As we speak, there’s extra cause than ever to discover the historic streets that hint the trail of Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River, the place crumbling storefronts and run-down warehouses are being given a brand new lease of life due to a brand new technology of forward-thinking creatives.
In the event you’ve visited Bangkok in recent times, you might effectively have stumbled into at the least one of many stylish new espresso outlets, cocktail bars, and artwork galleries alongside town’s Charoen Krung Highway. This greater than five-mile-long thoroughfare that runs parallel to Bangkok’s River of Kings, or Chao Phraya River, was constructed within the 1860s underneath the reign of King Rama IV, and is called the primary highway in Bangkok to be constructed utilizing trendy building strategies. Within the late 2010s, this once-somewhat-seedy district—filled with technicolored tuk-tuks, pungent avenue meals, gold retailers, and ever-chaotic visitors—noticed an inflow of latest funding. From 2017 to 2019, the launch of two new MRT subway stations, alongside the opening of the Thailand Inventive and Design Heart, enticed a string of pioneering Thai entrepreneurs to maneuver into the realm.
Hoteliers have been fast to get in on the act. Firstly of 2020, Charoen Krung was on the point of add two ultra-luxury resorts to its already spectacular credentials, because the 4 Seasons Bangkok and Capella Bangkok geared as much as open their glitzy doorways on this enviable riverfront location.
Then, catastrophe struck. For Thailand, a rustic the place tourism accounts for round 18% of overall GDP, the pandemic was nothing wanting catastrophic. (Much more so as a result of it took till the second half of 2022 for all entry restrictions to be lifted.) As hospitality jobs dwindled, many locals have been compelled to go away the capital and return to their household properties, whereas those that remained steered away from crowded locations. Within the beforehand vibrant Music Wat and Vanich 1 roads—streets that run parallel to the riverbank and Charoen Krung Highway, forming one of many oldest business districts within the Thai capital—house owners of the standard shophouses promoting wholesale items like spices, meals, and sneakers noticed their livelihoods fall off a cliff.
“Once we opened Potong in 2021, our pals thought we’d misplaced our minds,” chuckles Chef Pam (Pichaya Soontornyanakij), one of many brightest shining stars on Bangkok’s wonderful eating scene. In simply over two years, her Potong restaurant, set in a slender, paved alleyway between Charoen Krung and Music Wat Roads, has been awarded one Michelin star and a formidable thirty fifth place on Asia’s 50 Finest Eating places rating.
“On the time, no person believed within the space, and everybody gave the impression to be leaving,” continues Chef Pam, emphasizing that she and her husband Tor Boonpiti by no means misplaced religion in Music Wat, the buzzing, largely Thai-Chinese language district that has been residence to 5 generations of her household.
In mid-2022, Pam and Tor joined a bunch of like-minded native entrepreneurs in launching “Made in Music Wat,” a neighborhood devoted to the revival of the historic neighborhood. Quick-forward to 2024, and the regeneration that started pre-pandemic in Charoen Krung Highway is extending to Music Wat. A heady mix of latest and conventional, heritage and innovation, these streets are crammed with every thing from historic shrines to town’s greatest fish ball noodles and a few of its coolest artwork galleries and cocktail bars. However it’s a must to know the place to look. Listed here are the perfect spots to eat, drink, store, and play between Bangkok’s hip Charoen Krung and Music Wat Roads.
The place to Eat
Picture: Courtesy of Potong
“Everybody thinks Charoen Krung Highway is the oldest in Bangkok, however, the highway the place Potong is situated, Vanich I Highway, was constructed underneath King Rama I within the early 1800s,” explains Tor Boonpiti, husband and enterprise accomplice of Potong’s Chef Pam, the youngest and first-ever feminine chef to obtain Michelin Thailand Opening of the Yr Award. (In the meantime, Potong was named Asia’s Finest New Restaurant of 2022.)
Her tasting menus are bursting with Thai-Chinese language heritage: dishes just like the flavor-packed 14-day, five-spice aged duck and an ingenious twist on pad Thai, all served in a meticulously restored five-story Sino-Portuguese constructing through which Chef Pam’s household lived and ran their Chinese language medication enterprise for 4 generations. On the fourth flooring, you’ll discover the attractive, sultry Opium cocktail bar, additionally acknowledged by 50 Finest as one of many prime ingesting spots in Asia.
This Michelin-approved hawker stall in Music Wat Highway has achieved legendary standing for its “bouncing” fish balls served with home made egg noodles (guay tiew look chin pla). For greater than eight a long time, this family-run spot has been serving its well-guarded ancestral recipe, voted the perfect in Bangkok. Their bouncy balls are constructed from rigorously chosen giant fish and ready with out starch, lending them their sticky, gentle texture.
FV, which fairly merely stands for fruit and greens, is a café specializing in juices and Thai desserts constructed from native fruit, veg, and weeds (no, not that sort). Set in a fantastically transformed shophouse, the décor alone is cause sufficient to go to—the inside features a conventional Thai picket house-within-a-house—and that’s earlier than you’ve even tasted the surprisingly savory and tannic recent tamarind juice that can have you ever returning time and again.
Mixing artisanal Thai designs with Scandi minimalism, Araksa Tea Room is like an intimate oasis in an alley simply off the chaotic Charoen Krung Highway. Serving single-origin natural tea from Araksa’s backyard in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, the menu additionally features a collection of scrumptious, wholesome dishes, like khao yum: a aromatic natural salad of turmeric and butterfly pea flower rice with toasted coconut, ginger, wild ginger flower, cashews, inexperienced mango, pomelo, and lemongrass.
One other feline-friendly espresso joint, this one was based by the mom roaster herself: Pim, a candy woman in her seventies, who locals discuss with as “Pa Pim” or Auntie Pim. At avenue degree, this will look like a dingy outdated automotive components store however, climb the rickety staircase, and also you’ll end up in a hidden espresso store filled with cats and oddly mismatched furnishings which will effectively remind you of your grandma’s front room.
Wanting across the new Charoen Krung department of Ayatana Café, it’s clear that this can be a place to see and be seen. Stylish younger issues sip chilly brew as they benefit from the superb lighting to fill their feeds with snaps of the cool inside and its artworks. However Ayatana doesn’t simply look good, every thing tastes scrumptious too—from the refreshing matcha Khao Lam affogato, to the decadent mango sticky rice tart.
If a crispy pastry crammed with steaming, flavor-packed curry appears like your type of poison, then look no additional than Bangkok’s most well-known curry puff home. Khun Pu has been promoting these fashionable savory pastries out of an unassuming turquoise shopfront in Talat Noi off Charoen Krung Highway for 17 years. They at all times promote out so both arrive early or ask your resort to name forward and ebook to keep away from disappointment.
What to See
Picture: Courtesy of Aoon Pottery
Based by native artist Kiattiwat Srichanwanpen, one of many brains behind the Made in Music Wat neighborhood, PLAY Artwork Home in Music Wat Highway is a recent artwork gallery set in a restored century-old constructing. The gallery unveils a brand new exhibition each month: from modern works by Thai and worldwide artists and photographers to reside performances. Admission is free.
This cat-filled café and artisanal workshop the place native ceramicist Nguan makes and displays his craftsmanship. The phrase “Aoon” interprets as heat, and that’s precisely the vibe that each the quiet, ethereal café and Nguan’s earthy, elegant ceramic designs exude. Visits to the studio are by appointment solely, simply attain out a day upfront to ebook a slot.
Set in Bangkok’s burgeoning artistic district, minutes away from the Thailand Inventive & Design Heart and Warehouse 30 buying and artwork advanced, ATT 19 is a retail, occasions, and exhibition house and modern artwork gallery. It showcases artwork, antiques, style, and design items from throughout Asia, most of that are additionally on the market, in a constructing that has largely been restored utilizing reclaimed, recycled, and repurposed supplies.
The place to Keep
Picture: Courtesy of Capella Bangkok
Few resorts have triggered as a lot of a stir recently as the brand new Capella Bangkok—and it’s simple to see why. Opened mid-pandemic, Capella snatched a formidable eleventh spot within the first-ever 50 Finest Resorts rankings final yr, regardless of having solely been open to worldwide guests for simply over a yr. Set between Charoen Krung Highway and the Chao Phraya River, the resort is the perfect alternative for friends who don’t need to compromise between a complicated retreat and squeezing each drop out of town.
If you wish to fall in love with Bangkok, Capella is the place to do it. A typical day at Capella may begin with a serene riverfront breakfast watching the barges and longtail boats chug up the Chao Praya, earlier than grabbing a tuk-tuk and whizzing up the Charoen Krung Highway. Again on the resort, calm down with a rejuvenating therapy on the dreamy Auriga Spa earlier than being transported to the French Riviera for dinner at elegant Côte by three-star Michelin chef Mauro Colagreco.
Service right here is so clean the workers appear to know what you want earlier than you even consider it. From non-public boat transfers to the complimentary urgent service, or your “Capella Culturalist” who is sort of a private concierge with insider entry to something you might want for, nothing is ever an excessive amount of hassle.
