A tour of Bangkok’s delicious Thonglor neighborhood,
Hang with the locals in BANGKOK’s buzzy Thonglor neighborhood
CALL it Bangkok’s Lower East Side. Home to Thai celebrities, VIPs, Japanese businessmen and sophisticated expats, Thonglor has emerged as a wonderland of upmarket dining, drinking and partying. (Locals call it “hi-so,” as in high society.) Making for artful Instagram bait, several ultra-contemporary, multilevel “community malls” heavy on food and drink have sprung up since 2016. Meanwhile, the area’s main drag, Sukhumvit Soi 55, and an extensive network of side streets are dense with eateries, bars and cafes. 2017 even saw the opening of a sizable CrossFit facility in a historic house ( Facebook.com/ThonglorCrossFit).
Like Bangkok’s hipster enclave, Ari — the city’s Williamsburg, say — Thonglor is geographically and demographically removed from backpacker-riddled Khao San Road and any place, palace or market where terrifying swarms of tour buses unload.
COMMUNITY AFFAIRS
Take Bangkok’s clean, fast BTS Skytrain to the Thong Lo stop and start your crawl with The Commons ( TheCommonsBKK.com). Its first level serves as an indoor urban market — try a refreshing orange tonic cold brew at Origins coffee shop — with several floors’ worth of dessert shops and boutiques, all connected by staircases and decks. It hums with social life on weekends, from families with children to LGBT cliques. Adding nightlife to the mix, community mall 72 Courtyard (Facebook.com/72Courtyard) is home to DJ-driven club Beam, jazz bar Evil Man Blues, and craft beer hall Beer Belly. Check out Thailand’s thriving indie music scene at De Commune ( Facebook.com/DeCommuneBKK), which opened last year.
FOOD FOR THE SOUL
Two Thonglor restaurants, Baan Ice ( Facebook.com/BaanIce.Restaurants) and Khua Kling & Pak Sod ( Facebook.com/KhuaKlingPakSod), specialize in fiery southern Thai food, which contains ingredients you rarely see stateside, like garlicky “stink beans.” For first-time visitors, Soul Food ( SoulFood
Mahanakorn.com) is a perfect introduction to Thai cuisine. A Pennsylvanian food writer turned restaurateur, Jarrett Wrisley presents organic, farm-to-table takes on Thai staples, plus an outstanding cocktail menu. Ditto for Bo. Lan ( BoLan.
co.th), awarded a Michelin star in the exalted guide’s inaugural 2018 Bangkok edition. International chefs push Thai flavors and sustainable ingredients via fusion fine dining, including former Bo.Lan chef Cong Wen at Prelude ( PreludeBKK.com) and Texan Riley Sanders at Canvas ( CanvasBangkok.com).
The latter’s plates — which have included a risotto-esque sticky rice with river prawn head fat (yes, head fat) — are complemented by equally creative cocktails. One has coffee bean- and cognac-infused rare leaves called bainium( harvested from the northern city of Chiang Mai) with sweet vermouth and star anise smoke. Makes sense, since Canvas spun off from outstanding area speakeasy Rabbit Hole ( Facebook.com/RabbitHoleBKK).
SPEAKEASY TO ME
Thonglor’s craft cocktail scene is truly exceptional. Mixologists at J Boroski ( Facebook.com/JBoroskiBangkok) — spot the unmarked entrance at the end of an alley where a plainclothes doorman loiters outside — scour markets daily for fresh herbs and fruits to juice and muddle with top-shelf booze. There’s no menu: Your mood and preferences dictate what they whip up. Last year saw the opening of Iron Balls Gin Parlour ( Facebook.com/IronBallsGinParlour), whose Aussie owner, Ashley Sutton, designed Thonglor’s most eye-popping bars and clubs including J Boroski, the Iron Fairies ( Facebook.com/IronFairiesBKK) and Sing Sing Theater ( SingSingBangkok.com). At Iron Balls Gin Parlour, five choices of tonic can accompany your gin, while original concoctions include thirst-a quenching cucumber and bael fruit sour. Thonglor saw the debut of another gincentric bar in 2017: Just A Drink Maybe ( Facebook.com/JustADrinkMaybe). Boozes of all stripes rule at Backstage Bar ( Facebook.com/BackstageCocktailbarBKK) — ranked No. 18 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars list — and Locker Room ( it reopens in a new location this February).
Don’t forget to detox with a Thai massage (as cheap as $15 an hour!) at Sukhumvit 55’s branch of well-respected chain Asia Herb
Association ( AsiaHerbAssociation.com).
ONE NIGHT IN BANGKOK
Four stops away via Skytrain, the 391-room resort-style Conrad Bangkok (from $163;
ConradHotels.Hilton.com) offers guests a free (self-guided) five-hour Thonglor itinerary. And stay tuned: Japan’s Nikko Hotels group is opening a 300-room Thonglor property later this year ( Okura-Nikko.com).