while. Quite a while ago I posted my 2 cents worth. I am a Balcony fan. But really, I don't see that big of a difference. I had a couple of less than good experiences at Telephone many years ago and switched to Balcony. Now I seldom go to either--time, distance etc., nothing personal.

I sure would have trouble getting my knickers in a knot over having to be at Telephone. It's certainly OK. Balcony is just a preference. As for the food, I don't know. I usually don't go there to eat, but what I've eaten at both places has been acceptable. Sphinx is much nicer, if I am going out for a meal.

Much of this has to do with ones "comfort zone".

When I go out I do so to socialize and see people. If I sit at Telephone I can see Balcony. If I sit at Balcony I can see Telephone. Either place is OK

[nucag]

all my experiences at the telephone bar are wonderful ,and my korean freinds also say its wonderful , food is ok , well actually the spicy tomato soup is fantastic , and is hard to stuff up a diet coke on ice. the manager is sophisticated and good looking , one of the owners ( ausssie one ) is so helpful with bkk info. so what more can u want for.

[Trouble]

Have not checked in here for a while and was amazed to see this thread still going. I would like to correct something I said in my earlier post. I should NOT have said the drinks are watered down. They are not. They are just weak drinks measured out to the almost one shot of liquor. This is really common in Thailand unless you buy your own bottle. This is just the way it is in almost every bar. I guess I am used to the overpouring when I order a drink. I get that all the time at DJ Station but then I have been around a while and tip well. It is nice to get good service and I don't mind paying for it with good tips. They appreciate it and I appreciate the special attention I get there. One could probably develop that kind of relationship in any bar if you are willing to tip well.

There is nothing wrong with the Telephone Bar and I have been going there for more years than I care to remember. I do tend these days to move on to Cafe 4 now particularly when I am with Thai friends as they prefer it and I like the music better. Balcony is fun too. I don't take the comments about food at any place to seriously as we all have our own ideas about that. Unless someone comments on a really bad experience or really good experience in restaurants, everything else is just a meal that we get by on and enjoy the social nature of the occasion. I do not consider eating at the Telephone or Balcony as fine dining. They are places to get a meal before starting your evening out on the town.

That being said, I enjoy starting out my evening on soi 4 but I do move on to soi 2 about midnight and whatever place I can find open after soi 2 closes. I think overall Bangkok offers a mix of places we can all go to enjoy ourselves. We all have differing ideas on what we want regarding a night on the town and I really think there is something for everyone.

I think the problem for everyone who has been around a while is that we tend to remember more exciting times in some of the places we frequent and when those places do not remaim static we tend to start to talk down about them (myself included). I have frequented the clubs and bars in West Hollywood for over 30 years and will tell you flat out it is not what it used to be. I am not saying that because I am older and feel out of touch. The community we had in the late 70's/early 80's was just that: a community. Today it is a bunch of business people many of whom are not gay trying to make a buck off the gay clientele. The idea of going out alone and just seeing friends out in the "community" is a thing of the past. No one seems to know anyone outside their little group anymore. What I have seen in the Telephone Bar is a change in help over the years so that sense of coming home is now gone. For years there had been a quite stable work force at Telephone. It just is not that way anymore as people seem to come and go more frequently these days whether it be Bangkok or West Hollywood. So as I am writing this and cannot for the foreseeable future make a trip to Bangkok, I would give anything to be sitting out in that Meat Market in front of the Telephone Bar having a drink.

[IJustKnowItAll]

When I lived in Bkk I always went to Telephone Bar for a drink. The staff were friendly, not pushy, one of the owners a South african but sounded australian, always came over and made time for a chat with his customers. That was 2 years ago though so how it is now I don't know. I do know that the owners had trouble with stealing from staff and many of them had to be fired. It cannot be easy running this kind of business in this area. There are a lot of outside influences which one can do very little about. I would never invest my money in a bar in Thailand after hearing some of the things the owners have to put up with.

IMHO the bar could do with a lick of paint and the original concept of the telephones seems very dated. A total refit wouldn't go amiss but is it worth investing such money when a lot of your takings are creamed off by outsiders? Probably not. I dont envy you guys trying to earn an honest living here from a bar.

[wpcoe]

I don't live in Bangkok any more, so maybe the situation has change in the past couple years, but when I did live in Bangkok I stopped going to Telephone because of the "money boi" situation.

Sitting at Telephone by myself, I would be pestered repeatedly, whereas at Balcony I was rarely accosted, and when I was, the Balcony staff quickly removed the unwanted accoster without me even asking.

Other than that, both bars have similarly acceptable food/beverage offerings and great locations for watching the street traffic mosey by.

I wish Telephone or Balcony would open a sister location in Pattaya so there would be a nice bar to sit and socialize without having the entire staff wearing numbers pinned to their shorts who are trying to get you to "off" them. Closest to that concept is Panorama pub, but the "hosts" can be a bit intrusive at times. And, I don't begrudge the Panorama hosts, since that is the type of bar it is, I just would like a bar in Pattaya without hosts.