Unique Bar

[Bea]

I see on my Facebook that the Unique Bar has closed down yet again.

[Judi_bk]

5 times in as many years

[Raymondo]

This time reliable sources say the landlord locked up on sat nite and told nobody . The staff found out in the morning, jobs gone and pay maybe.
Customers booked for lunch arrived as did the music group with no warning.
Nice people.!!  There should be a large deposit  at outset of lease to cover staff wages etc when these fly by night cowboys dissappear.
Outrageous way to do business.

[Marcus]

I hope Pepe the owner has not lost out again. He has given his full support to all the previous people that have tried to make it work following it´s opening with beer on tap at each table. Profit margins can be razor-thin in this business.

[Raymondo]

With the greatest respect Marcus im sure Pepe has a cast iron lease contract that covered him for months ahead as happened with the International  Bar and   the Trinidad and many others who leased to UK  prospective bar / cafe proprietors.
Bar /Cafe wannabies who never ran a bar until they  hit Spain and all of a sudden they are experts in catering which takes years to learn.
Easy money for the owner.
My concern is for for the staff who now have no job, no income and little prospect for the weeks ahead. Will Pepe contribute to their shortfall.???
If there is a fund to assist the out of work staff I will happiy contribute and i was never a customer there.
Sorry to be longwinded but Pepe the owner and other owners are the least of my concern

[Marcus]

Indeed Raymondo, I feel for the staff, but with respect this is surely down to any contracts or agreements they had in place with the people who employed them, or is the owner of the bar responsible for their losses-no.

I hinted in my opening comment that Pepe has taken a few hits along the way from previous managers legging it at the midnight hour "so to speak". Unpaid contracts to suppliers have to be settled, it is not all on credit or on tick. I have known Pepe for eleven years and he has indeed been flexible in assisting not just the British but the Spanish who have taken over the running of Bar Unique before this recent departure.

If you have never been there, or the owner is the least of your concern, I agree with you the staff have lost out and maybe you can use some of your time to start a "GoFundMe" page on FaceBook or any of the other intergrated social network links. All the staff who have lost out here will appreciate your action here.

[Raymondo]

Without getting too technical on details I presume that leases on bars in arboleas require an agreed  payment to buy the lease and a deopsit of a minimum of 2 months rent and the monthly rent payable in advance.
As a new unfinished building in Arboleas to be operated as a bar  is looking for a monthly lease of 1400 euro and the leasee then has to outfit the place  the owner of the building is the only winner in most cases over the years noting the amount of leasees that have failed.
If  the owner of the Unique building has been let down on a few occasions by previous tenants as you say surely his lease payment and up front rent is more than enough to cover his pain. Im sure he has learnt from previous disasters.
As far as i am aware the suppliers in most cases supply goods on a COD basis and most bar leasees can be seen buying wine,spirits etc in Mercadona etc.
Any losses suppliers incur are between them and the leasee not the property owner.
So to summarise the only winners are the property owners in these cases.
Do i have any sympathy for the owner, not really.
As I dont personally know staff members only having visited on odd occasions I will leave the customer base to have a whip round and would be happy to contribute. But thats it.  Good luck to the staff in finding new jobs quickly in a very difficult environment noting that one well known business down the road has reduced opening hours due to new contract laws being enforced.
Expect more closures.

[frankie]

I wonder how many of those staff will not have been on the books and have been paid cash in hand?  If that is the case, which it often is, then there will have been no contract and not a snowball's hope in hell of being paid any money which may have been due...

[Drax]

The Spanish won't (usually) go into foreign bars.. Brit, Belgian, etc... Just the one time for a look and a laugh.

Those of us that have been here a while and know a bit of Spanish don't bother either, stick with the locals where RENTS don't go up every few months because they own the place. My local Spanish owned and run bar hasn't increased prices for the past 10 years that I know (except cafe con hielo just went to 1.20 for some unknown reason: maybe the price of ice increased for summer??). Any other coffee is a euro 

I ask a simple question: why, except for being able to ask for a beer in your own language do people frequent these places that come and go so often? 

OK, I'll get back to watching cricket   

[Drax]

Oop's meant to mention : I went to the Unique when it opened originally - we were going to the Happy Garden later... then a few months ago when about 12-14 of us turned up after a walk.. the staff couldn't really cope with a "bus load" just arriving but we got through... so I do know the place, just wouldn't think of calling in for a drink. Roseleda or Valkierie preferred as an alternative.
 

[frankie]

I feel more comfortable in Spanish bars.  No idea why, i suppose it is because there are no Brit run ones at this end of the valley, so it feels more natural to gravitate to the Spanish ones when I go down there....

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

That just about sums up my feelings too, Frankie 

Puff

[Ukulele]

Puff ... you do tell some porkies.

I know for a fact, that you have got alchoholic constipation.

You just cannot pass any bar