The buzz: Fixie bike-lovers bar Pedalicious might have closed last month, but Ekkamai Soi 12 is now welcoming a new homey bar, Escape, which blends Happy Monday’s artistic vibe with Stu-Fe’s musical cred.

The décor: Escape is not in an old-renovated house like every other home-turned-bar in Ekkamai. Instead, it is a brand new two-story house with an industrial design: bare cement both outside and inside, naked bulbs and wooden seats. As a concession to current trends, the main room does get leather sofas and other colorful decorative items for a more retro vibe, but the outdoor terrace and garden remain pretty minimal.

The music: One of the partners performs at Stu-Fe, so you can expect a real focus on proper bands. The music will range from acoustic covers and jazz to upbeat indie-rock starting from 9-10:30pm every day. On Wed and Fri-Sat, stick around for the second band from 11pm-12:30am. On our last visit, auditions were still in progress but the first round gave us high hopes that we would be spared covers of Jason Mraz and Jessi J and could expect bands more infatuated with The Killers and Strokes.

The price: Thai-fusion appetizers and main dishes range from the universal favorite gab glaem (drinking food) to more inventive dishes like Deep Blue Zeed (tuna, salmon, shrimp and Squid with spicy seafood sauce, B280) or spaghetti nam prik oong (B200). Apart from the usual booze (from B120 for a beer), they do cute cocktails like their signature Ice.Ca.Pe (8 kinds of alcohol, B690) and Too Pla (vodka, red syrup, mint leaves and lime, B200), which they also do as a frappe, the Too Pla Wan (B220).

The crowd: The Thonglor-Ekkamai crowd, of course, which range from flushed marketing and media industry yuppies to broke graphic designers and musicians.

Why you’ll come back: It’s always good news when a bar takes its music seriously. And there’s always a pool table if you don’t. Whether it’s after-work drinks of even warm-up session on the weekend, we can’t think of a situation where this simple but stylish home-bar shouldn’t be on your mind. Vasachol Quadri.