I find this article a rather interesting read, especial having just returned from a weekend in Bali and having spent the past year exploring the bars of Asia.

I guess the thing I am most curious about is your beef with blended daiquiris. Don’t get me wrong I am not nit picking here but there appears to be quite a furious passion behind your feelings towards, whether we like it or not, one of the worlds most popular cocktails.
I think a lot of the time us industry folk get caught up in the craft of our trade and forget that at the end of the day we are running a business with the goal of turning a profit. Yes part of that is educating our guests but the larger part is not denying customers what they want and love.

I think its easy to scrutinize the scene in Bali as it is close to home and the crowd is fairly ruff, but at the end of the day who is going to Bali in search of the perfect ‘Remember the Maine’. The rest of Asia is not much different. Hong Kong for example has a huge population of expats (ozzy and other) that behave like animals, Singapore is not much different.
If we start to talk about third world countries firstly I think that Bali is far more developed than the rest of Indonesia, let alone countries like India and Vietnam. If traffic and pollution is an issue Mumbai is worse than just about any thing you could imagine and add to that the high threat of terrorism in what is one of the most densely populated places on earth, yet bars have still managed to opened with consultation from the likes of Death and Co.

How ever there are bigger issues at hand than all of that. Although bars open with the aim of providing a unique, quality drinking experience and hire the best consultants they can to do the job, most of these guys are only there for a week every few months. This is almost counter productive, what is really needed are guys with international experience (Aus, UK , US) to relocate to these places and work in the bars. I question whether the Australian bar tending scene would be where it is today with out guys returning from abroad and setting up to pass on their new found passion and skill.
Also we are talking about guys who work 10 hours a day 6 days a week and earn $1000AUD if they are lucky, cant blame them for lacking in enthusiasm and interest.
The final point that I think is really holding every one back is that these guys are stuck in a ’server’ frame of mind, don’t confuse that with ’service’ they do what they are asked and nothing more, they wont acknowledge you until they are called. There is no culture of challenging there guests, telling them that blended drinks are shit or explaining that there are better drinking experiences than a bottle of Jack and Coke on the street.

Still with all of that said this region is one of the fastest growing luxury markets in the world. Every thing is available for the right price and when you have consumers who don’t have to think twice about purchasing a 9L case of The John Walker at retail price the priorities of outlets tend to be a little different.