There are a couple of reasons we’d head over to Thonglor Soi 6. One is to get a preppy haircut, another is to shop for kinky sex toys. But we’ve added another reason to the list. One of the neighborhood’s most low-key alleys is now home to a new cocktail bar that specializes in fruit brandy and tipples with globe-spanning origins.
TaladNath, which means “flea market” in Thai, is also derived from the name of the bar’s owner-slash-bartender. Nath Arjhan was the head mixologist at Singapore’s publicly-praised cocktail bar The Tippling Club, and the beverage director of Hyde & Seek. Nath’s cocktail den is a study in rusticity and local street culture. The whole space attempts to emulate a street corner joint—a pushcart performs as a bar, while old-school refrigerators line bare concrete walls.
According to Nath, Bangkok’s bar scene has been giving too much attention to wellknown spirits like vodka, whisky and gin, which is why he opted to shine the spotlight on underrated liquor like fruit brandy. We get a bit of an education as Nath categorizes the brandy based on their origins or the countries they’re associated with. For example, colorless fruit brandy kirsch from Germany is the star of Pickling Kirsch (B350), a cocktail that also benefits from splashes of vermouth and bitters, while berries brandy is given a highball approach and mixed with ginger beer to create a sweet-ish drink called Berries Buck (B300). Italian-born cocktails like Americano and Negroni are hybridized into Americano Negroni (B300), and served in a quirky take-away coffee cup. To complement the drinks, the bar also whips up street food-inspired snacks like fresh Majestic oyster served with pineapple shrub (B160 each).
TaladNath’s industrial vibe may be a bit too typical for Thonglor’s swanky scene, but located right inside the hipster-friendly soi, it seems to fit right in.