Backstage sits inside the Holiday Inn on Sukhumvit Soi 1 and looks, deliberately, like the wings of a small theatre: red velvet curtains, prop lighting, brass-trimmed banquettes, a long bar lit like a stage. The drinks programme is run by Pongpak Sudthipongse, one of Bangkok's most-decorated bartenders, and the room has won multiple Asia's 50 Best mentions.
Bookings are taken direct through the bar or through Hungry Hub for parties of four or more.
Backstage's signature is a six-course cocktail tasting menu built around a single theme that rotates every six months. Drinks arrive timed and paired with small bites. The full tasting is ฿2,200 and runs about ninety minutes; you can also order off the standard menu, which holds about a dozen signatures plus the classics, around ฿420-520 a drink. The bar is small enough that you watch every cocktail being built.
The room is the most theatrical in this list and the easiest to underestimate from the outside. It is a hotel bar, but the cocktail menu and the level of bartending puts it on equal footing with any independent room in the city. Live piano most weekend nights. Service is formal in the best sense: warm, attentive, and unhurried.