Recommended Videos
Bookshelf or secret passage? This is the second entrance to The Parlour from the inside of Grape and Grain Exchange.
Delicately textured leaves floated to the bottom of the glass as its bright green color reflected on the surrounding translucent walls. Lime was squeezed over the unraked pile and soaked into every crevice before muddled into tattered pieces.
Submerged under countless pours and shaken with ice to the beat of the surround sound, the once thin sheets of nature became animated specks that danced as one with the new concoction.
But even after such transformation, the mint’s sharp aroma escaped the rim with liveliness as if it were just plucked from a recently flowered stem — which it was.
The following philosophy of the San Marco bar, Grape and Grain Exchange, applies to everything it serves: straight from “garden to glass.” Using newly grown ingredients to create drinks that arouse taste buds, you would think this should be a secret the owners, Bob Smith and Jackson Somphonphakdy, would take to their grave. But it’s not, and neither is the bookshelf inside that hides an additional entrance to their second lounge,The Parlour.
The bars may be separately run with different atmospheres, and drink menus, but they’re owned by the same guys and recognized for the same concept: crafting drinks with technique and fresh, local products.
They aren’t using an orange garnish or umbrella straw to enhance a popular drink. The Grape and Grain Exchange and The Parlour are using unique components to turn an original into something your palates will crave.