After hearing good reports about the C-47 Café, we decided to give them a call. “But we’re only a café,” they said, but in the true spirit of investigative journalism we arrived around lunchtime.
The café is called the C-47 Café, because it houses a C-47 in several pieces, with the nose being the dominant feature. There are pieces of rudder, wings, parachute door and even a paratrooper in full gear coming through the ceiling. The nose still has the dual joysticks, instruments and rudder controls and you can be photographed as the pilot, if you wish. Flyboys with an interest in WWII aviation will love this place! Be prepared to spend a good hour.
Now this is where the C-47 Café history becomes really interesting – the world authority on the D-Day landings is Ellwood Von Seibold (do a quick Google). Ellwood once was in a rock band with Richie Rhodes and has a C-47 Café in Sainte Mere Eglise full of memorabilia. So it was by dint of much searching that Richie managed to find a C-47 to be the central décor for another C-47 Café, this time in Pattaya.
The staff are very pleasant, but when we came were still anxious as they thought they “were only a café”. When I pointed out that the dictionary states that “café” covers everything from a coffee house, to a restaurant to a bar, they began to relax.
The covered dining area comes from the rear to around the nose of the plane, with more tables going to the edge of the concrete roadway. Simple tables and comfortable metal chairs with seating for around 20 diners, so the squadron should probably come in shifts! At the rear of the shop the C-47 has its own bakery, supplying breads and pastries to many of the well-established restaurants in Pattaya.
As the C-47 has only been going two months, the menu is fairly simple, but as the café becomes more known, there are some specialty items which will be added to the menu later. However there are already over 50 items, so there is enough to choose from, with everything cooked fresh that day.
It begins with eight hot coffees and seven cold coffees (B. 60-80), followed by chocolates and teas. Next page has health-giving smoothies (B. 60) or not so health-giving smoothies with one or two shots of vodka to wake up the liver!
Pastries are next on the bill (B. 40-50), all freshly made in their bakery with traditional croissants and tarts (edible variety) with raspberry and blueberry and cakes.
The next page has the C-47 breakfast with the top one being two poached eggs, lean bacon, special garlic potato with lightly fried vegetables and a slice of sourdough bread with home-made jam on a side plate. All that for B. 160.
Sandwiches next B. 70 (small) or B. 140 (large) with a range of fillings including fried chicken, egg and bacon, salami, ham and cheese and even sliced steak. All of them come in a sourdough baguette and most have lettuce and tomato as well.
There are two choices of hamburger (B. 140-150) with onion and tomato and melted French cheese for the cheeseburger.
The final page is bottled beers, kept in a special fridge running at 0.8 degrees Celsius (B. 65-80) with all the local popular beers plus Carlsberg and San Miguel Light.
We decided to go at lunchtime and began with an iced latte (B. 70) which came in a very large glass, so large that I queried whether this was the standard size, or a “special” for food reviewers! It was the standard size.
I ordered a small ham and cheese sandwich which came with lettuce, tomato, onion and mustard mayo all in a crunchy sourdough baguette. Excellent!
After that Richie insisted I try some pastries and cakes. Beautiful.
The C-47 may think of itself as “only” a café, but it is much more. Do try!
C-47 Café, Duck Square, 225/123-124 Soi 1 Pattaya Tai (come in at the Big C entrance), telephone 038 411 314, plenty of on street parking. Open seven days from 7.30 a.m. until around 8 p.m.
