A fusion of tastes

BONCAFE, a Thai and Swiss joint venture, has being supplying blended coffee, beverages and related equipment to Thailand’s hotels, cafes and eateries for more than 20 years. 

Late last year, it took another step into the world of culinary arts with the opening of Boncafevino restaurant on Suthisarn Road.

Opening in November to cater primarily to office workers in the area, the bistro and cafe offers a wide and inexpensive selection of Thai and Western fusion food, cups of its aromatic blended coffee, home-made desserts along with cocktails and wines.

“The idea was inspired by the cafe we operate on Naklua Road in Pattaya where we started offering breakfast and simple lunches and were amazed by the response of both locals and tourists,” says managing director Maleerat Thanaprachoom. 

“Boncafevino is a new choice for local office workers and we’re also aiming to be a kind of learning centre, a place where customers can come and share knowledge with us about how to operate a coffee shop.” 

The 75-seat restaurant has a modern design with floor to ceiling windows and furnishings in black and orange that give it a lively ambience.

Veteran chef Alessandro Hub is in charge of the kitchen and combines Oriental tastes with European recipes using quality imported ingredients like salmon, dried fruits, balsamic oil, dory, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese from Italy and beef from Australia.

Eight breakfast sets are on offer in American, Continental, Asian, Fitness, German and Healthy styles and each comes with coffee, brown bread, imported jam, butter and orange juice. Prices range from Bt135 to Bt195.

For lunch, Hub proposes six sets (Bt119 to Bt129) that change from day to day and cover everything from Thai favourites through pasta, fish and vegetarian specialities to meat.

“Our dishes come in big portions but are reasonably priced. Because we’re focusing on the professional crowd, we prefer to offer a variety of menus at different prices and in different styles,” Maleerat says. 

We start our meal with the Chef’s Salad, a generous bowl of Swiss cheese, bacon, ham, eggs, smoked salmon, tomato and olives (Bt185) and a home-made spinach ricotta ravioli in tomato sauce (Bt280).

We follow up with spicy spaghetti with extra virgin olive oil, fried dory, garlic, parsley and hot chilli (Bt270), a hefty pork chop with mushroom sauce (Bt280) and pasta doused in aromatic Chiang Mai-style yellow curry (Bt189).

The coffee is good too with an extra large cappuccino that’s equal to four normal sized coffees going for Bt175. The strong iced green tea matcha (Bt95) is another highlight. 

“We’re using two coffee blends: Crema for hot cappuccino and latte and Extra Dark Italian for espresso and iced coffee,” Maleerat says. “Boncafe has 10 blended beans from which to choose, and we typically use Arabica from Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, Robusta from Krabi and Nakhon Sri Thammarat and beans imported from Laos.” 

 

 

SMELL THE COFFEE

>>Boncafevino is on the first floor of Muang Thai-Phatra Tower 1, Ratchadaphisek Road (MRT: Suthisarn). It’s open from 7am to 11pm Monday to Saturday and 8am to 11pm on Sunday. Call (02) 693 2212-3 or visit www.Facecook.com/BonCafeVino