Champagne AGoGo Bar Brawl Story Not Accurate

Bob and his buddies a few doors down from Champagne AGoGo on Soi LK Metro were talking about this bar fight on Friday night. According to the story, a customer got punched, pepper sprayed, and generally beaten down by owner and staff in Champagne AGoGo over a 60-baht dispute on the customer's bill.

Yes... sort of.

However, as always, there is more to the story.

First off, I'll add this bit of information, which I heard from the fellows sitting around drinking at Bob's: The argument was about the price of lady drinks.

That is something I noticed that Champagne AGoGo which really does need to change: You see, there are "lady drinks" for 95 baht, and there are "lady cocktails" for 125 baht, and given that little bit of knowledge, you just know exactly what must have happened to start this argument — especially if the dancers are getting paid more money for having a "lady cocktail" purchased for them than they get for a "lady drink".

I saw those 95-baht and 125-baht signs last Friday when I was in there with Bob and Epril, and commented on them, and I did think to myself that if you pull a pricing stunt like that in a GoGo bar, it's only a matter of time before a fight over the check starts.

That having been said...

The owner of the bar wasn't interviewed for the article in The Nation, and as always, getting your facts from a drunk, beaten-up, pissed-off fellow does not represent the best journalistic practices.

It seems that the customer and his "dispute" was actually an enraged and exceptionally over-sized Norwegian fellow threatening to crack the owner of Champagne AGoGo (A British fellow named Jason) with a beer bottle. Jason corked the guy once in the nose before the beer bottle started swinging, and then another customer gave the big guy a snout-full of pepper spray, and then the doorman escorted the fellow out of the bar without any further violence on anyone's part.

That sounds a little bit more accurate than what The Nation wrote with the "bar owner attacks innocent customer" lede. (Really: If you were the owner of a 20-million baht business, would you risk it over a fist-fight for 60 baht?)

Like I said though, Jason, if you are reading: Change that lady drink / lady cocktail thing in your bar. It's a bad idea, as I think this episode illustrates.

But still: I enjoyed Champagne AGoGo just fine (read about it here)... and their free pizza Fridays are certainly great. I do fully recommend the place regardless of this bit of bad publicity. Just caveat emptor on the lady drinks... or lady cocktails... or whatever.