Perched above Ekkamai Soi 6’s Tha City Loft Hotel is Nowhere BKK, a modern cuisine eatery offering healthy, unusual, and vegan-friendly options, a kid-friendly brunch, great views, and one mysterious design element — several stairways that lead nowhere.
Peppered throughout the year-old rooftop restaurant are four gray staircases. As you enter, you might think they lead to another floor, a rooftop bar, or even a storage area but they all stop before the ceiling and lead to nowhere.
We chatted with co-owner Prae Kasemsri Na Ayudhaya over a bowl of vegan beetroot soup topped with pistachios, cashews, pea sprouts, and Barefood Bangkok vegan cheese (it’s nut-based and tastes much better than it sounds, trust) and she explained the idea behind the mostly minimalistic space filled with staircases.
She said it was inspired by the work of the Dutch graphic artist MC Escher and his instantly recognizable endless staircases that lead to nowhere that often appeared in his work. She said that, despite my disbelief, no one has ever tried to go up the stairs, accidentally or on purpose.
Though Escher’s staircases have been described as sad and pessimistic, Prae said that, while designing the space, they thought the stairs to nowhere would add visual interest as well as tie into the theme of being “nowhere.” This theme is also reflected in words painted throughout the place that say “I am at nowhere.”
If you want to see the unusual, Escher-inspired staircases for yourself, the restaurant offers daily dining and drinking, both indoors and on their patio overlooking Ekkamai, from 11am to midnight. They also often host brunch with a DJ and kids activities, check their Facebook page for scheduling.
FIND IT:
Nowhere BKK
Tha City Loft Hotel, 6th floor
Ekkamai Soi 6
Daily, 11am to midnight
Header image: Nowhere BKK/Facebook
