Cool nights: Opposite Mess Hall, run by Australian chef Jess Barnes.
Atmospheric bars, pop-up dining, locavore food. It's Bangkok, but not as you know it, writes Ute Junker.
As a home cook, how do you go about preparing dinner for 70 to 80 people? The answer, it seems, depends on your personality. "Some people are Cartesian and organised, with long to-do lists. Other people just turn up at 4pm and somehow, by 6pm or 7pm, they have a meal cooked," says Yvan Cohen.
Cohen, a Bangkok-based photographer, has had the chance to observe this process close up. He is one of the creative minds behind Space Dinners - pop-up meals that are prepared on an irregular basis by volunteers. The venue - a small room above a market on the unfashionable side of the city's river - is as casual as the service, which is BYO and help-yourself. Diners are asked for a small donation to cover costs.
Maggie Choo's is run by another Australian, Ash Sutton.
The space is also used for other events, including art exhibitions. "No one knows when something's going to happen, including us," says Cohen. "It happens spontaneously. An artist contacts us, or someone wants to cook, the message goes out on social media.
"We've had an Indonesian guy do wonderful Indonesian food, an American who did a Mexican meal, some French people do a cous cous evening. We've had a Thai cordon bleu chef do a themed evening using the Thai bael fruit."
It sounds like the type of event you'd stumble across in Berlin or New York, rather than Bangkok. However, Cohen, a long-time Bangkok resident, says visitors who look beyond the shopping malls will find a hugely dynamic city.
"When friends from New York visit, they automatically love Bangkok. The cities are very similar, both driven by an alternative underground with a strong creative vibe," Cohen says. "The Thai alternative art scene is often not seen by foreigners. That's one of the challenges for us - to get more mixing going."
Exploring Bangkok's lesser-known side means a willingness to step beyond the usual tourist haunts. The Space Dinners take place in Thonburi, Bangkok's version of Brooklyn. However, some of Bangkok's most interesting venues are more centrally located.
Take Maggie Choo's, the hot new bar under the Novotel Fenix Silom on Silom Road. Open a wooden door, walk downstairs and you find yourself in a noodle bar reminiscent of 1930s Shanghai, surrounded by paper umbrellas, bird cages and sleepy iguanas. Continue through more doors and you'll find the speakeasy-style bar, filled with intimate niches and overseen by cheongsam-clad staff.
The atmospheric space is the brainchild of expat Australian Ash Sutton, a former iron ore miner and now one of the leading lights of Bangkok's bar scene. Each of Sutton's venues is a whimsical wonderland, a world of its own.
His other venues include Iron Fairies, in the Thonglor area, which has a steampunk feel, meshing blacksmiths' tools and old crates with barrels and old safes converted into tables. There is also a spiral staircase that goes nowhere.
His Clouds bar, by contrast, offers a mash-up between an eco-approach and a sterile futurism. Staff wear white overalls and the decor features clear perspex bars, morgue-like furnishings and a small forest set behind glass. Then there's Fat Gut'z Saloon, a two-storey bar with a nautical theme and a reputation for serving the best fish and chips in Bangkok.
The elements that link Sutton's bars include a superior cocktail list, inspired soundtracks, and an affluent clientele that includes expats and the Thai elite.
"Thailand's high society has studied abroad, they know their way around, they appreciate what I've brought to Bangkok," Sutton says.
Another Australian making an impact is chef Jess Barnes. At his previous Bangkok restaurant, Quince, he gained a reputation for using local ingredients and promoting a nose-to-tail eating philosophy. For his latest venture, the newly opened Opposite Mess Hall, Barnes has joined forces with two other local legends, Chris and Som, who run the popular WTF bar-cum-art-space.
One of their previous ventures was a series of pop-up dinners, one of which Barnes helmed. Opposite Mess Hall makes the relationship more permanent. Up a narrow set stairs lies a tiny wedge of a room with seven tables and a long counter facing an open kitchen festooned with bunches of garlic. Barnes brings his considerable talents to bear on small plates such as smoked bone marrow dumpling in beef broth and duck waffle (duck leg, crispy duck skin, duck liver pate).
"It's almost like tapas. We wanted to make sure you could get good food even at midnight," Barnes says. "The menu's very small, and it reflects the food we like and enjoy."
It's a new type of restaurant for Bangkok, where until recently the dining scene has skewed between high-end hotel dining rooms on one hand, and street food on the other. Opposite Mess Hall reflects Barnes' commitment to sustainable dining and using every part of the animal. "It's about being respectful of what you take from the product," he says. Barnes showcases local produce, from prime pork to goats' cheese and mozzarella.
As we speak, he's in a preserving frenzy. "We get a delivery of 50 kilograms of peaches, we preserve them and I can use them in desserts for three months," he says.
Barnes says Bangkok is changing. "People are becoming more comfortable about doing something differently, launching business ventures that are more quirky, outside the mould," he says. "It feels like a community. It's nice to be part of something positive."
For Yvan Cohen, part of Bangkok's appeal is that the city embraces the finer things in life. "This is a culture that leans towards the aesthetic, towards sensual pleasures, the arts, wonderful food - things that appeal to the senses," he says.
GETTING THERE
Thai Airways flies daily (sometimes two flights a day) from Melbourne (9hr 10min) and Sydney (9hr 25min). Phone 1300 651 960; see thaiairways.com.au.
STAYING THERE
The Siam, set on several hectares of riverfront on the Bangkok side of the Chao Praya River's Dusit district, has 39 suites, a cooking school, yoga terrace, infinity pool and muay Thai boxing ring. A suite is from 16,300 baht [$540] a night. See thesiamhotel.com.
EATING THERE
Space Dinners take place on the second floor of 7-11, Klong San Market building, near the river ferry pier. See thespacebangkok.com.
Maggie Choo's, 320 Silom Road. See facebook.com/maggiechoos.
Iron Fairies, 395 Sukhumvit Soi 5. See theironfairies.com.
Fat Gut'z Saloon, 264 Thonglor Soi 12. See facebook.com.
Clouds, Thonglor 13. See facebook.com/cloudslounge.
For Opposite Mess Hall's menus, see oppositebangkok.com.
TRIP NOTES
MORE INFORMATION
FIVE MORE AFTER-DARK HAUNTS
LE DERRIERE
Q Bar, one of the city's hottest clubs, has converted the back area of its ground floor into a 1920s Parisian-style salon. Come here for champagne, oysters and absinthe cocktails. See qbarbangkok.com.
LITTLE BEAST
A pocket-size New-York style restaurant with industrial interiors and a range of tapas-inspired plates, including charcuterie. See facebook.com/littlebeastbar.
SMITH
Nose-to-tail dining in a warehouse setting. Never thought Bangkok would go for calf's tongue but the crowds suggest otherwise. See smith-restaurant.com.
LE BEAULIEU
Everyone's favourite formal French diner has relocated and revamped itself as a bistro. The wine terrace is great for more relaxed grazing. See le-beaulieu.com.
BADMOTEL
There are a number of bar and dining options in this three-storey space but the outdoor bar on the ground floor is where it's at. See facebook.com/badmotel.
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