MOJITO BAR is being Shut Down!! HELP US

rafael

Bronze
Jan 2, 2002
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www.dr-tourist.tv
Mojitos must be a popular name for a bar in the DR. We have one in Las Terrenas run by a couple of Cuban brothers. Outstanding food and drink. Great tapas menu and their shredded meat with special bar-b-que sauce is unreal. El Mojitos on the beach at Punta Popi.

LTSteve

Never been to Mojitos in Cabarete but Mojitos in LT is great. Great location, cheap and good eats, cold beer, owners almost always present. They stop by and make sure all is well. One of my fave lunch spots.
 

Lobo Tropical

Silver
Aug 21, 2010
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Rd> euro

Maybe they can walk to O'Shays to go to the bathroom LOL

They throw in free drinks for bare breasts on the bar and there is a burning bush to behold!
Sounds like Euro Zone cooperation between the Italians and the Irish.
As long as they don't devalue the $RD.:cool:
 

Antonia Cantillo

New member
May 30, 2012
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Good news they are letting Mojito open as a take out place! Hope they can find a solution to the bathroom prob i love sitting at the beach watching the sun set with a delicious pi?a colada!!

They announced this at their FB group:

"Ma?ana Mojito bar vas abrir otra vez...pero s?lo para llevar!!! Agradecemos muchos a todos los clientes para ayudarnos y para estar a nuestro lado!!!

To all our friends. Mojito bar will reopen tomorrow 19/03/13. For the next few day we will only serve for carry out or take away. We appreciate all the support from each and everyone of our customers. We look forward to seeing everyone !!!"
 

Fredo

Member
Mar 17, 2013
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Never been to Mojitos in Cabarete but Mojitos in LT is great. Great location, cheap and good eats, cold beer, owners almost always present. They stop by and make sure all is well. One of my fave lunch spots.



The LT one is super cool, love that place :))
 

Fredo

Member
Mar 17, 2013
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quote_icon.png
Originally Posted by Fredo

great solution to their problem, takeout :)).
it is genius: you eat at home, you s**t at home :laugh:

LOL ;))))
 

dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
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now when i think about it more seriously... most folks i know will hold that sphincter until they get home, no matter the cost. but i do not know anyone who can drink and not feel the need to pee. so take away food is still pointless. it changes nothing in terms of the bathroom use. unless it also means take away drinks...
 

Tarheel

Well-known member
Dec 19, 2005
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The whole deal with Mojitos was low cost. Both for them and their clients. The bathroom in the hotel was critical to their success. Without that their concept doesn't work. Maybe they can find another place on the beach where the can replicate their success. However I don't know where it would be. I wish them well. They are nice people.
 

frank12

Gold
Sep 6, 2011
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Like Tarheel,I love Mojito bar. it's my favorite bar on the beach. No one makes better "fresh" fruit drinks then them. Also, their food is simple and yet fantastic--using only the freshest of ingredients--their mozzarella and fresh tomatoes are to die for. the husband and wife team are Italian and know what they're doing. I never saw two people--other then the owners of Gorditos--work so fuc*&ing hard in my life. They worked their butts off. Which just goes to show it doesn't take rocket science to be successful--just a lot of hard work, sweat, toil, and using only the best quality ingredients available.

Like Tarheel, i too wish them only success. No one was putting out the same consistent, high quality, freshest product as they were. One visit to them only confirmed this and made a lifetime client out of you. But if they have to move from a beach "shack" into a building where they have to pay high rent, then their prices will have to suit their new overhead costs. This is what a lot of people down here do not get. Yes, it's great to buy a beer for 90 pesos and a fantastic fresh fruit Mojito for 120 pesos, but you can only do this when you have extremely low rent, very low overhead costs, few employees, and only three refrigerators and five light bulbs consuming electricity.

Once you move into a bigger building, or once you have to come up with the capitol to buy a building and the land your business is on, well, things change quickly, and your new prices will have to reflect this. It kills me when i hear stupid people--and thereare many down here--complain about beer & drink prices of a business when they have no idea, no inkling, and no clue whatsoever what the costs of running a business down here.

With the costs of electricity, food, imported meat, employees wages, employees insurance, rent, loans, satellites, entertainment, walk-in freezers, walk-in coolers, beach taxes for tables and chairs, cable companies, internet, and running dozens of fans, lights, A/C's, batteries, generators, diesel fuel, etc, etc--way too many things to list here--prices will have effect your new overhead. There is no way around this.

Frank
 

Fredo

Member
Mar 17, 2013
215
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Maybe they can find another place on the beach where the can replicate their success. However I don't know where it would be.

They could easily rent the old Pitu which would a replica of what they have now but I don't believe anybody will take the risk of renting to them now after what they did to the old owners of the hotel.
 

dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
31,262
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frank, no need to rave about costs of running beach business. we all know you are right. the point is that building a business based on the goodwill of others is a mistake. in this case it was a very bad decision to go with the permit to use the toilets in the old hotel...

it reminds me of a place in london my friend used to live in. damn near the end of the world, zone 5, a large house with maybe 20 polaks or so, living in all available spaces including beds set in the hall. some of them had this great idea on how to save money on food by stealing from others, from the common fridge. my friend would regularly find her stuff gone: one person would take a slice of ham or cheese or bread thinking no one will notice just one slice missing, then another one would do the same and then it would be gone. it could be a good strategy to survive a day or two until the wages arrive but not for a daily living...

mojito's situation is the same. the bathroom issue was a sword of damocles hanging over owners heads. it was bound to drop sooner or later. it would have been better for them to use the toi toi from the start and even charge everyone 5 or 10 pesos for the use, to make up for the cost of renting and cleaning it. without any need to raise prices...
 
May 29, 2006
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With the costs of electricity, food, imported meat, employees wages, employees insurance, rent, loans, satellites, entertainment, walk-in freezers, walk-in coolers, beach taxes for tables and chairs, cable companies, internet, and running dozens of fans, lights, A/C's, batteries, generators, diesel fuel, etc, etc--way too many things to list here--prices will have effect your new overhead. There is no way around this.

Frank

Yeah but O'Shay's is on par with many mainland bars, esp with the TVs. In the US, you'd be paying way more and the place would seat over 400. It has a POS system, right? How many places have that, where you can get itemized receipts and send tickets to the kitchen by printer?
 

arnold67

New member
Aug 29, 2012
19
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Sonia & Franco are amazing people and I feel really sorry for them. But they should have had a Plan B. They started out as a chiringuito with a couple of tables and became huge, so huge that other beach business owners decided to take action. I'm quoting dv8, "building a business based on the goodwill of others is a mistake". Especially in a small beach town where a small bunch of powerful people call the tune.
 

arnold67

New member
Aug 29, 2012
19
0
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That's probably the reason why new businesses are opening in the Callejon, once a ghetto, now "Cabarete's Soho" as a friend likes to call it: low rent, laid-back atmosphere, great mix of expats and locals. If only they had sand...
 

arrugala

Bronze
Nov 7, 2010
967
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It could be , however i would have thought it would have happened a while back ! a new owner who would have to honor the lease would have the most to be irritated as i believe they have Slightly more than a year on their lease . most like
Y just owners trying to give thems the bums rush!!! sad Hope they can find another location ! The writing is on the wall unfortunately !!! i do not think they have space to build a washroom or would it be allowed i expect! And the posssibility that they were expanding tooo much for other owners likes !