RONNAPORN “NEUNG” KANIVICHAPORN
Co-founder, Mahaniyom Bar
In 2016, at the age of 35, Ronnaporn “Neung” Kanivichaporn and some friends opened the award-winning Backstage Bar, located on the ground floor of the Playhaus hotel. In the years that followed, he and a different group of partners would open the “hidden” speakeasies #Findthelockerroom and #Findthephotobooth. Sadly, the Covid crisis was not kind to Bangkok’s bar scene and from this trio of wildly popular drink spots only #Findthelockerroom remains. But life goes on, and this past March saw the opening of Mahaniyom, a fabulous new Thai-themed cocktail bar located directly above Chef Chalee Kader’s renowned 100 Mahaseth restaurant.
With bar and table seating for about 40 persons, Mahaniyom is an intimate space that’s gorgeously decorated using colourful Thai fabrics, sensuous red wallpaper, gold accents at the bar, and some seriously comfortable padded leather couches. Above the bar a glowing neon sign spells out mahaniyom in English and Thai – “It’s an old-school word that means ‘very popular’,” Neung points out – while on another wall a large neon sculpture depicts a two-headed sak yant tattoo-style tiger; perhaps alluding to the combined dynamic personalities of Nueng and the bar’s other co-founder, Chennarong “Janz” Bhumichitr (also of #Findthelockerroom). This tiger motif also playfully pops up on the red uniforms of the bar staff.
As for the menu, it features many cocktail classics, as well as a section Neung labels ‘Almost Famous’, referring to “forgotten cocktails” that deserve to be rediscovered. Meanwhile, for fans of Neung’s infamous ‘Pink Me Up’ cocktail – which won him first place in the 2019 Bacardi Legacy global cocktail competition – it now comes in three variations: Original, Clear, and Fizz. But what’s likely to turn the most heads is the amazing selection of signature cocktails, many using ingredients from the restaurant downstairs.
“We call our signature drink program ‘Resourceful Cocktails’,” explains Neung. “We choose one primary ingredient, and we extract the flavour from that, which is why we simply name the cocktail after the main ingredient. Of course, we also have other flavours in each drink to enhance the complexity. There are 12 of these cocktails at the moment, during our soft opening phase, and I plan to add another four or so in the future.”