BERNIE Utchenik, better known these days as 'Botak Jones', nearly fell into bankruptcy with an ill-fated venture in Boat Quay, but is back in the booze business, with an outlet at a factory canteen next to Singapore Press Holdings' News Centre at Toa Payoh North.

The tall, bald American, who looks more like a Hells Angels biker than a pub owner, set up Brewsky Jones a month ago as an adjunct to his Botak Jones food outlet. And he plans to establish a chain of similar food and beverage outlets in coffee shops that he intends to own himself.

As a measure of his new-found zeal, Mr Utchenik will be opening his fifth outlet in Depot Road at Yue Hua Eating House on Saturday. This follows several months of casting around and working for others before he struck out again, opening food outlets in 2004.

Botak Jones: His new Brewsky Jones pub in Toa Payoh follows a string of successful food outlets in residential areas.

After opening food outlets in the heartlands of Tuas, Ang Mo Kio and Clementi, Mr Utchenik was invited to set up a food outlet at the canteen in Toa Payoh by a 'Dr' Foo who assured him that the area needed his kind of cuisine.

'You know nothing brings fame like success, and so after succeeding in those three estates, offers came from food court owners for me to set up similar restaurants in their establishments,' says Mr Utchenik, with no hint of modesty. He first came to Singapore in 1993 to work in the offshore oil business.

'Dr Foo also felt that the neighbourhood needed a decent beer outlet and so encouraged me to set up one in the canteen.'

Brewsky was a welcome sight for those who were fed up with downing beer in the neighbourhood coffee shops in Toa Payoh and, instead, hankered for a decent pub.

While his previous beverage business provided the whole range of drinks and some entertainment, this time around, Mr Utchenik intends to specialise in beer, wine, tequila and margaritas. 'I'll give the other hard liquor a miss,' he says.

While Bernie Goes To Town was a more upmarket pub, Brewsky Jones, is an almost no-frills pub with the bar counter comprising a wooden plank set on unglazed bricks. 'Business is picking up, especially after we started advertising on radio,' Mr Utchenik says.

However, he angered some customers when he raised his beer prices recently. 'Why pay $11 for a pint when you can get a large bottle of beer for between $5 and $6 in a coffee shop?' noted one irate customer. 'In fact you can get a similar pint for $8 nett at more upmarket pubs like Hacienda in Dempsey Road during happy hours,' he added, saying that he and his friends would no longer be patronising Brewsky Jones.

In defence, Mr Utchenik says that he has his overheads and other costs to think of, and that he prices his products to make them affordable to heartlanders and at the same time provide him a decent profit. 'If those other places can price their products lower, good luck to them.'

He also said that he is still paying off people whom he owes money following his ill-fated venture in Bernie Goes To Town which he sold in 2000. 'I lost almost $500,000 on that and so I'm more careful now,' he says.

'While Bernie Goes To Town drew in the crowds, the overheads were high and there was a lot of leakage. I also had to put in money for acts that didn't fill the number of seats I thought they would draw,' he adds.

After exiting Bernie Goes To Town, Mr Utchenik - whose fame started with Bernies in Upper Changi Road, followed by Bernies in East Coast and then Bernies BFD in East Coast Parkway - worked for a friend at the Home Beach Bar at Robertson Quay. He then went into partnership with some friends to set up a pub called Blooie's at Jalan Tua Kong.

'But these didn't quite work out although I managed to raise revenues by more than 50 per cent at the Home Beach Bar, and so my wife and I decided no partnerships,' he explains.

He set up his first outlet in Tuas in 2004 and now prepares his Cajun-type cuisine at a central kitchen in a 5,000 sq ft establishment in Defu Lane.

For his new lease of life, Mr Utchenik has come up with a new mission statement: 'To provide well-made, restaurant quality food and service in industrial and heartland residential areas where it hasn't been available before.'