We often bemoan the lack of fun, easy, or laid back drinking spots in Thong Lor. Though the area is considered one of the city’s nightlife centers, it’s hard to find anything beyond predictable wine bars and inaccessible dark clubs with a reputation for being frequented by rich Thai students.
However, there are several cool places secreted away in the neighborhood’s small alleys. A new one among their ranks is TaladNath, located on the same tiny, dead-end street as Black Amber bar.
Owned by Nath Arjhan, the former head bartender at Singapore’s Tippling Club and former beverage director of Bangkok’s Hyde & Seek, and managed by Sven Maywald, an outlet manager for Water Library Group, and bar has a street food cart-inspired design and is set up to create a “tour of the globe” type of drinking experience.
For non-Thai speakers, talad is the word for market, and since co-owner Arjhan designed the drink menu, the name translates to “Nath’s Market.”
When we stopped by recently, we sampled several of what the bar bills as ethnic and historical drinks. Maywald explains: “We provide a new drinking experience by using forgotten spirits in new cocktail preparations.”
Their drinks are often served simply, eschewing the fancy presentation favored by many city cocktail spots. The menu lists prices in US dollars, featuring a legend at the bottom revealing that US$1=THB35, as another detail to tie in with the international feel they’re going for here.
The owners hope to present the drinks as they’d be drunk in their founding countries. To this end, the Americano (US$10/THB350) arrives in an unmarked dark small glass bottle with a simple glass of soda. The cocktail is a concoction of Campari and sweet vermouth.
The pomelo paloma (US$8/THB280) is served with tequila and fresh grapefruit over ice in a glass with a bottle of pink grapefruit tonic, which you can pour according to your own tastes. The Peruvian pisco sour (US$9/THB315) is presented in its historically accurate glass (a champagne saucer), but without flourishes or garnishes.
The bar owners are particularly proud of their French eau de vie highballs, which they’d love to see go head-to-head with the gin and tonic — always a classic drink, but which has been enjoying a prolonged popularity surge over the last few years.
It’s for this reason that they present their eau de vie buck (US$8/THB280) in a similar style to a modern G&T, in a stemmed highball glass, with the alcohol pooled around one large square ice cube, garnished with grapefruit and rosemary, and, again, a bottle of tonic for self-mixing.
Rounding out the cocktail menu are other national classics: a Chilean joté, an Italian Americano, a Cuban El Floridita daiquiri, a Mexican margarita, and Brazilian caipirinhas and batidas. Sake and beer are also available.
The music is a mix of Latin, funk music, swing jazz and Afro beats, and plans are apparently in place to start doing DJ sets and live music events in the near future, with a menu featuring street food to follow.
FIND IT:
Talad Nath
160/15 Thonglor Soi 6
Daily, 6pm-1am
Cash only
BTS Thonglor
