Palates and Palettes in Bangkok

It’s easy to get rich in the culinary business here, says restaurateur Piti Kulsirorat. Tourists pay big money for a supposedly authentic Thai experience, he says, which often means country-style decor and antiques--tacky antiques at that.

But Kulsirorat chose a different path. Bangkok has long had great museums, but none dedicated to contemporary art. So in 1994, he and his wife, Natenapit Worasiri, opened Hemlock Restaurant and Culture Club, Bangkok’s first art cafe.

Their recipe: Take a cool space. Add tables and the work of up-and-coming painters, sculptors, photographers or video artists. Mix in some good music and serve with inexpensive food (mostly Thai) and a variety of drinks.

To some, opening Hemlock seemed like career suicide, a risky venture in a place where contemporary art did not have an established following. But six years later, the cafe not only has survived but also has spawned a raft of imitators that are among the city’s hottest nightspots. Kulsirorat’s fame even has earned him a post as an art lecturer at Bangkok University.

When I first visited Bangkok a dozen years ago, it bore out its reputation as dirty and sleazy. But when I returned for a week in January as part of a millennial visit through Southeast Asia, I barely recognized it. The art cafes were hardly the only change.

In response to worsening traffic and air pollution, the Skytrain elevated railway opened in December, serving much of the city center. The national government also has launched a public education program on food safety. A new “green star” inspection system lets diners know which ubiquitous open-air food stalls meet safety standards, and many hotels and restaurants now have purification systems for water and ice (although it’s still wise to ask first).

These changes are coupled with Thailand’s young, vibrant demographic palette--45% of the population is 15 to 39 years old, with about 9 million people in Bangkok alone.

I started my tour of art cafes where the trend began. At Hemlock, art is exhibited in a 60-seat, two-story space in the bohemian Banglamphu district near the National Gallery on Phra Athit Road. Kulsirorat says it’s the perfect setting--”the most beautiful street we have in Bangkok, similar to Chiang Mai,” an ancient northern capital.

“We try to pick the new generation who will be the best artists in the future,” he says. The cafe, whose exhibits change year-round, recently featured unflinching photos of the ravages of war in Southeast Asia by Philip Blenkinsop, a Bangkok-based Australian.

Windows and high ceilings brighten Hemlock’s Mediterranean-style interior, and diners can find contemporary or traditional Thai specialties from a menu in a tiny sketchbook. Customer favorites are Grand Lotus Rice (fried rice with mushrooms, lotus seeds, shrimp, pork, Chinese sausage and a reddish-orange egg yolk, all served in a lotus leaf), num prik pla too (tuna with chile sauce and vegetables), and several vegetarian specialties. Most dishes are less than $2, with a few around $5.

Go on the right night, and you’ll catch a classical music concert or a “Midnight Museum” lecture by scholars from Thailand or abroad discussing antiques, the history of Thai art or other topics.

A hundred yards or so up Phra Athit Road is Comme, a white-walled, Bauhaus-like space that opens onto the street. By night, it serves popular Thai fare. But by day, it doubles as the teaching studio of owner Surachet Rawang, an art tutor who helps students assemble their portfolios for admission to university art programs.

The works on the walls--on my visit, lifelike charcoal sketches of primates--are by Rawang’s friends and colleagues, but some of his students’ work is so strong that I wouldn’t be surprised to see it exhibited here in the future.

Given the student clientele, nothing on the menu (fried rice, noodles, omelets and salads) costs more than $2. I had delicious chicken, lightly grilled in Thai fish sauce and sliced into thin strips, which proved to be an excellent snack with beer. With Thai rock ‘n’ roll playing in the background and MTV Asia broadcasting in the bar, I felt as though I was back in college, and it’s hard not to love the sidewalk-cafe vibe, with banana trees and areca palms. Visitors can view, along with the art, the comings and goings of backpackers and commuters at the Chao Phraya River ferry pier across the street.

With this kind of success, the art pros moved in, and what a nice job they’ve done with About Studio/About Cafe, in a former warehouse in Chinatown. Meo Yipintsoi, the owner, has a degree in visual arts administration from New York University and is from a well-known family of Thai art benefactors.

No food, drink or smoking is allowed in the upstairs gallery. But downstairs, Yipintsoi says, “I have tried to make it a big sitting room, where people can do whatever they want.”

Amid coffee tables and comfy chairs and couches, About Cafe serves Thai comfort food--salads, noodles, egg dishes and curries (all $2.50 or less).

I visited during the opening of a new show, with a hip, slightly grungy crowd that felt like the Thai equivalent of Venice or Silver Lake. Young patrons grazed on deep-fried peas and broad beans, and huge bunches of 3-inch bananas, snacks as artful as the works on the walls.

Underscoring About Cafe’s international image, Yipintsoi brings in guest curators from overseas for shows by non-Thai artists. One recent exhibit was run by Naomi Urabe, a former staff curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Then there’s Eat Me, across town near the notoriously wild and raunchy night-life districts of Patpong and eastern Silom Road.

One might wonder about the name. But Darren Hausler, the garrulous Aussie manager, explains with a wink, “Officially, the name comes from ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ ” (In the classic children’s tale, Alice comes upon a cake decorated with the same message.)

This upscale place has been drawing crowds since opening in 1998. Visitors view carefully selected pieces, such as the work of Canadian photographer Neil Gordon, who manipulates nature images for a kaleidoscope effect, and Kongpat Sakdapitak, a popular Thai artist known for whimsical paintings.

An eclectic Thai-Mediterranean menu is served in a modern black, white and teakwood room with clean right angles, cool marimba music and a nice balcony (for the rare occasions when it’s not too hot).

The menu rotates weekly (entrees $4.25 to $9), but one favorite is Spicy Chicken, two chicken breasts tied together with lemongrass to look like a huge drumstick. Another nice touch is a tray of condiments to go with your bread, including fresh garlic (ground or roasted) and sauteed onions and bell peppers.

I still dream about the sticky date-pudding dessert, which Hausler says is all the rage in Sydney. It’s pudding in the English sense, which is to say more of a cake, made with pureed dates and set in a warm caramel sauce, served with vanilla ice cream.

Eat Me’s staff is charming and professional; most are Thais who speak excellent English. Hausler says Thailand’s recent economic downturn has allowed upscale restaurants to recruit college graduates who normally wouldn’t work in restaurants. If the atmosphere is any indication, they seem to enjoy the job.

A five-minute taxi ride away, in a little-visited corner of the city, Le Cafe Siam recently opened in an abandoned colonial-style home dating to 1900. With this and other buildings, wealthy Thais tried to re-create a heavy architectural style they had seen in Europe. The only problem: Concrete walls and attractive flourishes, such as cupolas and porthole windows, made the interior unbearably hot in the days before air-conditioning. (Traditional Thai construction uses wood, and pointy roofs draw heat upward.)

Many buildings of this era were demolished, but Le Cafe Siam, now air-conditioned, has become a model for preservation and restoration. The French and French-Lebanese owners have filled the upstairs gallery with art and collectibles, including antique furniture and colorful Chinese tapestries. The gallery has been so successful that the owners opened a second location across the street.

On my visit, the cafe offered French as well as Thai food, although the menu may be changing. Even if you don’t dine there, the charming setting is great for drinks, coffee or dessert, or for hanging out all night long with the snappily dressed crowd.

The newest and grandest entry in the scene is Bangkok Bar Restaurant and Gallery. Back in the Banglamphu district, this large, graceful, 150-year-old building with Thai, Chinese and European architectural touches had been a printer’s workshop. Amazingly, its original teak floor has survived and been preserved.

Downstairs, at simple tables surrounded by oils, paper collages and sand paintings, the crowd dined on deep-fried cotton fish with spicy mango salad, roast spareribs in coconut, and prawns and sea bass with lemon chile and spicy garlic sauce (all about $4.65 or less).

Upstairs, several rooms serve as galleries for Thai artists. Shows change monthly, and some are innovative and fun.

When I visited, Wijit Apichatkriengkrai’s exhibit, “Free Stone,” featured photographs of people releasing stones back into nature, and paintings and collages of what it would be like to be such a stone. Apichatkriengkrai even set out rocks sealed in tin cans for gallery patrons to take, provided they photographed themselves releasing the stones and sent the pictures back for future exhibitions.

Artist Watcharaporn Srisuk’s show had just closed, so I missed her large, moody abstract paintings in deep blues and reds, like enormous details of Monets. Her bio lists Hemlock among her major exhibitions--perhaps another sign that the art-cafe concept has indeed arrived.

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GUIDEBOOK

Cafe Culture

Bangkok art cafes: English spellings of Thai names vary, so ask concierges to write names and addresses for taxi drivers in Thai. Le Cafe Siam and About Cafe may be hard to find. The following (in alphabetical order) have menus in English and some English-speaking staff. Most open around 5 or 6 p.m. and close at midnight or later.

About Studio/About Cafe, 402-408 Maitri Chit Road (by Hualamphong station), local tel. 623-1742. Closed Sundays.

Bangkok Bar Restaurant and Gallery, 591 Phra Sumen Road, tel. 281-6237. Open nightly.

Comme Gallery and Cafe, 100 Phra Athit Road, tel. 280-0647. Closed Mondays.

Eat Me, 1/6 Phipat Soi 2, off Convent Road, tel. 238-0931. Open nightly.

Hemlock Restaurant and Culture Club, 56 Phra Athit Road, tel. 282-7507. Closed Sundays.

Le Cafe Siam Restaurant & Gallery, 4 Soi Sri Akson (by Chua Phloeng and Sri Bam Pen), tel. 671-0030. Open nightly.

For more information: Tourism Authority of Thailand, 611 N. Larchmont Blvd., First Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90004; tel. (323) 461-9814, fax (323) 461-9834, Internet https://www.tat.or.th.