Category: Zeitgeist

The name Paul’s BrewHouse sparks images of some funky Manhattan street corner – a la The Beastie Boys’ 1989 album Paul’s Boutique – where low-brow hipsters troll for second-hand baseball jerseys. The local incarnation, with a Tyrannosaurus Rex on the wall and a cellist at the entrance, is every bit as eclectic as its namesake on Ludlow Street. A Leaning Tower of Pisa; a bronzed violinist; a showcase full of sugar hits; cahed rocks. The caffeine is good, the baked goods even better. But the donuts. Soft, moist and rich. Sprinkled, glazed, chocolate. The donuts are boss. Paul’s BrewHouse, #52 Sothearos Blvd.

Wine bars and swanky cocktail lounges have long been the purvey of territories south of Samdech Pan. Chez Rina bends the curve. Set in a gorgeously remade French colonial just east of the post office, the new wine bar on Street 98 blends classic deco architecture and modern after-dark flair to give a dash of class to Wat Phnom’s lower east side. Oversized pics from yesteryear decorate the walls, 60s-era tiles cover the floor, coloured recessed lighting and low-wattage bulbs drown the room in dim, intimate light. Chez Rina, #6 Street 98 (closed Sundays).

 

If Mama Wong’s Dumpling Noodle House has a specialty, it’s translating the Chinese dining experience for Western palates. Interior spaces are painted in rich, lucky red and illuminated with Chinese globes. An open kitchen exposes the inner workings of food making. A small bar out back serves cocktails and gives the room a Shanghai opium-den ambience. The house specialties are hand-pulled noodles and dumplings. A list of back-home staples – spring rolls, kung pow chicken, sweet and sour pork – rounds out the menu. Nothing is more than $5. There are quiet tables upstairs for when the crowds come, but the best seats are down on the ground level, where life on Street 308 ambles by with all the urgency of afternoon tea. Mama Wong’s, #41 Street 308.

 

The sultans of small have crafted yet another New York Times-worthy food room. Meat & Drink, the newest restaurant venture of the Bar Sito brothers, occupies the corner of two nondescript alleyways off Street 308. The curbside seating feels a lot like drinking on a front porch stoop (probably because it is). The neighbours thread their motos down narrow walkways as local kids meander by, giggling and gawking at the barangs and their bourgeois habit of drinking outdoors. Inside, a disappearing mountain of limes decorates a polished copper bar and a string of mechanic’s lights illuminates darkly painted brickwork and warm, wooden interiors. The kitchen does a short list of meat – beef, chicken and fish – served as burgers, wraps or salads. Open 5-11pm. Closed Mondays.

Meat & Drink, #40 Street 308.

 

 

 

The candy bar at Conekla serves as an unblushing reminder that sometimes caffeine alone is inadequate and sugar makes for a deliciously double-fisted companion. Conekla – a self-styled candy bar, coffee shop and game room – peddles all three and more with colourful, quirky abandon. Stuffed animals and giant lollipops guard the candy corner, a miniature Golden Gate bridge occupies a V-shaped support column at the centre of the dining area and water flows over the sun room, giving the space the placid feeling of perpetual rain. The food menu offers sandwiches, pastas and the like and nothing costs more than $6. There’s a couple of semi-private movie rooms to rent upstairs with supersized TVs and video game consoles. Downstairs the eatery sells candy (Gummy Bears!), $1.99 for 100 grams, sweet baked goods and caffeine. Try the mango-passion crumble ($3) or the strawberry smoothie ($2.90); they’re both worth every single calorie.

Konekla, #168 Street 51.

The explosion of commercial caffeine peddlers in BKK at last shows signs of maturing. Tarrazu, a new specialty roaster on Street 370, trades exclusively in imported Arabica. The names sound like mysterious grape varietals or exotic strains of cannabis: Brazilian Yellow Bourbon, Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, Indonesian Mandheling. Ordering a cup is like scoring caffeine from the Smithsonian. There’s a climate-controlled cold room out back for bean storage and a custom-made bookshelf showcasing a dozen different strainers, each imparting its own character with a unique shape and groove. A tray of roasted bean samples illustrates the roasting range from light-medium to French to Italian. An industrial-strength German roasting machine sits in a glass showroom out front. Tarrazu sells ground roast by the 100 grams ($7+) and hot- and cold-brewed joe by the cup ($4).

Tarrazu Specialty Coffee Roaster, #340 Street 370.

 

Metro is the standard bearer of capital sophistication, and the eatery’s new two-storey outlet at the TK Avenue shopping plaza in Toul Kork firmly pushes the boroughs of urban style into the city suburbs. Open only a few weeks, the downstairs dining room buzzes during lunch and dinner. The atmosphere is similar to the original restaurant on Sisowath, the menu identical. Expect the favourites: grilled snapper on mash ($6.70), beef with red ants ($8.50), beef tenderloin béarnaise ($24). The interiors, too, echo the riverfront outlet. Plump leather cushions and heavy wooden chairs lend an old-money gravitas to the room, unfinished cement walls and stainless steel bar stools an unmistakable flourish of style. Toul Kork was long considered the capital’s dangerous outskirts. But no longer. As the capital grows, so does its tastes. And Metro Azura is about as refined as it gets.

Metro Azura, TK Avenue, Streets 315 and 516; 012 274060.

 

The dance-all-night crowd just got a new venue. And they have been waiting. Patiently. Long-term underground scenester Eddie Newman planned to open the place months ago near the night market, but the old folk there complained about loud music. So he moved to a strip on the riverfront across from the Naga casino where no one lives, dropped $50k on sound and lights, and now he intends to turn the music up. Really. Freakin’. Loud. The old place that never opened was called Code. This new place is Code Red. There’s reserved seating upstairs away from the crowds and big loungers with zebra-striped pillows tucked into the corners on the floor below. But the draw is the music – and given Newman’s street cred, the beats at Code Red are expected to make a consequential impact on the capital’s late-night club scene.

Code Red, opposite Naga World (next to Koh Pich Bridge); 017 800642.

 

Once a tiny chocolaterie, The Chocolate Shop on Street 240 recently underwent some substantial remodelling and it now does more than just to-die-for chocolates. It’s the de facto air-conditioned dining room of its sister property The Shop, which serves a short but focused list of positively healthy (and fabulously inexpensive) salads and midday plates. Which makes it criminal to skip the good stuff. Chocolate is sold by the gram and comes in a dozen varieties: in truffles, brownies, coffee and ice cream; with almonds, mixed nuts, dried fruits or Kampot pepper; in bite-sized marbles, shareable bars and half-kilo, coma-inducing statuettes. Choose your elixir. The Chocolate Shop, #35 Street 240.