Mikkeller Bangkok
“Once a beer-lover, always a
beer-lover.”
By Tracy Chenxi Wang
May, 2014
Right after I landed in the
fascinating country of smiles and endless cilantro seasoned dishes, I headed
directly to the legendary craft beer bar of this 18 million people megacity,
the Mikkeller Bangkok. As the first and only Asian outlet of acclaimed Danish
beer brewer Mikkel Borg Bjergsø’s Mikkeller, it opened on January
29th in 2014.
After getting away from the bustling
main street, onto a tranquil soil, a yard of a small side street, I found it in
a green residential area, the teal-colored sign of the Mikkeller Bangkok. Stepping
on the lawn of a stylish functionalist house built in the 1960’s washed away
all the irritation of the hot weather. There is a huge garden with a few tables
on the patio outside. The interior is in a bright Scandinavian style with
bright wooden floors and furniture, accomplished with a lot of white. The food
menu only has a few items for now, but the management will add more, once the
bar becomes busier.
Here I met with Jakob Mørkenborg
Rasmussen from Denmark and his Canadian co-partner Mike MacDonald. They both
share enthusiasm for beer and love being innovated. Jakob had been importing
foreign beers and holding numerous tasting events that Mike, a self-described
beer connoisseur, attended regularly. That’s how they met and became business
partners. Jakob’s short full beard makes him look to me like a typical Dane.
Mike smiles a lot and his outgoing funny ways make him the people’s person of
the two. After travelling in South Asia for some years, Jakob felt a growing
love for Thailand and moved there in 2004. His fascination for beers got
matched by finding work at Carlsberg Thailand, giving him a deep insight of
this industry and also the local drinking demographic.
“We really wanted to build something that we would go to every night.”
Most beer-lover would ask why with a
lot of curiosity, why would a Danish legendary gypsy brewery locate in Bangkok?
“There are a lot of beer bars in
Bangkok and Thais have a really strong beer drinking culture, but what most
bars compete with is the amount of beer signage or who has the most number of
taps, even though they are serving 50 pale light lager tasting very much like
the other”, said by Jakob,
Since the market was dominated by domestic staple Singha, Chang and Leo, Jakob and Mike
decided to open a bar to showcase beer of many styles on tap and bottled. “We want
to serve beer with respect. My partner and I are both in this business not so
much from a financial perspective but more so from a beer culture perspective.
We wanted to bring in a different kind of quality than people are used to in
this part of the world. The beers may be much pricier than the conventional
brands, but we believe they offer a whole different experience in taste,” Mike MacDonald
said. “We really wanted to build something that we would go to every night.”
Speaking of the customers they want to
attract, they hope to get people who are genuinely interested or curious about
great tasting beer. “With most people not being able distinguish between two
beers like a Mexican chili beer and Mikkeller American Dream, we want to
educate the Thai beer drinking crowd what good craft beer really is. A part of
that is having beer tastings with an educational scope as well offering beer
tastings in our Imperial Tasting Room.” The staffs are also hardcore beer-lovers
with passion. They are ready to educate the customers about craft beer culture,
the stories behind the beers, and how to serve and enjoy craft beers. They want
to provide a complexion of beer, service and atmosphere which will attract
people. “Once a beer-lover, always a beer-lover”, Mike preached.
There is a reason why the bar is a bit
away from the busy streets of Bangkok in a much quieter place, they explained,
“A requirement from Mikkel was making this bar a destination and I think we
have managed just that. It’s not a place you just drop by; you’ve probably made
up your mind coming here, well before actually coming here. With the garden
we’re able to offer plenty of outdoor seating, people love that.”
I happened travelling in Thailand
during the period of political tensions; there was national curfew between
midnight to 5am every day, which damaged tourists industry and local food and
beverage industry a lot. Mike told me that this (policy) is one of their
biggest obstacles for now. Thailand has a lot of festivals and “No Alcohol”
days, which adds up to four to seven days a month the bar has to stay close. A sudden feeling of deep dark sadness,
dampening my mood, soggy, miserable everything but what Thailand is, fell over
me! Mike and Jakob rushed to the bar and poured me 2 pints of their finest
each. It took me almost 5 minutes to down them and the world become bright
again.
Talking about the theory that they run
the bar, “quality is number one; we’re not competing with price. We’ll have no
happy hours or discounted days.” They wouldn’t compete with the biggest
selection of imported beers, or cheapest beers. “For example, the reason of
people going to the wine bar is not because it has the biggest selection, but a
unique selection. Another kind of customers go to the nearest bars, they don’t
care what kind of beers they are drinking.” With the mission of providing the
finest craft beers to the customers, Jakob started his own beer distributing
company, Hopsession. Now he imports Danish beers from Nørrebro Bryghus and
Bøgedal but also Mikkeller. They only want to build a different place where the
customers can keep drinking with their friends. “Every time I came to Bangkok,
I’d spend every night here, and I love the atmosphere here”, said an American
Sam Craig who was on his business trip here. Since Mikkeller Bangkok was opened
less than half a year, it already made it way on the list of Top 10 Best Beer
Bar in Asia by CNN.
The bar quenches the thirst of craft
beer lovers with a selection of 30 beers on tap, 20 of them are brewed by
Mikkeller, and 10 of them are changing guest beers from other craft beer
makers. A large selection of bottled beer completes the collection. There’s no
cheap beer here, all beers on tap are in the range of 200-350 Baht (￥40-70)per glass, and bottled ones are
250-1500 Baht (￥50-300), on the street you find a local commercial beer for just 50 Baht (￥10).
There are four other venues among the
world in total, other than Mikkeller Bangkok, there are two located in
Copenhagen, the third is in San Francisco and the fourth is in Stockholm
(opened in March of 2014).
Mikkeller Bangkok
Address: 26 Ekamai Soi 10 Yaek 2, Ekamai
Road, Bangkok 10110, Thailand
Tel: +66 2 381 9891
Here is the list of Top 10 Best Beer
Bars by CNN:
Mikkeller Bangkok (Bangkok, Thailand)
BrewDog Roppongi (Tokyo, Japan)
Goodbeer Faucets (Tokyo, Japan)
Smith Street Taps (Singapore)
BREW – Beers & Ciders (Bangkok, Thailand)
Brewerkz – Riverside Point (Singapore)
TAPS Beer Bar (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
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