Teens of Thailand

Gin poured into a goblet

Gin sets the first decision for Niks Anuman, bartender and bar director at Teens of Thailand in Bangkok, where the serve begins with category before garnish. He founded the bar in 2015, after study at Chulalongkorn University, and made gin the center of the room rather than a supporting bottle on the back bar. His work in Bangkok has moved through two clear formats: this bar, built around gin in its varieties and rituals, and Asia Today Bar, which he co-founded in 2017 around sustainably grown ingredients and local wild honey.

At Teens of Thailand, that first format still matters. Niks imports gins and builds a large selection around them, giving the bar its own grammar of bottle, glass, measure, and service. Gin & Tonics arrive Spanish-style in goblets, a small choice with consequences: more room for ice, botanical lift, and aromatic contact at the rim. The method is not presented as revival or novelty. It is a bar director choosing one discipline and staying inside it long enough for the room to develop a recognizable hand.

A gin program with one clear spine

The program at Teens of Thailand is narrow by design and broad in use. Gin carries the structure, cocktails carry the variation, and local infusions give the bar a Bangkok register without pulling it away from the bottle work. Niks has spoken plainly about the conditions that pushed the bar into being: “Back in 2015, it was not easy to find a good Gin & Tonic or any decent gin drinks in Thailand.” That absence became the station.

Behind the counter, the important work is selection and framing. Imported gins give the bar range; the goblet serve gives the drink a repeated gesture; the infusions bring local sourcing into a category often treated as imported in both product and attitude. The bar made a category legible in a city that did not yet have many rooms built around it, then held the line as Niks opened a second, different bar nearby.

The shophouse keeps the room close

The bar sits in Chinatown, in the Yaowarat area of Bangkok, inside a preserved vintage Thai-Chinese shophouse. The room is low-lit, relaxed, and no-frills, with the intimacy of a place where the counter and back bar do much of the speaking. Conversation can hold there. The scale keeps the drink in front of the guest rather than letting the room take over.

That closeness suits the program. A gin list can become abstract if it lives only as names on a shelf, but Teens of Thailand keeps the work physical: bottle lifted, goblet set down, infusion folded into the drink, ice settling in the glass. Niks has described cocktail design and room design as joined work: “The thought process of creating a cocktail is basically come hand in hand of the style of bars that we wanted to create.” At Teens of Thailand, that style remains tied to the goblet, the back bar, and the Yaowarat shophouse.