An Asoke bar with a Prohibition-era New York vibe is now whipping up scoops of ice cream, the latest bar to retool and stay afloat while the booze ban remains in place.
Q&A bar earlier this month reopened as an ice-cream parlor called QreAm with scrumptious, homemade frozen desserts ranging from creamy vanilla to yuzu sorbet and booze-infused G&Ts.
“It’s another lockdown, and I’ve unlocked a new skill,” said head bartender Attapon De Silva, whose bar was ordered shut by City Hall over a month ago.
‘We’re the forgotten ones’: Bartenders struggle, once again, to stay afloat during lockdown
Although defining himself as a “coffee snob” and “cocktail nerd,” Attapon ditched his favorite beverages and took a month to learn ice cream-making from scratch and experiment in the kitchen to develop a new line of products to please a larger audience.
“Do you know anyone that doesn’t like ice-cream?” Attapon asked.
So far, the six “ingredient-forward” flavors on the menu include The OGV, a vanilla ice cream that mixes Madagascan vanilla bean seeds with free-range egg yolks from Nakhon Pathom and cookie crumbs, all topped with made-in-house pickled wolf berries. The list continues with Pistachio, which makes use of nuts from Italy and milk from a Lopburi farm, and a Yuzu Sorbet to refresh a palate with a unique fragrant aroma and citrus flavor.
An adults-only ice jolly is on the table, too. A classic cocktail gets another version combining London Dry Gin, Nammon tonic water and lemon juice for the G&T Sorbet, which comes with a flower garnish (Attapon says to “smell first before taking a bite.”)
Each scoop is THB120. Additional toppings – passionfruit sauce, marshmallows, poached pear, caramelized pineapple, diced cheese and more – are THB40 to THB80. Ice cream flavors will be rotated, according to Attapon, who said a rum raisin variety is in the making.
With serving alcohol on site banned at the moment, the venue also offers a variety of mocktails and ice cream floats (Root Beer Float and Black Coffee Float, for example) for THB160 each.
QreAm is open noon to 9pm, Wednesday through Sunday. It is located inside Q&A bar in an alley off Soi Sukhumvit 21. Its nearest public transportation is MRT Phetchaburi, MRT Sukhumvit or BTS Asoke.
Related
Kegs of craft beer poured down drain at Bangkok protest
‘We are dying’: Bangkok alcohol sellers, craft brewers demand changes
‘We’re the forgotten ones’: Bartenders struggle, once again, to stay afloat during lockdow
Hidden Thonglor bar launches cafe to survive Lockdown 2.0
Barless Bangkok bartenders ditch drinks for spicy noodles, dim sum
