Closed for months after cycling through a series of hazy business plans, Pattaya’s LePub has found clarity, with bar rebranded and set to reopen by October as Lucid Gentlemen’s Club.
Aussie Joey, who bought Le Pub from Phil “Mr. Egg” Ross in March last year, shut down the venerable Soi Diamond pub in April, weeks after also shuttering Walking Street’s Identi a-Go-Go.
Unlike Identi, which lost money, Le Pub was holding its own. However, cash flow issues and the impending low season prompted Joey to rethink Le Pub’s direction which, since his acquisition, had been foggy at best.
In an interview Thursday, Joey said the fog lifted over the past four months with the result being Lucid, a stylish gents club built largely by himself out of fixtures he removed from Identi.
Lucid Gentlemen’s Club Looking Slick
Walking through the new glass double doors, Lucid Gentlemen’s Club’s interior is stunningly impressive. It’s lighting is a mix of the cobalt blue LED strips that were a signature of Identi mixed with warm wall lamps and black marble surfaces. Everything gleams and the fact the bar was built largely by one 31-year-old (with the occasional helping hand from Thai laborers) makes it even more impressive.
Joey didn’t let his investments in Identi go to waste. All the mirrors, the sound system and lighting in Lucid Gentlemen’s Club came from Identi. So did the three chrome poles on the small stage, which in themselves are odd given that Pattaya gents club don’t usually have stages, let alone chrome poles.
Gents Club or Go-Go
So is Lucid Gentlemen’s Club a gents club in the classic Pattaya sense or a go-go bar? More details about the bar’s actual operation plan will come later, but, right now, Aussie Joey insist it will be a gents club.
If so, Lucid Gentlemen’s Club will be a unicorn on Walking Street, where there are plenty of go-go and beer bars, but no gents clubs.
Pattaya’s version of a gents club is only a rung up from the quasi-brothels of Soi 6, where the downstairs bar is only a gateway for rooms upstairs where the real action happens.
With the exception of the GentsClubs.com’s Club Fate on Soi Boomerang, Pattaya gents clubs open between noon and 2 p.m. and cater to Sin City’s oldest demographic, who are as short on stamina as they are cash. The women working in such bars are far past their go-go pole-dancing days, but know what the old guys are looking for, often behind a drawn curtain right in the bar.
Such clubs also close earlier, sometimes as soon as 9 p.m.
With its location, Lucid Gentlemen’s Club will have to operate differently, as that type of out-in-the-open hanky-panky will never be allowed by Pattaya police, not matter how much “tea money” is contributed.
Given that it’s Walking Street, the quality of the ladies also will be a much higher standard than found in most of Pattaya’s gents clubs.
As for hours, that remains to be seen. Le Pub opened at 4 p.m. Would there be enough demand for a Soi Diamond bar open at 2 p.m.? There’s nothing else open at that hour in that neighborhood. On the other hand, Lucid Gentlemen’s Club will stay open until 4 a.m., putting it on basically the same playing field at Club Fate, which operates 6 p.m. to 4 a.m.
Le Pub’s Long Identity Crisis
The Lucid Gentlemen’s Club makeover closes the loop on 18 months of experimentation that began when Joey bought Le Pub.
Under Ross, Le Pub had spent years as a straightforward expat pub — Guinness, pool, sports, music videos and a loyal crowd that knew exactly what it was getting. Joey kept that formula at first, then began trying to wring more business out of the small Soi Diamond property.
By August 2025, Le Pub had become Le Pub a-Go-Go, with a tiny, curtained dance room added alongside the original pub. The idea was to keep the old regulars while pulling in go-go customers, but the bar still sat awkwardly between two formats.
That problem grew after Joey bought Identi on Walking Street. Identi reopened under his ownership in July 2025 after a costly refurbishment, but recruiting and keeping enough dancers proved difficult and the bar struggled to make money.
When Identi closed in March, Joey stripped out much of what he could use and folded it back into Le Pub. The curtained lounge disappeared, a larger stage went in and the bar was relaunched as Super Le Pub a-Go-Go, with Identi’s dancers, lighting and fixtures helping fill out the room.
The changes improved business, but they never solved the underlying question of what Le Pub was supposed to be. In little more than a year, it had gone from pub, to pub-with-a-go-go, to Super Le Pub.
Lucid Gentlemen’s Club is Joey’s fourth crack at defining the same Soi Diamond space. This time, at least, the concept is finally clear.
