29/05/2022
This is where it ends...
Hello nice people from Pipeline and Barnabas.
We think we need to inform you about what's happening with Yanvee Club, the club you maybe loved... or not.
Our Yanvee journey started four years ago. It started in the building besides the Miale hotel. At that time, Pipeline had only one real club, on the corner of Nairobi-Nakuru Highway and Pipeline Road.
We thought we could add something to the neighbourhood. Not by thinking about making profit, but by focussing on bringing some joy and happines to the people of Barnabas and Pipeline and by offering them a safe and nice place "for their own" with good music, good artists, good dj's and drinks at very affordable and honest prices.
It wasn't easy to do that. We had to do massive investments. We knew we would never get that money back. But seeing the local people enjoying the place, the events, seeing they felt "at home" was way more important than making some money.
After a year we noticed we needed a new place. We needed more space. We wanted to offer our customers a better experience.
Moving to a nicer place, means new investments. Everybody knows that. We too, we knew. But we didn't really care: more people were going to enjoy the "Yanvee Experience", more locals were going to discover "their nice, clean and safe place", that was more important to us than whatever other thing.
We found a lovely space in the (at that time) new building of "mister John" in the little street besides the Miale. We did our very best to make it a nice place. We added a small restaurant that served sweet dishes at a small price. We saw the people of Pipeline and Barnabas enjoyed it all, that made us very happy.
It all meant we spent a lot of money. But bringing some happines to a neighbourhood was our motivation. It was... great!
We brought some good artists to Pipeline. We saw people loved mugithi. So we became "the house of mugithi". You danced the nights away and we loved it!
Came covid... came the lockdowns... Everybody told us: close it now! Everybody was right. But we did not want to close: too many people loved those few hours of joy we brought them. We did not want to take that away from them. We couldn't do that.
After covid came the competition. Suddenly everybody wanted to run a club in Pipeline. Lots of fortune hunters opened their clubs, cooperated with the local authorities to give us a hard time, tried to bring us down. For them we were the bad ones: we did not sell drinks from suspect origine and we sold our drinks at affordable prices. That was not what they loved, so they wanted us to quit... On a certain night, some thugs robbed our bar. They disappeared with goods for more than half a million shilling. And of course they were never arrested.
Well, let's say that was hard. Very hard.
We survived. But after covid things never became what they were before... Life is harder than ever for everybody. Spending money in a local club is not that evident anymore... So we lost a lot of our beloved customers.
Now we have to face reality: we have to stop the Yanvee experience. Yanvee Club & Sports Bar is closed forever.
We really hope that you enjoyed the moments you spent with us. We are very very sorry, but this is where it ends.
We have to thank our team: all those very nice young people that served you four years long. If ever you know a place where they can find a new job, let us know. They are hard working nice people and they won't let you down.
We thank you all. You were great customers. We love you forever. And we love Pipeline and Barnabas.
Take care, be safe, be strong! ❤️
Yanvee
