Soi 33 works because it's honest. The beer bars are open-fronted, prices are posted, and there's no pretension about what the street is for. Cold beer, a stool, and somewhere to watch the match or the street — that's the offer and it's delivered every night without fail.
Bourbon Street is the anchor: a New Orleans-themed restaurant and bar that's been here since 1993 and shows no sign of changing. The food is genuinely good — Southern American cooking that translates surprisingly well to Bangkok — and the bar stays open late enough to catch whatever's happening elsewhere on the soi.