Sorry CBD dwellers, zone 1 citizens and heart of the city hipsters: downtown is over. Developers have ripped the soul out of your neighbourhood and hoodwinked you into paying astonishing rent for the privilege. Who wants to pay more for a macaroon in Ploen Chit than in Paris, or buy a New York Deli-style brunch for the price of a flight to Phuket?
Downtown is over. The new downtown malls are half-empty; uptown they're teeming. Downtown prices have rocketed, uptown they've stabilised. Uptown means riding the skytrain to its northern terminus, or if you already live there, staying right where you are.
It was not ever thus. Central Plaza Ladprao Bangkok used to be a warren of Argos-catalogue tat and baggy clothing in flammable materials: dad jeans and cheap underpants. Now it's all imported brands, skincare consultants and pristine boxer shorts. The shops have been made over, and even the shoppers seem more attractive. You can drop half a million baht on a Breitling while the other half has her face and neck sorted at the 3rd floor beauty merchants. Central has gone 'uptown' as in 'Uptown Girl'; not only north of the city but aspirational and moneyed. These suburban dwellers deserve somewhere nice to grab a bite, especially at Christmas.
Centara Grand at Central Plaza Ladprao has been towering over its neighbours for over thirty years, and was the Centara flagship for much of that time. It's tall for a Thai hotel but would be dwarfed by those skinny foreign supermodel hotels hugging the riverbanks. She comes in at a stumpy 24 stories, but given that the average height of dwellings around here is a shophouse downstairs and grandmother upstairs, she's a beanstalk.
The hotel is adjacent to the mall, so once you've signed off on the Breitling and the facial treatments you can wander through into the lobby to press the best button in any hotel lift: the rooftop. Upon exiting the lift, take the corridor peppered with a constellation of tiny lights to the Blue Sky Rooftop Bar and Restaurant.
The view from Blue Sky is a knock-off of Manhattan viewed from Brooklyn. Bangkok's skyscrapers huddle in the middle distance, beyond the green expanse of Chatuchak Park. Red and white trails of light describe the curves of the expressway system and if you swivel northeast and look past the trunk of the Elephant Building there's a flat expanse of very little extending to the far horizon.
Blue Sky is where French Executive Chef Eric Berrigaud oversees what he describes as simple service with elegant food. Their Christmas menu, served on the Eve and Christmas Day itself, is a 5-course set dinner priced at a very reasonable 1,950B++ per person. Compare that to the downtown tariffs for similar sustenance and it begins to make a lot of sense to point your sleigh toward this neighbourhood.
The meal kicks off with three canapés to start, before diving into the foie gras. International preferences for the pâté served room temperature are catered for, as is the more Asian bent for heating the stuff up: namely duck foie gras terrine, mango sweet chilli, fleur de sel & spice brioche for the expats or pan-fried foie gras lasagna with mushroom and black truffle emulsion for the locals. Either option has that excess of Christmas richness that foie gras promises, so it pays to experiment and order regardless of your origins.
Your next decision is between roasted brilliant carabineros shrimps vol au vent, champignons and light crustacean sauce emulsion or seared Japanese scallops and pumpkin velouté with peanuts. While the shrimps description of themselves at first seems arrogant, they are indeed a brilliant red colour and one of the sea's most well-respected crustaceans. However, the velouté is one of France's celebrated 'mother sauces' and translates, both linguistically and gustatorily, as velvet.
A champagne sorbet wipes your palate clean like stagehands switching scenes at the theatre, preparing the stage for turkey ballotine stuffed with blue lobster, potato puree, mushroom fillo, morel and lobster emulsion or roast organic and milk-fed veal, porcini mushroom flan, maxim potato, and veal jus. By this point the decisions may have become overwhelming, so make your other half order the thing you desire slightly less then lean across the table and help yourself. Asian etiquette allows - nay, encourages - such communal thievery.
Winding down, there's the final decision (and at this stage it's okay to just toss a coin) between mini hazelnut and crispy chocolate bûche with hazelnut ice cream or Caribbeanchocolate, pistachio mousse, and nougatine. Just tell the waiter to bring whatever he can and perhaps a glass of dessert wine to sluice your innards.
The final act is coffee and tea with a selection of macaroons. A selection! Contrast this with the Fagin-like amounts dispensed at incredible cost at numerous downtown patisseries and the choice is clear. Downtown is over. Celebrate Christmas uptown at the Blue Sky Rooftop Bar and Restaurant.
To secure a booking for the festive season celebrations, call 02 541 1234 ext. 4151.
BLUE SKY Centara Grand at Central Plaza Ladprao 1695 Phaholyothin Road, Bangkok.
