VirginX Coming Soon to Patpong, Replacing Failed Dok Pub

Singage has gone up and recruiting has begun for VirginX, the go-go that soon will replaced Patpong’s failed Dok Pub.

Workers literally were working late into the night getting the new club ready, with workers wiring the new sign at 12:45 a.m. Saturday morning. Online posts also are seeking service staff and dancers.

The sign outside VirginX says “Coming Soon” but at the pace work is proceeding, you can expect it to be open sooner than later.

VirginX, who shares ownership with Virgin next door, opened early this year as Dok Pub, in a combned space that previously had been Cosmos, King’s Corner 2 and King’s Garden.

Named after the owner’s wife, Dok Pub was envisioned as Patpong’s answer to the Hillary bars along Sukhumvit, a late-night live-music spot that would draw freelancers, go-go hoppers and even “normal” tourists that visit the Patpong Night Market.

It failed spectacularly. Very attractive inside, the pub might have done well on Sukhumvit or even Silom Road. But in quiet Patpong, it was the wrong type of venue in the wrong place. The punters who came to Bangkok’s original red light district weren’t interested in a music bar and the regular folks who go to Shenanigans at the Surawong Road end of Patpong Soi 2 wouldn’t be caught dead strolling past gay and girly bars.

“Maybe the less than enthusiastic response to Dok Pub is another example of Thais running the place for themselves rather than for customers,” a Stickman Bangkok reader wrote in June. “Ear-splitting music doesn’t go down well with many.”

From the outset, Dok Pub was all but empty every night at the times it was supposed to be busy. The writing was on the wall since July that eventually bosses would throw in the towel and turn it into another chrome pole palace.

VirginX a Cannibal?

While, at first blush, the opening of another go-go bar on Patpong Soi 2 – where the spots that once were Black Pagoda and XXX Lounge remain dark – would seem to be a good thing. But those bars were two very different places, despite sharing the same ownership. The foreign owner was creative and cared about style, ambience and repeat business. The same cannot be said of most Thai-run bars, such as Virgin.

Instead of attracting more people to Patpong, it’s likely VirginX – with the same meat-market format, atrocious music and rotating staff of girls – will simply cannibalize Virgin next door. People already turned off to Virgin’s lady-drink gouging and deafening Thai techno will find no allure to a carbon-copy bar next door.

Hopefully that won’t be the case and VirginX will grow Patpong’s fan base. Time will tell.