A big story of a quiet place - LOKAL from the beginning (the end of 1960s) to nowadays 🌴
The history of LOKAL Restaurant & Hotel began with the great love of a young Austrian guy Werner Karasek.
〰️ In the 1960s he came for the first time to Phuket. Werner wanted to go to Australia. He got strong sick in Afghanistan and was then flown by emergency to Thailand and woke up there. He got stuck in T
hailand because after Afghanistan, Middle East and India he found these to be a paradise. Werner stayed here until he had no money and Embassy have to send him back home. And then he did it again - he walked by foot from Austria! He stay here in Phuket and for the first two years he slept on the beach. Untouched nature, white sand, blue water and simple lifestyle of local people - he fell in love with this place. He was late twenties at that time.
〰️ In 1974-1975, Werner began building his hotel room by room. He actually built every single building here! At that time, there was nothing next to LOKAL. There was a stunning beach on one side of the hotel, rice fields on the other, and Bangla was just a dirt road to the beach. On Patong Beach, leatherback turtles laid their eggs every year, and whale sharks with calves, whales, dolphins and many kinds of fish were constantly seen in the bay. And in this paradise, LOKAL became one of the first hotels and everything grew around it. LOKAL welcomed its first guests in the late 1970s. Most of them were German and European tourists, who quickly became our good friends and come to us every year (yes, for 40 years!). Most of them couldn't eat spicy local food, so Werner built and opened his own restaurant serving Austrian cuisine. As 40 years ago, we still use only locally sourced ingredients in our kitchen without pesticides or other chemicals. Restaurant & Hotel was a great passion of founder. He worked 24/7 and enjoyed it. It was a golden boom at that time!
- What your dad talked about Phuket 60-80s?
- Oh, Paradise! Good food, beautiful women, very cheap. The salary was 3000 thb/month. Whale sharks came with their calves every year and we swam out with my dad and brother in Patong bay when we were kids.
〰️ In 2018 Werner was passed away. The business was inherited by his children - Christine and Sebastian. After his death, we made a little rebranding, changed the name to LOKAL (for many we are known as K-Hotel & Restaurant) and a new chapter of our history began! We started to meet new friends. The philosophy of the LOKAL Restaurant & Hotel, thanks to which we have been working for more than 40 years, is simple - if everyone goes one way, then we go the other way. We work in a different way, and if someone says: "Guys, this is impossible!", this does not mean that it is impossible, we just need to find a way. Trying to be different, trying to be smart and find a way in difficult situations - this is our mindset.
👉🏻 Now we are welcome you daily from 8:00 am to 11:00 pm. You can get to know the unique authentic place in Phuket and stay with us - kids of the founder. Taste clean healthy food and enjoy a historical oasis in the heart of Patong! Sincerely yours Christine Karasek and Sebastian Karasek. See you in LOKAL, Patong.
