Well, we did it. A couple of my crazy Canadian friends and I have entered into a partnership with an American ex-pat in Panama. We're creating a bar, to be called Cocktails, in Boquete. Our American partner already had things well underway and we're just stepping in to help out with finances and lots of (probably bad) ideas. We have a blog that will chronicle our progress and will likely contain more than a few irrelevant brain droppings of the partners.
My one Canadian partner and I were joking back and forth with each other about the fact that I rarely take an alcoholic drink and he doesn't drink alcohol at all. Given that this enterprise is being created with the express purpose of selling alcoholic drinks, does any of this make any sense? I barely think so.
None of the Canadian partners have met Pete, the American. Are we nuts? I don't think so. This isn't the first time that my money has met a business partner before I have. I have gut instincts about people and about business in general, about who and what to believe in. Sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm wrong. This venture should be fun -- if nothing else, I like the way Pete thinks and writes. He has an edgy, self-deprecating sense of humour and I like that. I just hope he knows how to mix a cocktail.
Mark and John, my other Canadian partners are an internet businessman and a business professor in a community college. Mark, like me, plays guitar. I don't think John plays anything, unless you count card games through some strange twist of logic that is too obscure even for me to fathom.
So there you have it. Certifiable, all of us. But we're having fun, so what else matters?
We're open for business near the end of February. Drop in.
wow...I do so admire your courage and sense of adventure!
ReplyDeleteI hope this is beyond-all-dreams successful for all of you.
Now, I'm gonna go check out the bar-blog :)
Courageous . . . or nuts? It's a fine line. Thanks, Jean!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on that little adventure, should be fun! I'm looking forward to stopping by on my next trip through Boquete!
ReplyDeleteHow very fun! My sister and oldest daughter (Soaring Amongst The Clouds) will be going to a wedding in Panama sometime in August. A relative of ours is getting married. Too bad it won't be up and running by then. :o(
ReplyDeleteGood luck on your new adventure! I'm the only lush in our family. No one else drinks. Then again, I can only have one, I know my limits. :o) Not that it affects me in the wrong way, actually it mellows me out. LOL!
Have fun on your new endeavors!
Thanks, Sylvain. I always welcome any opportunity to sit with you and discuss all those contentious issues like smoking, climate change, religion, and all those other things that people are at each other about.
ReplyDeleteLady~g -- It would be a great honor to meet you and your family. I have commented to my wife about how well you appear to have raised your family, educated your kids at home, etc. You should be very proud.
Congratulations Atavist. And best wishes for success and fun.
ReplyDeleteOne drink is my limit (gotta find a different doctor) but I'd be pleased to have it at your bar (as soon as I find out where Panama is).
Sounds like a great place to watch the Playoffs!
ReplyDeleteVery cool! Should I ever venture to Panama, I'll be sure to stop by. It will be fun to hear how the whole thing progresses, too. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteThanks, all: I don't want to give the impression here that this is going to be a watering hole where the expression 'putting on the Ritz' might pop into mind. This is going to be a very basic tropical bar, hopefully with a bit of class, but only when measured against a tin roof perched on some poles hewn from the jungle not far away. But ... it will be fun.
ReplyDeleteThat does sound fun.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes to you and your partners!
Thank you, Don Ray. I really appreciate your kind comments. As you know I am a regular reader of your Chiriqui Chatter blog and have used it to educate myself about David and Chiriqui and environs. We really must get together one day when I am in the area.
ReplyDeleteThanks, freddie. Should be an interesting adventure!
ReplyDeleteWell, Atavist, aren't you the grand enigma! I thought you had to be either a professional athlete or a lawyer to seriously consider backing a bar or restaurant. I've had a couple of friends from the latter category indulged in such. Still, you will enjoy and learn from the experience.
ReplyDeleteI am more wistfully envious of your comfortable gut feel towards new people. I have only had severe gut reactions in the negative to about one in a thousand people I have met. Those feelings proved 100% accurate. Unfortunately, both Mark and I accept the remainder at face value. This led to some serious jade, particularly in that last locale of ours. Perhaps we needed that glaring impetus to forge our current adventure.
I hope your trust and gut feel are never betrayed. My gut feel: I don't like the name 'Cocktails' for some reason but I can't tell you why. Oh, isn't that helpful ... but it just doesn't settle with me for a feeling of long term business success. I want to see you all prosper and enjoy this venture.
Lin: Remember that this place will be far from fancy; a tropical, casual bar, with a patio out back, etc. I didn't name the place but I like the name 'Cocktails' because of the (in my eyes) irony. It implies a pretentious, rather snooty place with people inside putting on airs. In reality it will be none of that. However, as the name suggests, it will be the one place in town to get a perfectly mixed cocktail, with just the right mix of ingredients and loving attention to detail.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see. We can always change the name to "Pete's" or something, if we have to. Pete is the on-site guy. He started the place and the other partners will be along for the ride.