Chateau Dale dining - Cuvee, Habitu and News Cafe

India by Nature and Gians are well established though not on my top of the pops.

Last evening I met a friend at Cuvee Wine Bar at 7.30 for a drink and a look around. One is warmly greeted - asked your name and the staff call you by name after that. No sign of valet parking. You are escorted up stairs a floor and there is the room. It is very large with generous leather oversized armchairs and sofas and a bed platform for lying around. There are neat banquette surrounded dining tables. The decor is expensive sombre with a black floor, black and brown furniture, gold gauzes floating around and blue lighting on the ceilings and under the glass tables. Mirror balls spin and lava lamps with red oil chunder. It is lavishly appointed but has a very late night ambience for me. They have fooseball, snooker, several televisions, a smoking area and magazines. There is a band area and a small dancefloor. The website says \\\"Thailand\\\'s First Wine Bars\\\" which is a bit cheeky as there are quite a few including one next door Habitu Wine Bar and Grill and nearby is Brunos Restaurant and Wine Bar.

I arrived early and ordered a whisky sour 190 baht + 7% tax + 10% service. This was not understood so I pointed it out on the cocktail list. A travesty appeared and was exchanged for a glass of white housewine. My guest was expertly served a Southern Comfort and fresh orange juice.. We were in the non-smoking section which had 6 cute little tubs of matches on it. One needs something to dump straws, stirrers, marashino cherries and cucumber into (accompaniments to a whisky sour). A nibble or two would not be a bad thing. Two drinks cost 540 baht inclusive.

They take great pride in their wines and mention that they are shipped, stored, delivered and cellared in temperature controlled conditions. Prices from 850 baht plus plus. The menu looks good. It is pricey as one would expect but friends say the food is very good and the waitress announced with great pride that the chef came from Shennanigans?? There is an open kitchen which looks pretty small and unattractive with lots of electricity boxes and fuse boxes on the wall. As we were the only customers in this vast place we decided to eat elsewhere.

The owner had a chat and told us about the concept of it being like an English club with modern style. I can sort of get the concept but I am not sure if Pattaya has enough young rich hi-sos on which to build the business. It says it is based on Bangkoks leading bar Bedsupperclub which seems to be cutting edge fashion and busy. I hope got the owners that I am wrong.

I see from the website that - attractive hosts and hostesses are being hired and can apply online. I wonder?

Pattay could do with some good high quality bars. Recently we have the wonderful fantasy bar at Mantra and the gorgeously colourful one at Manhattans which not only welcomes you for a drink but serves generous free hors d oeuvres.

http://www.cuveeloungebar.com/

On the ground floor I see a smart new place Habitu Wine Bar and Grill which is owned and run by Gians and seems to have a similar menu but more grills?

Under Gians is a cheery looking place called News Cafe which seems to have a Swedish slant to many dishes. It is very reasonable priced. Friends talked about it she said it was so-so and he said it was great. This was the only place with several customers.

To be honest we felt like somewhere with people and went across the road to Pan Pan which I find a pretty good local these days. We both had an excellent pasta dish and indulged in their superb range of gateaux and home made ice creams.

Breaking News!!
Gaybutton of www.gaythailand.com (http://www.gaythailand.com) has announced that News Cafe is \\\\\\\"Gaybuttons Latest Restaurant Discovery\\\\\\\" and gives it an effusively glowing review.

One is warmly greeted - asked your name and the staff call you by name after that.
The warm greeting is quite nice, but cut the crap with the calling me by name. That grates my nerves -- it is phony and pretentious. Are they pretending to be my new friend, or are they facilitating a business meeting? I'm not here for the wait staff to stroke my ego by echoing my name, so cut the warm-fuzzy gimmicky schtick and just bring me a frickin' drink.

e.g. It's as sincere, Wowpow, as using your name at every opportunity to make a point that we have some special bond, Wowpow. Apparently Harvard Business School types are taught to enhance business relationships by infusing such disingenuous sincerity, Wowpow.

(I am NOT picking on Wowpow, but since his was the post to which I was replying, I used it as an example ONLY!)

How is the smoking section partitioned off from the non-smoking section? I thought that smoking sections were soon-to-be-illegal even in bars and pubs?

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bkk gwm - It seems it does not work for you but it does for me - on the right occasion anyway.

I remember going to my Bank in London on Pall Mall for the first time in 10 years. The Head Cashier said \"Good Afternoon Mr Wowpow we haven\'t seen you for some time!\". I like to be recognised by name when I go to a restaurant or an hotel.

An old customer of mine in the hotel business went back to the Savoy Cocktail bar after 18 years and the waiter said \"Good Morning Mr XXXX, your usual Dry Martini?\"

These are extraordinary cases, Khun GWM - or may I call you bkk? - but customers like warm recognition and a bit of ego massage ( how this can be called pretentious I don\'t understand) . I don\'t mind a bit of phony warmth - it\'s so much better than being coldly ignored. A false \"have a nice day\" is better than \"Fuck off fruit\".

There are so many dreadful things on this Earth to complain about, war, pestilence, injustice, faulty lethal injections, floods, famines, poverty, I wonder why you stoop to such trivia :-))

There are so many dreadful things on this Earth to complain about, war, pestilence, injustice, faulty lethal injections, floods, famines, poverty, I wonder why you stoop to such trivia :-))
Perhaps for the same reason you choose to post it in the first place?

JUST KIDDING! I find a vast majority of your posts informative and useful. Even in this case, that little tidbit warned me in advance that I probably will not enjoy a visit to this bar.

It is a case of "different strokes for different folks," meaning it is an establishment looking to attract someone other than me. I can live with that, and spend my money elsewhere. To me, it's not trivial -- it's like being in an otherwise relaxing environment and having someone screech their fingernails down a chalkboard.

I see a clear difference in being a repeat customer over a period of time where a genuine rapport had been established, like the examples you cited. I see the policy to greet first-time customers on a first name (or even last name) basis to be a gimmick, a mere mechanical action. I go to a cocktail bar to relax and feel comfortable, but would feel slightly UNcomfortable in a cocktail bar whose staff pretends to be a close comrade from the get-go. An appropriate use of the customer's name on a first-time basis would be, for example, to confirm a reservation. "We have a reserved a table for four at 7:00pm." "Mr Wowpow? Yes, we were expecting you. Right this way, please."

I put it in the same category as a form letter from a company with whom I have never done business who writes: "Mr Wowpow, we are honored to offer you our product at this special price."

Sorry, Mr. Wowpow and Mr. Botting, we will need to bump into each other elsewhere. :-)

(And yes, John, you may freely share my feedback with the owner of the bar.)

Well I was most impressed and startled by the ability of the wait-staff at a somewhat-crowded Dome bar, atop State Tower, to even remember my name, addressing me as "yes, khun xxx" when I went for my second order.

Also impressed to see "faulty lethal injections" warranting a specific mention in wowpow's otherwise generalised list of woes.