Since opening just over a month ago, The Rickshaw has pulled in a steady stream of customers. Cheap beer, good food, decent location and a loyal following due to the owners’ previous establishments, COX and Saddle, have done wonders. Based on more than a half-dozen visits, I sat down this weekend and wrote out a dozen thoughts about The Rickshaw.
1. The medium wings might well be the tastiest pub grub in town. The only suggestion – and this one comes from my Mom, who’s visiting Beijing – is to provide wet wipes at the end of the meal.
2. On top of that, the overall menu is impressive, in terms of design and scope. The Mexican food, spicy chicken burgers, and chips with blue cheese and Alfredo sauce melted over them (“heart attack in a bowl”) are good, with the pizza needing some work.
3. Qingdao is 10 kuai for a pint, during happy hour, 5-7 PM. Yes, there are cheaper places in town, but few that are as clean and spacious as this one.
4. Speaking of which, co-owner Kris Ryan has done a good job of creating an unpretentious space. Simple and open, and with the added balcony providing a nice place to rest, enjoy a drink, and watch the constant traffic jams as cars turn up that street toward The Bookworm, Banana Leaf and Browns.
5. Speaking of which (again), this place has become an excellent alternative to Bookworm for those wishing to use wireless – cheaper drinks and, generally, a relaxed environment. I walked by the other day, and saw a half-dozen people, with their laptops, on the first floor.
6. Even so, The Rickshaw can be loud. In a matter of minutes, it can go from a space where three or four groups of people are chatting to one in which everything is overwhelmed by an incoming soccer team or by a “DJ” who arrives and cranks up the music.
7. Speaking of which (yet again), I am curious about the economics of sponsoring a sports team. Let’s say I’m with three friends and we’re drinking cocktails and pigging out on burritos. I’m guessing we’re spending as much as a dozen soccer guys who are guzzling draft beer and wings, and, with their chug-a-lug culture, making so much noise we leave. I’m not criticizing, I’m wondering, and I realize it’s hard to reconcile widely divergent types of patrons – I guess that supply and demand will work it out for this place.
8. The Rickshaw installed a sitter to go with the squatter. Never underestimate the power of matching toilet facilities to customer niche.
9. The staff gets high marks for being friendly and the management gets the same for being open to suggestions. Lu Ke – hope I spelled his name right – is a bar legend.
10. Even so, several staff members are unable to recognize key words such as “Jack Daniels,” which is a problem given how many foreigners patronize the place. Here’s my suggestion: record three customers reading out the different alcohols on the shelf. Then mix up the bottles, play the recording, and have the staff pick the correct alcohol as they hear it. Repeat. Once the Rickshaw staff knows their booze, open a school and teach the city’s other bar employees the same information.
11. How long will it be before someone gets hurt on the step that separates the upstairs billiards and eating areas? I saw a woman wipe out – how she didn’t break an elbow or wrist, I don’t know – and more than a dozen people nearly take spills. Re-model, put reflector tape on it (as Q Bar does on its deck), whatever, but something should be done about this.
12. Overall, the Rickshaw is a winner, offering a modest and open space with good food, cheap drinks and a friendly staff. Call it the high-end of low-end bars – this is a well-thought out place, and one that addresses, rather than tries to create (as do so many other places), market demand. Plus, the medium wings are fantastic…
I think your economic analysis of you and three friends drinking cocktails v sports team chugging beer is a little off.
unless of course you and your friends regularly spend 1000 yuan-plus in one sitting of cocktails and nachos? Ask Clubfootball, who once handed over a end of the night bill of almost 3000 yuan to this football team. Depends on the numbers of course – and what time the game finishes (rickshaw should be pushing for 10am kick-offs!) – but 20 football players plus guests can get through a lot of alcohol, especially if they have just won. Even with free wings, this is good for any bar (and would explain why so many have been soliciting for this team’s patronage over the last few years.)
and then there are the value-added events such as annual parties, leaving celebrations, etc. All in, not a bad stream of income.
Okay, what if there are quite a few who would drop into Rickshaw, hold birthday parties, et al regularly except they aren’t fond of a football team potentially showing up and being rowdy (so it isn’t completely hypothetical, I’ve received email from people who’ve generally liked Rickshaw but find the noise a downside)? It would be an opportunity cost that those people reduced their visits, right?
Anyway, I’m curious about the economics of sponsoring a team and about how the clientele works out at Rickshaw. You can’t make everyone happy and as Rickshaw co-owner Kris Ryan said in my interview with him, it’s interesting how a bar takes on an identity…
(By the way, I don’t know much about Club Football, but going by name alone, the sports team sponsorship-bar link seems obvious in that case.)
the clubfootball reference was thrown in just to show what kind of spending is made by the team. Nothing else.
I am sure if people wanted to hold a birthday party in a bar that isn’t so rowdy (and I don’t think it is that rowdy, and for sure not as rowdy as a saturday night at browns, nan jie, poachers, etc. and is anyway a once a week occurance) they can perhaps choose a bar that is better known for its lack of noise. That is how the market works.
Your question was about economics and I am sure the bar owners are (for now) happier with guaranteed money in the cash register from a football team (and building a clientel – many of the team have made the rickshaw their local, even when not in ‘football’ mode)rather than entertaining the potential of hypothetical groups of birthday celebrators who would prefer to celebrate in a ‘non-rowdy’ atmosphere.
in other words ‘what ifs?’ don’t pay the bills and many bars have gone under still waiting for hypotheticals to come in the door with RMB in hand.
cheers
sorry, just noticed you did say the ‘birthdays’ were not entirely hypothetical, although one post on That’s saying it was a bit noisy does not constitute a market, so I think my point still holds.
I’m not talking about some post on “that’s”, but about email (and calls) I’ve received from readers. On Sunday, for example, my buddy Crow called and talked about how The Rickshaw went from quite sedate to rather loud in a matter of minutes. He was a first-time customer. So, it’s not a “what if” case of The Rickshaw “waiting for hypotheticals to come in the door with RMB in hand”…
By the way, it’s good to know the soccer team thing is once-a-week – info such as that is useful for those who like The Rickshaw but not that particular scene.
suggest you tell buddy crow the rickshaw is a bar and not a library. also suggest you tell him to get a real name.
Not Lu Ke, it’s LuGe. The man is a legend. My vote for the best bar manager in Beijing.
@ damosuzuki, i’ll think about your suggestions, since you’re obviously using your own name…
@ gabe, right you are on both accounts – the spelling of his name and his legendary status.