{"id":27695,"date":"2018-11-21T17:46:20","date_gmt":"2018-11-21T17:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/?p=27695"},"modified":"2018-11-21T17:55:44","modified_gmt":"2018-11-21T17:55:44","slug":"kongs-a-new-retro-arcade-bar-opens-in-birmingham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/21\/kongs-a-new-retro-arcade-bar-opens-in-birmingham\/","title":{"rendered":"Kongs a New retro arcade bar opens in Birmingham"},"content":{"rendered":"

Birmingham\u2019s newest craft beer bar has opened as a juicy-burger hot spot. It could also become a hip new music venue on the doorstep of Victoria Square, too. Burgers, craft beer, retro games, ping pong and live music plan mean happy customers will be all the range at Kongs bar with Burger Theory! Kitchen.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The stripped-back \u2018urban\u2019 look at Kongs is about as intentionally minimalist as you will find anywhere in town.<\/p>\n

Operations director Toby Stringer says: \u201cComing here is all about chilling out and having lots of space.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not about getting people \u2018smashed\u2019 and offering lots of deals.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, if you\u2019ve got a smile your face and a pleasant demeanour, Kongs will even let you in at night if you are wearing \u2018scruffy\u2019 trainers and shorts…<\/p>\n

Toby adds: \u201cYou can be quite \u2018scruffy\u2019 and still get in if you are a nice person.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can dress how you want \u2013 we look for personality, not what\u2019s on your feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not a standard bar, more for young professionals from 20 to 40 \/ 50.”<\/p>\n

Bristol-based Burger Theory! will be the \u2018resident kitchen\u2019 at Kongs, which replaces the former Chameleon bar\u00a0at the corner of Swallow Street and Hill Street.<\/p>\n

Kongs will employ some 25 staff while Burger Theory! will have seven.<\/p>\n

Business partners Toby Stringer and Max Pioli founded Kongs on Bristol’s King Street in 2014.<\/p>\n

Toby is more front of house and partnered with staff, while Max makes good use of his business brain behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

Neither are food experts, which is why Burger Theory! has joined forces.<\/p>\n

By offering customers a bit of everything, Toby says Kongs’ strength will be its cool vibe and package rather than one specific thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to open a bar and didn\u2019t know exactly what we wanted to do,\u201d says Toby.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I took a bit of time out and thought \u2018What I would I want?<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved craft beer, table tennis, music was a big thing…<\/p>\n

\u201cBut food wasn\u2019t my area of expertise, so why not get people in who were good at that?<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was a good concept, but we had to get it right and find the right people for the kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n

From next week, the computer games will include Namco’s Japanese classic Pac-Man, which is arriving from the United States.<\/p>\n

Space Invaders is another possibility, but Toby is happy to leave the pinball machine market to Tilt in City Arcade, Union Street.<\/p>\n

To play the machines you buy tokens – it’s not like playing slot machines where you are constantly pouring in good money with little chance of winning.<\/p>\n

Toby\u2019s instinct is that food sales will be highest at lunchtime, but opening on the same day as the nearby\u00a0Birmingham German Christmas Market\u00a0means the next few weeks might not be the best barometer of how things will pan out in 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Birmingham\u2019s newest craft beer bar has opened as a juicy-burger hot spot. It could also become a hip new music venue on the doorstep of Victoria Square, too. Burgers, craft beer, retro games, ping pong and live music plan mean happy customers will be all the range at Kongs bar with Burger Theory! Kitchen. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,37,3,112],"tags":[264,1702,1701,1703,1704],"class_list":["post-27695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-local-news","category-news","category-top-stories","tag-birmingham","tag-burger-theory","tag-kongs","tag-retro-arcade-bar","tag-victoria-square"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}