Blue Bottle opens in Bangkok under a sculpted paper lantern

Blue Bottle Coffee has opened its first two cafés in Thailand, both in Bangkok, and the second one just earned a design write-up for the sculpture hanging over its coffee bar.

The California-born chain's debut location opened on 21 August 2026 inside Dusit Central Park, a 130-square-metre shop on the first floor near Lumpini Park that serves office workers, residents and tourists. A flagship followed days later at EmQuartier in Sukhumvit.

The EmQuartier café covers 178 square metres on the G floor, with direct access from BTS Phrom Phong station. It seats more than 80 people, runs a dedicated Pour Over Bar, and stocks Thailand-only items including a NOLA Float. It opens daily from 8am to 10pm.

A paper lantern over the drip station, built from teak that most Western studios would reject on principle.

Blue Bottle's lantern over the bar

Tokyo studio I IN designed the EmQuartier interior around Thailand's lantern festivals, where people release paper lanterns into the sky. Its centrepiece is the "Blue Lantern," a sculptural installation hanging from the ceiling above the drip station, positioned by the entrance so it is the first thing customers see.

Co-founder Yohei Terui told Dezeen the aim was to evoke a lantern drifting upward. The rest of the café leans pale blue, the brand's signature colour, picked up again on the coffee counter. Furniture and fixtures are built from teak, a wood local to Thailand but one Western studios often avoid over illegal-logging concerns elsewhere.

A market growing 10-15% a year

Thailand is Blue Bottle's seventh market. The Specialty Coffee Association of Thailand put the country's specialty segment at roughly 30 billion baht in 2025, expanding 10 to 15 percent annually. Local operator Valiram Group is running the brand's entry and has said further Thailand openings are planned, though it has not named sites.

Blue Bottle was founded in Oakland, California, in 2002 and built its name on pour-over brewing and minimalist cafés before expanding into Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, mainland China and now Thailand. Its other Asian flagships have leaned on local design studios too, including a Shanghai café built around a sculptural paper lamp.

Bangkok's café scene has absorbed international entrants before without losing its own identity — the city's street-side shops remain the daily habit for most residents, even as import brands compete for the Sukhumvit crowd. For more on what locals actually eat and drink around the city, see our Bangkok dishes guide.