Alagamento has become a magnet for customers in a restaurant in Thailand; watch | Globalism

Now, instead of empty chairs and tables, Chaopraya Antique Café is fuller than ever, offering an experience the ingenious owner calls the “surf hot pot”.

If you like your food with plenty of water, this is the place for you.

Shortly after the water hit the barrier, the first people arrived. Before long, the room was crammed with carefree customers settling in happily, as if eating in the midst of a deluge was normal.

The waiters – some wearing rubber boots – carefully walk through the whirlpool, which quickly rises to more than 50 centimeters.

The restaurant, in Nonthaburi, near Bangkok, opened in February in a riverside location that perfectly complements its vintage architecture and decor.

But a recent severe tropical storm and heavy monsoon rains have raised the river’s water levels. Add the tides and the result will be a daily flood.

After a month-long coronavirus outage, this could have been a disaster. Instead – prompted by advertising in the Thai media – the place is now so popular that customers are forced to book.

“This is a great environment. During this flood crisis, this has become the main attraction of the restaurant. So I wanted to challenge myself and give this new experience,” said Serebog Wai-Inta, 24, chewing her food with water running down her cane.

The owner called the experience “the surf hot pot”. When a passenger boat passes, you find out why. The delicious battle to avoid the inundation caused by the waves is the moment everyone has been waiting for, and with a ticket every 15 minutes, no one comes home disappointed.

This is the first restaurant of TV presenter Titiporn Gutimanon. He says he was worried about what would happen when the floods came.

“It turns out that the reaction of the customers has been great. Are they happy. We can feel the atmosphere of people enjoying the experience of eating in the water. So the crisis turned into an opportunity. This encourages us to keep the restaurant open and make the customers happy.”

The best thing about it, he says, is to be able to keep your team happy by keeping them employees.