Well Hello Sailor *****^^
its been quite a long time since i posted a business update here, there and anywhere else for that matter
Mrs L or "Nok has been busy holding the fort while i,ve been off gallivanting around the world, well 3 weeks in the UK, a week in sunny Spain and a day in Wales .. and as many of our regular customers will know , we shut for a week to have a nice family holiday and give Nok a well earned/deserved break from the sweltering heat of the kitchen. ( quite lucky we found the ankle shackle key really
)
whats new ? well our infamous menus have been delivered and well worth the wait i think.. a very nice quality print job, oozing professionalism from all those concerned and bringing with it a whole load of new menu items as well as doubling our Thai Food offerings.
The Heat - even i,ve been going to Central to cash in on the free Air Con offered . even though i,ve been living in Asia for many years i cannot remember being affected by the heat as much as i have this year, perhaps its because i,m getting older but ..PHEW ** looking at ways to air-con The Bookhouse cost effectively made me realise i couldnt air-con the main restaurant, purely because of its design . too big and too open. The next best area to air-con is the back room where the books used to be housed. this area can provide seating for about 16/20 people and once we,ve ripped out the current frontage and replaced with all glass, it will make a perfect dining area and still with fabulous view across the lake .
so we,ve moved out the books from this room, temporarily into the main restaurant , to enable us to start work decorating etc. Book sales have increased dramatically because they are more visible but personally i dont like the "feel" the presence of the books so prominently, has changed the ambiance
rest assured this is only temporary. the books will be housed slightly to the left of the old location where we intend to concrete the floor and put a roof over the existing, non used passageway .. we can have two lines of bookshelves tight against the walls where the customer can walk through the middle and browse easily.
credit card usage has not been as high as i anticipated although the biggest restaurant spend so far ( over 7000 baht for one table ) was done on the plastic and included 2 bottles of wine .
Wine - although we have been selling wine by the glass ever since we opened The Bookhouse, we havent been in a position to carry a decent multi country selection untill recently. we purchased about 70 bottles of wine from all over the world with prices ranging between 700baht to 1900 baht a bottle
there is a whole host of information on the net regarding wine importation into Thailand, all the taxes, rules and regulations . to be clear i did not import our wines, merely bought from importers .. Australian wine is by far the best value in Thailand due to the special trade arrangements between Thailand and Australia and a reduction in one of the 7 or 8 tariffs on each bottle that Australia enjoys !! ( did you no there is a % from each import that goes to the Thai Health System .. )
the front of our business is now finished, the 1.5 meter roof extension is on, bringing rain outside the terrace dining area rather than inside during heavy rainfall !!
we have roofed over the front smoking area so no more soggy cigs
the dust has settled over our decision to allow smoking only in designated areas. the reasons for this, primarily by non smokers complaining of smoke drifting there way when eating, was perfectly justified, as well as having discussions with the alcohol and tobacco department over whether our previous smokers area was breaching Thai rules and making us ( and the customer) liable for a fine ..
Water - seeing as how our water bills shot up to nearly 5000baht a MONTH !!!!!! we did some investigating . our fish pond and water fall feature in the garden area was losing about 40% volume every few days and turning green with algi quite quickly .. i initially thought evaporation or leak, so we covered the top of the pond ( about 2 meters high) with netting .. this basically cured the algi issue but we were still left with mass water loss .. we emptied the pond, resealed/tiled/grouted to no effect, we then discovered the wall of the water feature was not sealed properly and by switching off the waterfall pumps the water has stayed at a reasonable level .. turns out there are 3 levels of paying your water and rates applicable, these being household, business small and business big, our water meter reading guy decided we were big business and changed our tariff to the highest ... we managed to get it changed back again and this months bill was less than 2000baht compared to 4700 last month !!
then we run out of mains water .. but discovered everyone in Nong Sim area had too so we were not being persecuted by the water authority for complaining
turns out there is a broken 8 inch pipe that they cannot find as yet somewhere around Nong Sim, so they connected us to a spare 6 inch water pipe whilst they investigate.. ( a spare pipe ready to go, just in case of emergency's.. amazing !! )
night times we place candles on every table and dim the lighting to create a more romantic, relaxing setting and this has been well received by our customers .. if i could source a supplier of cheap candles i think turning off all outside lighting and illuminating the terrace entirely by candle light would look quite spectacular ... especially in our current location
our ever expanding frozen range of no frills take home ready meals now amounts to about 5% of our business and has seen us supplying a few local businesses with easy to cook food . and a great low cost for large portion sizes
overall business is lower than the previous few months , but with the help of our regular all Thai parties, we are still able to maintain levels of business far greater than in our old location.. last night for example we did 21 covers on 5 tables but the customers were all Thai .. compared to around 50 covers each evening when "high season" was here
anyway - my dreams of becoming a writer wont be realised today as i have typers cramp
dont forget its the exceptional Bookhouse Sunday Roast Lunch with complimentary drink served all day today, so maybe see you later
thanks
Librarian & Nok
by arjay » December 12, 2011, 10:36 am 
