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BRING IN THE LAOS, BRING IN THE FUNK Bangkok’s most stylish Lao restaurant leaving tongues wagging. TEXT BY VANIDA PHIMPHRACHANH & JASON ROLAN PHOTOGRAPHS BY FUNKY LAM / CAMILLA DAVIDSSON
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above: For the wine list, Veronica Saurus created an illustration based on a Lao record from the 1960s. Inside there is even a real vinyl record. right: Traditional Lao food served with a modern twist
unky Lam Kitchen is an inspiring modern-retro Lao pop-up restaurant in Bangkok’s Thonglor district launched by Sanya Souvanna Phouma and Saya Na Champasak and is leading the way in the city’s culinary scene. Growing up in Laos, they inherited the rich cooking tradition of the country, which they have gone on to develop, enhance, and reinvent – with a dash of funk and fun, like electrified twangs of popular molam music. Patrons, often familiar with food from Thailand’s northeastern Isan region, do not always realize that staples such as fiery papaya salad, herb-infused mincemeat laap, and sticky rice actually entered the area from Laos. The space is decorated by Philippe Bramaz of Pagoda & Co, a furniture design outfit, and Veronica Guarino, an illustrator known as Veronosaurus. Veronica handpainted bamboo curtains imported from Laos with illustrations of vintage shop signs of a hairdresser, a dentist, and a record shop inspired from signs that once hung in the streets of Vientiane and Luang Prabang in the 1950s and 1960s. Veronica explains that “before printing technology was widespread and accessible, people used to hire artists to paint signs over their shops with literal depictions of what they sold or what service they offered.” She also painted the 8-meter crocodile seen across the window shades, which was inspired by Lao folklore beliefs that they are guardian spirits of the lakes and waterways.
