Twisted Village One Year Anniversary!

Hinch and Francis are the owners of Twisted Village Bar in Chaloklum, a popular hangout for locals, divers and tourists in the area. Possibly due to their warm welcomings which became well known through their previous and pretty famous restaurant The Holy Grill and Cafe Del Mar since 2001. They down-sized from The Holy Grill just over one year ago.

We catch up with them as they prepare for their Twisted Village one year anniversary…

How has it been moving from The Holy Grill to the Twisted Village Bar?
It’s a breather, downsizing from a big business to a small village expat bar is an absolute dream.

What do you do at Twisted Village?
Most of the people that come, come every day. Lots of local expats and a lot of customers are 50 plus and want to hang out, play pool and enjoy some peace.

Your food was famous at The Holy Grill, do you still make some?
Yes we have specials from The Holy Grill which attracts some people, ribs, burgers, pulled pork which were lots of people’s favourites so it helps bring people in. We also have a vegetarian menu now so 50% of the menu is veggie!

Do you still enjoy making food?
Yes, we now have a bigger kitchen. I built it to our own specs with a smokeless bbq, massive oven and it’s three times the size of the Holy Grill kitchen! It’s nice to work in.

Why did you name the bar ‘Twisted Village’?
We were pretty depressed to learn we had to let The Holy Grill go and at one point for  economic reasons we actually wanted to leave Thailand. We were maybe going to Vietnam but it fell through. People were upset we were leaving and then I said one day that “we were going to stay in this twisted village after all” meaning the village of Chaloklum. I thought that this had a ring to it and so the name of the bar was born!

Why did you decide to open the bar?
I'm getting older, we are slowing down and Twisted Village is a semi retirement plan. Also we can close anytime as we don't have fixed opening hours. Our main clientele is divers, older expats, retirees and core sea students.

What will you do for your one year anniversary?
7pm on Thursday 6th June we will have a buffet of specials from our menu, finger food and bites, pool competition, killer pool. Just fun and funky music, everyone is welcome!