We went to G.O.D. Bar Bangkok, short for Genius On Drugs, and left thoroughly converted. Amen.
Because drugs, after all, were how it all began. “It was rough around here,” Niks Anuman remembers about this alley in 2015, gesturing towards the colored glass windows and Bangkok’s Chinatown outside. There used to be a gang of teenagers hanging out on the corner, outside the youth center, sniffing glue. “So we called our first bar Teens of Thailand after them!” he laughs.
These days Chinatown has gentrified. And Niks and his business partner, Gunn Lee, have been a big part of the area’s development. They now have five bars around Soi Nana: Teens of Thailand, Asia Today, TAX, Independence Bar, and this, their latest, G.O.D.
Iconoclastic and experimental, each one has seen them push the boundaries more and more.
Blasphemously Brilliant
At G.O.D. through the door with its custom-made cocktail shaker handle, they’ve taken out the upper floor, to create one high-ceilinged blasphemously brilliant space. There are two massive yellow speakers either side of the bar (“But we can only play at 10% their capacity or the neighbors complain!”), and there’s a piano upstairs and above it the exposed metal building rods converge dramatically.
And on the weekends, around 9PM, a pianist ascends the stairs and starts jamming, “kind of neo-classical stuff.”
“It can turn a bar into a different kind of bar,” Niks nods approvingly. And it’s true at G.O.D. where the soft piano notes reverberate against the austere, minimalist concrete interior.
Spirit-Forward Cocktails With Gourmet Bar Bites On The Side
In the menu (still in its soft-opening phase), Niks and the team focus on spirit-forward cocktails. And there’s gourmet side-bites with every drink – the menu lists both, first the cocktail and its ingredients and then the bite’s.
The Uni Martini, which the menu decides, justifiably, is “an excessive way to enjoy a martini,” comes with both a scoop of uni onto the back of the hand and a hay-smoked olive.
It also provides instructions on how to consume it – in case Niks or the team aren’t on hand: the bafun uni first, then the martini “served so cold you can take photos of it and it’s still cold afterwards” then the smoked olive, and then back to the martini. Repeat.
G.O.D. Bar Bangkok’s Ice Cold Martinis
In fact, the Martinis are so cold, the G.O.D. Bangkok bar team has to take the bottles of the pre-batched drink out of the freezer a couple of hours before shift, and it still arrives in the glass with a delightfully slushy consistency.
Then there’s G.O.D.s Oyster Martini, served with a Fine De Claire No. 2 oyster and a coconut and dill vinaigrette and some coppa ham. And an equally moreish Salted Cacao Negroni. Concluding “excessive is necessary” the soft opening menu mercifully takes its foot off the gas slightly after that with the cheekily titled Jeez & Tonic, Rest In Peach, Rice and Shrine, 4 Cheesus, the ramen-inspired *Amen, and the Trinity: The Father, The Son & Larb Kwaii.
And in case conversation lulls, there’s a bible on the bar, quietly bookmarked to Ezekiel 25:17 for fans of Pulp Fiction, and Samuel L. Jackson’s rendition of it. “It’s not quite the same as in the movie,” Niks says disappointedly, wagging the bible around. “But it is the best selling book of all time,” he shrugs.
Altared States
And those kinds of little details permeate. There’s a small step up to the counter seating, the same kind you’d have in church when you step up to the altar.
The lighting is turned right down, and G.O.D. is mostly illuminated by candle light. The back bar is filled with anonymous bottles, so as not to cause a distraction. And there’s opera playing in the toilet. “Gunn was skeptical when I told him about playing opera in toilets, and then he tried it at home and became a believer,” Niks says.
And we tried G.O.D. and became believers too.
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