How did Bangkok become Asia’s hottest cocktail capital in just six years? Bangkok Bar Show founders Colin Chia and Niks Anuman tell us about uniting the city’s best cocktail talents while growing a community.
Text by: Dawson Tan
For years, Bangkok watched Singapore and Tokyo collect accolades on the World’s 50 Best Bars list while they remained conspicuously absent. In 2019, while respected regionally, not a single Bangkok establishment made that hallowed roster. But by 2025, two bars — Bar Us and BKK Social Club — sit comfortably among the world’s elite, with Dry Wave Cocktail Studio and Opium filling out the extended list. It’s the sort of transformation that doesn’t happen by accident, and it certainly didn’t.
Behind Bangkok’s meteoric rise sits an unlikely partnership between Thai cocktail veteran Niks Anuman and Singaporean concept king Colin Chia, whose Bangkok Bar Show has exemplified how a city builds and broadcasts its drinking culture.
The numbers are frankly remarkable. Six years ago, Bangkok had five bars scattered across Asia’s 50 Best list — Vesper, Bamboo Bar, Smalls, Rabbit Hole, and the now-defunct Backstage Cocktail Bar — respectable enough, but hardly threatening the regional hierarchy. “In 2019, 95% of Bangkok’s nightlife was driven by bottle service; think clubs, whisky sodas, the usual,” Colin recalls. “Yes, there were already brilliant cocktail bars at the time, such as Teens of Thailand, Vesper, and Find The Locker Room. But someone needed to stand up and talk about cocktails properly.”
Their solution wasn’t revolutionary: create a platform where consumers could learn, bartenders could connect, and brands could invest meaningfully. A platform that is without ego in an industry prone to self-importance. This ultimately became its defining characteristic when set against the now-dormant Singapore Cocktail Festival or Tokyo’s established bar shows.
Six years later, Bangkok now has seven establishments occupying Asia’s 50 best in 2025 — both Bar Us and Dry Wave Cocktail Studio broke into the top 5 — making it the highest-represented city on the continent. And the pull is undeniable. When Colin began inviting bartenders from Barcelona, Lima, Seoul, and Rome for this year’s edition, their enthusiasm surprised even him. “There was no hesitation,” he shares. “Many travel to Hong Kong for World’s 50 Best 2025 and they’re spoilt for choice. But when invited to Bangkok, we got resounding responses.”
These includes shifts graced by Employees Only New York’s Frank Kurt Maldonado; Jean Trinh of Alquimico in Cartagena; Giacomo Gionnotti and Margarita Sader of Paradiso Barcelona; Nick Wu of Bar Mood in Taipei; Hong Kong’s Agung and Laura Prabowo of Penicillin; Lorenzo Querci and Giovanni Allario of Moebius, Milan; and Andrew Ho of Hope & Sesame, Guangzhou. More tellingly, bartenders who weren’t formally invited bought their own tickets and hotels just to attend. “That’s when you know you’ve succeeded, when industry folk want to be part of what you’re building,” Colin delights.
But what exactly is Bangkok building that Singapore, with its relentless efficiency, or Tokyo, with its meticulous craft, cannot replicate? The answer proves difficult to quantify. One can go on comparing operation hours and costs, but the real difference appears cultural, something Niks articulates unapologetically.
“If I tried to recreate G.O.D. (short for Genius on Drugs, a hedonistic yet progressive cocktail lounge in Soi Nana) in another city, I probably wouldn’t be alive,” he says, only half-joking. His bars carry names that would provoke compliance nightmares elsewhere. Teens of Thailand originated from actual teenagers sniffing glue in Soi Nana-Chinatown when he first arrived. Tax Bar’s logo deliberately mimics Thailand’s Revenue Department, a cheeky rebuke to punishing alcohol taxes. Performative rebellion it is not, but a reflection of Bangkok’s genuine cultural openness to wild, creative ideas that other cities might not embrace, it is.
“Bangkok is home,” Niks says simply when asked why he stayed rather than decamping for easier recognition abroad. “Twenty years ago, there was no real scene. I just hoped one day we’d have a cocktail culture we could be proud of. Now we do.”
The partnership works because neither man could achieve this alone. Niks brings local legitimacy, logistical brilliance, and an energy Colin describes as unmatched. “Niks is one who ensures every brand booth meets Bangkok Bar Show’s standards rather than just showing up with bottles on a table,” Colin affirms. “We need a proper Thai leading this,” he echoes, while noting their complementary relationship. Colin himself contributes international media relationships, seminar programming, and crucially, an outsider’s perspective that prevents insularity.
Their five-year plan has exceeded even optimistic projections, aided by fortuitous timing; with World’s 50 Best Bars 2025 held in Hong Kong this year, Bangkok Bar Show capitalised on the traffic. This is all thanks to meticulous planning and genuine community investment. Colin resists triumphalism about the scale. “Big isn’t the word, but successful is. We could’ve made the show twice this size by taking money from brands for bigger booths. But we didn’t,” he reveals. “It’s about quality of engagement, not physical size.”
The most revealing achievement is that, rankings aside, Bangkok now supports over 80 cocktail bars sustainably. “What you want to avoid is more bars than consumers,” Colin expounds. “If we hadn’t grown the consumer base, those 2019 numbers would still be 2025 numbers, but with four times as many bars. Then, that becomes unsustainable.”
When asked what they’d want preserved if Bangkok Bar Show disappeared tomorrow, both converge on the same theme: unity over competition. “The dialogue we’ve started between cocktail bars, wine bars, brands, consumers; all needs to continue,” Colin preaches. “Inclusivity. Stop competing against one another.” Niks chimes in philosophically: “Nothing lasts forever. The show isn’t the point, the people are. If the industry feels inspired, our mission is accomplished.”
This year’s Bangkok Bar Show (held from 10-12 October 2025 at Anantara Siam Bangkok Hotel) was certainly the largest and most successful yet, and Bangkok’s ascendance is thoroughly displayed. The cocktail world needed a city that values soul over polish, community over hierarchy, creative chaos over surgical perfection. And Bangkok answered that call. One that was waiting for two bar owners to ask a very simple question over coffee: should we do this? The answer, it turns out, was obvious.