Live music, killer Mai Tai’s, two patios, and a happy hour with beer with 2-hour 499-baht beer buffets (not just Singha and Chang, but Leo, Heineken and Carlsberg too) make this Khao San Road establishment the best new bar in Bangkok.
Khao San Road: a traveler’s enclave in Bangkok of cheap guest houses, on-the-street foot massages, street food, and sharable plastic buckets of booze, red bull, and soda complete with neon straws. The area isn’t known for class. It’s not hipster-friendly Nana with its closed toe-only rooftop bars. It’s not moneyed Thong Lo with it’s expensive import beer houses and sushi better than anything in Montreal.
Instead, it’s meat on a stick and a lot of alcohol from international backpackers who like a party without the pomp. But how do you choose between the hundreds of affordable bars with sweet tropical cocktails and more foreigners than locals? By the happy hour special, the crowd, and the music.
The new kid on the block is The Jappp, a co-ownership of locals and an expat that caters to anyone who loves Mojitos, Singapore Slings, and 69-baht vodka or sangsom-sodas from 10:30pm-midnight daily. And that beer buffet is a steal when you add the fact that Kim plays live covers from his over 100-song selection every night for about three hours. Requests run from acoustic renditions of Red Hot Chili Peppers to Maroon 5 to the Beatles, with “Last Kiss” thrown in for good measure. Kim’s voice is great, but the sound system show off his strumming is the main draw. He’s played with some big names, spent a lot of time in New York, and knows how to work a crowd in great English. One of the owners, Thanaphat (Pat for short), plucked him out of another bar where he was playing a couple of nights a week so bring him on board at The Jappp. Around midnight a live rock band usually hits the stage, so the night goes as late as you want (the Facebook page says the bar never closes. We didn’t stay long enough to vet that fact).
The intimate but vaulted ceilinged bar area has exposed brick with Pat’s own art slowly moving across the upper portion (it’s a work in progress, he says). The air conditioning inside is a relief, but the front patio and secluded upper back patio have comfortable sofas for how and sticky Bangkok nights.
By “Wonderwall” we’ve done a shot of Sangsom (local rum—Pat used to live in Newfoundland, the home of throat-burning shots of rum, making Sangsom taste smooth by comparison) and are halfway through a Mai Tai and a Long Island Iced Tea. The bar menu has a page of nachos and wing-type things, but the remaining 20 pages are devoted to Thai dishes: 150 baht for Massaman curry, pad thai and fried rice. And like everything on Khao San Road, food is a late-night affair.
By “Billy Jean” we’re sucking back a bucket of Margaritas. This is not Sauza silver. The tequila is strong, which makes singing along a great idea. Kim’s making friends with the people on the front patio, and we’re making friends with everybody.
…Which is what Khao San Road is all about, really.
Cheers to the street’s best new bar.
The Jappp (“since 2014”)
327/2-4 Rambutree Road. Tell your taxi driver to go to Khao San Road near Swensens Wat Baworn
(or show him ” ไปถนนข้าวสาร ลงตรงวงเวียนวัดบวร หน่อยคะ”) then walk 40 metres down Rambutree Road and The Jappp will be on your right. You’ll probably hear Kim.
083 925 8890
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