Silom’s cocktail institution Vesper is known for two things — a sleek European-style bar setting, clad in stylish pine green and their cocktail menu, dubbed Art Book, which creatively transforms Modern Art pieces into concoctions. Bar manager and mixologist Supawit “Palm” Muttarattana has recently stepped up the artsy game by introducing twelve new items that explore various aesthetic realms.
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According to Palm, his new artsy creations are meant to be more playful, expanding temporal boundaries of the previous menu which focused solely on Modern Art pieces. From 18th-century Japanese masterpieces to postmodern installations, Palm manages to encapsulate the essence of the original items and re-interpret them into cocktails — his version of the artform.
For example, Jadeite Cabbage, carved from a single piece of jadeite into the shape of a Chinese cabbage is metamorphosed into a smooth, crystal-clear drink with a tad of earthiness to encapsulate the vegetable in the mix of Four Pillars Dry gin, blended vermouth, genmaicha, niamleaf, and Bianco bitters.
Likewise, Palm plays with the death motif intrinsic in the Britart by Damien Hirst's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (a 14-foot formaldehyde tiger shark in a vitrine) into a strong, yet inviting drink (The Botanist Gin, oolong-fermented Jose Cuervo Reposado tequila, white vermouth, rimmed with orange and lime salt).
Other drinks worth mentioning include Ai Weiwei’s anti-capitalist Coca Cola Vase which includes ingredients like luohanguo herb-infused dark rum and clarified coke; and Gears which merges masculinity and femininity into a well-rounded drink boasting smoky and refreshing finishes (Michter’s Bourbon, Ardbeg 10 Years Old, cranberry, and cherry-pineapple tonic).
