Just a few minutes walk from the beating heart of Chinatown lies a speakeasy-themed bar specializing in umeshu, or plum wine.
New yet not so new, ShuuShuu Hiddenplace reopened just a few days ago at a new location just a few meters from its former spot on Soi Song Wat. The bar has only a single focus: Japanese liqueur, aka umeshu, so don’t expect to find other types of boozy escape here.
Set in a neon-lit vibe atop the Heartbeat Restaurant Soi Saphan Yuan. Patrons shouldn’t hesitate to push through the closed doors into the restaurant and ascend to the second floor.
While the bar only serves umeshu, customers can discover the fun in selecting drinks on the menu, which lists them by number. There’s 101 (THB150) — an easy-to-drink umeshu with sweet and sour tastes hailing from Wakayama prefecture — that suits umeshu beginners best. Those who want something a little stronger – in texture, flavor and alcohol content — should go for 214 (THB180), which is a glass of sweet umeshu from Hyogo prefecture.
It’s hard-to-miss 420 (THB150), an intensely aromatic umeshu from Nakano that results from mixing premium plum with Japense green tea.
The bar’s strongest drink though is named after the Thai Expressway Authority’s hotline — 1543 (“Drinking this one, you can call the call center to help you get home,” said a bar co-owner on a recent visit, who happened to be clad in a firefighter costume). That owns to its 18% of alcohol by volume due to its smooth blend of plum, brandy and sake. The drink is THB200.
Friends visiting the bar can share tasting menus (THB250) that arrive with a flight of three glasses of umeshu. Set A — Asian Married with European — features umeshu from three different countries: France, China and Japan. Set B provides three refreshing fruit-charged beverages (orange, lemon and melon). The best-selling set is Set C, which combines the aforementioned 101, 214 and 1543 drinks.
All beverages can be enjoyed on the rocks or mixed with soda.
ShuuShuu Hiddenplace is open 7pm to midnight, Thursdays through Mondays. It’s located on the second floor of Heartbeat Restaurant on Soi Saphan Yuan close to the river, near Chinatown. It can be reached from the recently opened MRT Wat Mangkon.
FIND IT:
Shuushuu Hiddenplace
2nd floor of Heartbeat Restaurant
Soi Saphan Yuan, Samphanthawong, Bangkok
7pm – midnight, Thursdays through Mondays
Phone: +66 62 229 8947
