editorial

Words by Chris Schalkx January 11, 2024
One of the Thai capital’s top tourist draws has new flavors to explore.
<figure id="attachment_136271" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-136271" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-136271 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Jim-Thompson-A-Thai-Restaurant-1.jpg" alt="The art deco–styled interiors of Jim Thompson, A Thai Restaurant; chef Pepe Dasí Jiménez’s take on khao pad." width="1200" height="894" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Jim-Thompson-A-Thai-Restaurant-1.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Jim-Thompson-A-Thai-Restaurant-1-300x224.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Jim-Thompson-A-Thai-Restaurant-1-1024x763.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Jim-Thompson-A-Thai-Restaurant-1-768x572.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-136271" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: The art deco–styled interiors of Jim Thompson, A Thai Restaurant; chef Pepe Dasí Jiménez’s take on khao pad.</figcaption></figure>
Decades after his mysterious disappearance in 1967, the legacy of Jim Thompson lives on at the American-born Thai silk tycoon’s former residence in central Bangkok. Today known as the Jim Thompson Heritage Quarter, the canal-side enclave of century-old Thai houses has long been a popular tourist spot for its priceless collection of Southeast Asian art and a boutique selling boldly printed silk apparel, homeware, and accessories. Now, an ambitious new restaurant and bar offer reasons to linger after sunset. At the art deco–styled <a href="https://jimthompsonrestaurant.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jim Thompson, A Thai Restaurant</a>, which takes over the ground floor of the compound’s revamped F&amp;B wing, Valencia-born chef Pepe Dasí Jiménez draws on his experience at some of Bangkok’s most progressive Thai kitchens—Nahm and 80/20 among them—for intricately plated riffs on Thai classics. “I wanted to celebrate local ingredients and Thai flavors through a foreign lens,” he says. “Just like what Thompson has done with Thai silk.” Jiménez’s mieng kham appetizers fuse Iberico pork belly with a punchy shrimp relish from southern Thailand, while his take on Thailand’s humble khao pad (fried rice) resembles a crispy paella topped with lime aioli, pickled crab meat, and golden sea bass from Koh Lanta. Upstairs, the jazzy O.S.S. Bar zeroes in on Thompson’s clandestine career as an operative for the Office of Strategic Services (a forerunner of the CIA) during World War II. Each drink on the leather-bound and whisky-heavy cocktail menu illustrates a chapter of his life: from the Ceylon (whisky, Ceylon tea, and longan) that nods to Thompson’s stint in Sri Lanka in 1945, to the fizzy Golden Banana (rum, plum cider, and pandan) inspired by a gunfight in a Thai nightclub of the same name. History lessons have never been more delicious.
<figure id="attachment_136272" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-136272" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-136272 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Jim-Thompson-A-Thai-Restaurant-and-O.S.S.-Bar.jpg" alt="Cocktails at the O.S.S. Bar include the Golden Banana and (in the teacup) the Ceylon; mid-century memorabilia at the O.S.S." width="1200" height="894" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Jim-Thompson-A-Thai-Restaurant-and-O.S.S.-Bar.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Jim-Thompson-A-Thai-Restaurant-and-O.S.S.-Bar-300x224.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Jim-Thompson-A-Thai-Restaurant-and-O.S.S.-Bar-1024x763.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Jim-Thompson-A-Thai-Restaurant-and-O.S.S.-Bar-768x572.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-136272" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Cocktails at the O.S.S. Bar include the Golden Banana and (in the teacup) the Ceylon; mid-century memorabilia at the O.S.S.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_136273" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-136273" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-136273 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Jim-Thompson-A-Thai-Restaurant-3.jpg" alt="The compound’s traditional Thai architecture; chef Pepe Dasí Jiménez at work in the Jim Thompson restaurant’s open kitchen." width="1200" height="894" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Jim-Thompson-A-Thai-Restaurant-3.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Jim-Thompson-A-Thai-Restaurant-3-300x224.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Jim-Thompson-A-Thai-Restaurant-3-1024x763.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Jim-Thompson-A-Thai-Restaurant-3-768x572.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-136273" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: The compound’s traditional Thai architecture; Jiménez at work in the Jim Thompson restaurant’s open kitchen.</figcaption></figure>
This article originally appeared in the <a href="http://www.destinasian.com/magazine" target="_blank" rel="noopener">December 2023/February 2024</a> print issue of DestinAsian Magazine (“Silks and Spirits”).

Chef Pepe Dasí Jiménez at work in the Jim Thompson restaurant’s open kitchen.

Jim Thompson Serves Creative Local Cuisine and Cool Cocktails