Blue Elephant restaurant coming to Phuket town
The old building is currently covered in scaffolding and the entire roof has been removed, replaced by a temporary tin one.
The Phra Pitak Chinpracha Mansion, the largest of the old tin boom mansions in Phuket Town, which has been quietly crumbling for a couple of decades, is being resurrected and will, by the end of this year, be a chic 300-seat restaurant run by international gourmet Thai chain Blue Elephant.
Some parts are still in good condition, including the tile floor downstairs...
The mansion was built by Tan Ma Sieng, who made his fortune mostly from mining tin in Phuket and was ennobled as Phra Pitak Chinpracha by the King of Thailand. It is built in a style known as Sino-Colonial or, to the Hokkien Chinese on the island, as “Ang mor lau” – houses of the red monkeys, the red monkeys being Europeans.
Tan’s descendants, the Tantawanitj family, have leased the crumbling building for 30 years to Blue Elephant, which is spending some 40 million baht – more than a million bucks – on the renovation of the 20-room mansion.
...and the tile friezes around some of the walls...
It’s a huge task. For a start, the entire roof is being replaced, both the 100-year-old hardwood frame and the roof tiles. In the meantime, a tin roof has been erected over the whole house to keep the rain out. Rotted timber flooring and termite-riddled window frames have to be repaired replaced. Modern wiring and plumbing has to be installed.
Parts of the building are still in surprisingly good condition, however. The small tiles on the ground floor are being left largely alone, the stairs are in reasonable condition and decorative tile friezes on some of the walls are still as good as new. On the other hand, the old kitchen looks like a bomb hit it.
Asked what her biggest challenge is, Blue Elephant’s in-house architect, Sasiwan Makhaprasit, promptly replied, “Getting it completed on time”. She added, “It’s very difficult to fix – every detail, the entire roof, the floors and windows. We’re trying to repair rather than replace.”
...but the kitchen still needs a bit of work.
Helping with this procedure is the construction company Pradittananuruk which, Sasiwan says, “has good connections” with the government’s Fine Arts Department and its experts on old Thai buildings. The Fine Arts Department also advised on the renovation of Phuket’s old post office and the old mansion on Ranong Rd that now houses the offices of Thai Airways International in Phuket Town. Pradittananuruk currently has 50 workers on site, and expects this to rise to 80.
In Phuket, as in many other cities, the restaurant will have attached to it a Thai cooking school, for which a new building will be constructed. The current rather featureless garden will be extensively landscaped.
Blue Elephant was founded in 1980 by Nooror Somany Steppe and her Belgian husband Karl Steppe, who opened their first restaurant in Brussels. Four years later they opened what has become the city’s top Indian restaurant, La Porte des Indes.
A Blue Elephant followed in London in 1986, and the company now has restaurants in Paris, Copenhagen, Lyon, Dubai, Kuwait, Bahrain, Malta, Beirut, Moscow, Jakarta and, of course, Bangkok, which opened in 2002, also in a renovated 100-year-old mansion. There is also a second Porte des Indes in London. In addition to Phuket, more Blue Elephants are due to open soon in Jakarta, Jeddah and Abu Dhabi.
On top of all the restaurants, Blue Elephant recently set up a factory in Thailand to make gourmet Thai frozen meals – 50,000 a day – for those who cannot make it to the nearest Blue Elephant restuarant.
Why “Blue Elephant”? The owners say it’s because blue is the royal colour on the Thai flag and the elephant is Thailand’s national animal. They also point out, “If you see a blue elephant you will never forget it.” True enough.
The Phra Pitak Chinpracha Mansion is at the intersection of Krabi Rd and Satun Rd, close to the old centre of Phuket Town. The restaurant is due to open in November or December this year.
The Blue Elephant AND the China Inn Cafe, so much good news in one day. Wonderful, see you there, pat