There is something wonderfully theatrical about a cocktail bar that knows how to play with mood.
At Garbo, the cocktail bar inside Meliá Hanoi, the room already leans into cinema. The atmosphere is old Hollywood. The drinks are inspired by screen legends and classic films. The whole place seems built around the idea that a good cocktail should arrive with lighting, timing, a little mystery and perhaps the faint suggestion that someone in the corner is about to say something unforgettable.
For World Cocktail Day, Garbo is giving that cinematic world a Northern Thai twist.
On May 14 and 15, from 4pm until midnight, award-winning mixologist Nipichthorn “Francisco” Junkaew of MAI The Sky Bar at Meliá Chiang Mai will take over the bar for a two-night guest shift titled “Garbo’s Signatures Reimagined in Chiang Mai Flavors.” The idea is simple but seductive: take Garbo’s film-inspired signatures and recast them through the herbs, spices, citrus and atmosphere of Chiang Mai.
Francisco is not arriving in Hanoi as a visiting bartender merely pouring drinks. He comes with serious credentials and a distinct sense of place.
He was crowned winner of the Thailand Hotel Bartender’s Championship 2025, named second runner-up in the World Class Thailand 2025 national competition, and won the Zacapa “Above the Clouds” Challenge. With more than eight years of experience in luxury hospitality and mixology, he also played a key role in the pre-opening of Meliá Chiang Mai before becoming the hotel’s beverage manager.
Today, he leads the beverage program at MAI The Sky Bar, Meliá Chiang Mai’s 360-degree rooftop venue above the Ping River, known for its glass bridge and sweeping views across the city. It is the kind of place where landscape becomes part of the drink: mountain air, river light, nightfall, citrus, spice and the soft glamour of being somewhere slightly above the world.
In Hanoi, Francisco will bring that sensibility to three bespoke cocktails created in collaboration with Garbo for World Cocktail Day, which falls on May 13.
The first, Black Glamour, takes its inspiration from Greta Garbo and the 1936 film Camille. It combines Johnnie Walker Black Label, cacao-infused Averna Amaro, coffee and tonka bean tincture, finished with Chiang Mai stout cacao and cava air foam. It sounds like a drink designed for low light, velvet shadows and secrets kept just long enough.
Call Me By Your Name pays tribute to Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, blending Chiang Mai tea-infused vodka with clarified pomelo juice. The reference may be classic Hollywood, but the flavour points firmly toward Southeast Asia: bright, aromatic, clean and quietly romantic.
Then there is Chiang Mai Confidential, a nod to Ginger Rogers in Top Hat. Made with neem leaf-infused gin, Lillet Blanc and soda water, it brings a herbaceous Northern Thai expression to the elegance of a classic screen-era serve.
Each cocktail will be paired with a limited-edition coaster inspired by the Hollywood figure and film behind the drink. A QR code on the coaster will allow guests to “unlock the scene behind the sip,” turning the experience into something more than a bar takeover. It becomes part tasting, part performance, part tiny act of travel.
“This guest shift gives me the chance to recast Garbo’s signature cocktails through the flavours and atmosphere of Chiang Mai, with Northern Thai ingredients stepping into the spotlight,” Francisco said. “The drinks still carry that old Hollywood glamour and mystery, but with Northern Thai ingredients playing the leading role.”
That line captures what makes the event interesting. This is not fusion for the sake of novelty. It is a conversation between two cities and two moods: Hanoi’s cinematic polish and Chiang Mai’s fragrant, layered, mountainous character. One bar brings the mythology of Hollywood. One bartender brings the memory of Northern Thailand. Together, they make the case that cocktails are increasingly becoming a form of storytelling.
The best drinks, after all, are rarely just about what is in the glass. They are about where they take you. A rooftop in Chiang Mai. A shadowy bar in Hanoi. A film you may or may not have seen. A flavour you recognize but cannot quite place. A sip that feels like a scene change.
For travellers, that is the real appeal of a guest shift like this. It compresses distance. It lets one city visit another. It reminds us that bars can be cultural rooms as much as social ones, places where ingredients carry geography and bartenders act as translators.
For two nights in Hanoi, Chiang Mai gets the starring role.
