Deepak Ohri, CEO of Lebua Hotels & Resorts, is outspoken, demonstrative and passionate. He picks up a glass, drops it on the floor and attempts to break it. But it doesn’t break. All for the sake of demonstrating the quality of the glassware used in Lebua No. 3 – his brand-new gin, vodka and caviar bar, which also just happens to be the tallest in the world – located on the 52nd floor of Lebua hotel in Bangkok owned by Narawadee Bualert. In this 65-story tower rising to 810 feet, he has built a veritable vertical dining empire named the Dome at Lebua. The rooftop space with panoramic city views on the top floors of the skyscraper – that owes its fame to the Hangover II film released in 2011 – has become the Thai capital’s leading one-stop luxury epicurean destination with its family of F&B establishments: Mezzaluna, Sirocco, Breeze, Sky Bar, Flute, Alfresco 64 and Distil.
Conceived by Bangkok-based, award-winning architecture and interior design firm DWP that works across Asia, Australia and the Middle East, the 4,844-sqft Lebua No. 3 is all about transparency and high-tech design with three circular glass bar counters glowing a mysterious shade of blue, dedicated to serving either gin, vodka or caviar, and the world’s first P4 digital retina-display dance floor featuring graphics ranging from blooming flowers to ocean waves on the beach imagined by Anirbandeep Dutta. Guests first proceed down an elegantly-lit spiral staircase in granite before entering the bar with indoor and outdoor spaces offering breathtaking views of Bangkok’s skyline. Bespoke furniture in a copper, gold and black color palette is paired with a 131-foot-long tropical green wall.
Lebua No. 3 sees the lavish Lebua going casual, offering a more approachable kind of luxury, all for the sake of attracting a younger, trendier crowd. The bartenders wear jeans and sport tattoos (including bar managers Mark Darress of Room Seven in Chicago and Liquor Lab in New York and Sabine Delettre Nakamura of Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in Melbourne and Palace Hotel Tokyo’s Royal Bar), two of the glasses used are in MOMA New York’s permanent collection, guests eat a spoon of caviar with a shot of vodka served in a $550 handmade Japanese shooter glass and chart-topping international music producer, Andrew Murray, who has worked with the likes of John Legend and Jennifer Hudson, was called in to create a special album for Lebua to be played nightly. The innovative gin and vodka cocktails focus on unique ingredients, such as Glamor composed of Plymouth gin, Perrier-Jouët champagne, raspberry shrub, yuzu juice and caviar air, or the Krung Thep Mule with Absolut Elyx vodka, calamansi, bitter lemonade and sweet ginger foam.
Check back next week for Part 2 detailing Lebua’s collaboration with Absolut Elyx and further plans in the pipeline.
