Maybe you are a Saigon person who wants to try a night out in Hanoi, or a Hanoian who wants to open a bar in Saigon – the cultural differences between the two regions always bring many interesting experiences. Besides culture, the climate, pace of life, and people also create two unique styles of going to bars for young people in the two regions.
3 differences between bar culture in Hanoi and Saigon
Taste: What if every cocktail was a personality type?
Cocktails in Saigon will be open and light with a scent that leans toward sweet and rounded flavors. “Sweet” is one of the favorite cocktail flavors of young people here, combined with herbs to create a colorful whole.
This harmony also represents the gentle personality of Saigon people, but because it all blends, it is difficult to name the main ingredients after the first drink.
On the contrary, a cocktail with Hanoi influences will be richer and more unique according to each specific flavor. Bartender Thinh Le said that most of his Hanoi customers will ask for “every flavor to be mixed”.
If the guest wants a sour drink, it will be a purely sour cocktail, with the sour taste overpowering almost all the remaining scents. From ginger to ginger, from cinnamon to cinnamon, this “taste” for wine also speaks volumes about the loyalty and carefulness of Hanoi guests when choosing a bar.
This characteristic also leads to differences in the restaurant preferences of Hanoi and Saigon players. If you received the bet “Go to the bar tomorrow night”, what kind of place would you like to drink at? Choose a familiar bar or try a new bar as much as possible.
Drink in a strange place or a familiar place?
It is not for nothing that Saigon is known as “the city that never sleeps”. With a vibrant pace of life, it is not too difficult to see Saigon bars constantly opening.
Business in Saigon always happens at a breakneck pace, thus providing more options for customers who want to go to the bar. Because of the diversity of concepts, types, and price ranges, people here also tend to explore and gain experience when going to bars. They understand that because there are many shops, there will be suitable places and unsuitable places, and continue to experiment with strange places to find the ultimate “true love”. But because of that, the possibility of returning to Saigon is not too high.
For Hanoi, this mentality is somewhat contrary as they need a certain level of safety and certainty when choosing a destination. Although the number of bars is not as large as in the South, the bars in Hanoi do very well in the “story-telling” aspect. Behind each bar is a story and creative concept with impressive aesthetic taste.
These factors contribute to building brand loyalty of customers when they continuously return to familiar restaurants. They will even choose a family restaurant to ensure prestige.
Hanoi customers can also choose familiar drinks at the new restaurant. For connoisseurs, they understand each type of base wine and accompanying herbal ingredients to ask the bartender to mix it to their desired taste.
In addition to taste, the “Happy Hour” culture where office workers stop to relax after work in the North and South is also different. What are the differences?
Happy Hour: “Play” early or stay late?
As the only 1-hour program in the evening, Happy Hour comes from the culture of offering special cocktail prices for customers arriving early from 5-6 pm. Happy Hour is very popular in Saigon bars but does not appear too widely in Hanoi.
With Hanoi bars, sometimes Happy Hour will start about 1 hour later than Saigon, meaning that at night around 8-9 pm, young people start to “pour” into the bars.
If Saigon office workers can freely “stop” right into the bar after office hours and keep the same office attire, then young people in Hanoi will slowly go home, eat, and take more care in dressing up than before going downtown.
Even though you can get off work early and start your nightlife at 6 p.m., Saigon is a place where you stay at the bar later and come home later than the general average in the North. From the perspective of bargoers, the cocktail flavor or bar concept are issue that needs attention. So what about those who open bars, how should they choose between Hanoi and Saigon before deciding to invest in business?
For the bar business, is Hanoi or Saigon the promised land?
Service quality is something that can change and is within the control of a bartender, however, factors such as climate, geography, product supply, or premises characteristics are objective, forcing the shop owner to find out deeply enough before starting to lay the foundation.
For Saigon, the “golden lands” in the heart of District 1 and District 3 are always attractive destinations for restaurant and beverage business owners. However, below are the factors recommended you keep in mind when choosing to open a bar in a competitive location in Saigon:
Premises rental price: If Saigon has Bui Vien, then Hanoi has Ta Hien neighborhood, but in general, Saigon’s premises are still expensive, easily becoming a burden of losses if a business is unstable.
Competitive speed: According to Thinh Le, it is not difficult to see 3 to 4 bars opening in the center of Saigon in just 1 month. Research your competitors carefully to create a distinct advantage for your shop in each area.
Festival traffic: Le Loi, Nguyen Hue, or Ham Nghi areas in Saigon are often blocked on special occasions such as New Year’s Eve Countdown, Tet holidays, or music festivals. Please pay attention to these timelines because they cause the number of customers coming to the restaurant and knowing about the restaurant to decrease significantly.
For Hanoi, sometimes bars are formed from “home-grown land”. The business owner immediately takes advantage of the house land to renovate it into a bar, so it is much more convenient than renting space every month.
In addition, high rental costs also affect the quality of output products if the owner does not know how to balance spending on production. These will be challenges when you choose to open a bar in a prime location in both regions.
The nightlife culture in Hanoi and Saigon is the same. Although each place is different, the bar experience will be perfect if customers thoroughly research the bar before arriving.
Regardless of Saigon or Hanoi, asking a “local” to guide you to land safely at your favorite bar is also a piece of useful advice from the hosts, it is the shortest way to get to the “closest” bar.
