Photos: Chayanit Itthipongmaetee
One hour before the grand opening of Boon Rawd Brewery’s Singha Beer House near Asoke intersection, its German chef faced yet another crisis. Twenty, actually.
That’s how many young Thai women in full costume Otto Duffner had to teach how to dance something resembling a Bavarian folk Schuhplattler. It was 1981, and Duffner didn’t just make things work for the Thai brewing dynasty’s bierhaus – lines to get in soon stretched over 2 kilometers – but as an unofficial emcee of Bangkok’s German-speaking community for the next three decades.
Fast forward 37 years to Thursday, and that community’s social center, the German restaurant Bei Otto (“Otto’s”), said goodbye to its little slice of Bavarian fantasy just off Sukhumvit Road.
Speaking from his hometown in Villingen-Schwenningen, Otto, now 73,…
