Playground! the latest “inspiration” multi-store in trendy Soi Thong Lo opened with a bang on April 1st with no expense being spared. Housing a cd shop and Starbucks with ipod stations to listen to tunes while sipping your coffee, a shop selling a wide range of international and local magazines, an entire floor of fly fashion, an art space, home-wares that look totally overpriced, a bookstore specializing in art and design, a cooking school, and two restaurants (Kuppa@Playground and Vanilla Industry), Playground! adds yet another hip, hybrid, hi-so concept store to Bangkok’s inundated shopping scene. Thonglor seems to be the hub of these new glorified and funkified “boutique” department stores, however these concept stores can provide welcome relief from the searing sun and other boring malls. Actually the vintage Vanilla restaurant is surprisingly affordable (with mains ranging from 120 to 550 baht and all day breakfast from 70 to 210 baht) so hanging out in this super-stylin’ haunt won’t necessarily elicit the smell of burning plastic.

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