You’ll think we’re making this up – but it’s all true! 

Our parents had five children and named each after a fruit; Apple; Som (Orange); Chompoo (Rose Apple); Luk-Wa (Jambolan) and Luk-Waii (Jungle fruit).  So, even at an early age, fruit played a big part in our lives. In fact, you might say that Smoothie Blues was part of our destiny that began with our grandmother who, along with our mother when she was a child, worked selling fruit from a boat on the Chopraya River in the ancient city of Ayutthaya.

As it is said, fruit never falls far from the tree.

Like many Thai families our early lives were full of memories of growing, preparing and sharing food.  For many years the family ran a restaurant and hotel in Ayutthaya and our childhood was spent getting to know travellers from many different cultures and learning about their food and culture.

Eventually, the children grew up to become eye surgeons, opticians, designers and writers and moved to Bangkok or Chiang Mai, yet those years began our families’ love affair with travel and an obsession with the food of different cultures. It stayed with us all.

After a career as a columnist with an epicurean magazine in Bangkok and travelling the world, Waii gradually decided that writing about food was not nearly as satisfying as creating it. In March 2005, she started Smoothie Blues at Nimmanhammin in Chiang Mai. Her first objective was to make the world’s best smoothie – and we think she succeeded, but not before her mother had tasted 100s of different recipes.  From there, the food menu quickly expanded to a comprehensive selection of breakfast, lunch and dinner dishes that had been her favourites both in Thailand and overseas.  All the family helped out - and soon Som joined Waii in Chiang Mai permanently.

Today, the Smoothie Blues menu is a fusion of recipes from all over the world. Some dishes are prepared with absolute respect for their origins, while others demonstrate our willingness to mix the old with the new. That’s part of our philosophy and perhaps a very Thai characteristic; respect for the old ways, but a tolerance for change, difference and invention. It’s an attitude that we think makes great food possible. 

We will never forget that in some ways Smoothie Blues began with a market boat on the Chopraya River and with children who were named after fruit. We’re proud of that.

Since 2005, Smoothie Blues has grown into a type of extended family of customers and staff. It is a great privilege to have many regulars from all over the world who enjoy our food, many who have become lifelong friends and treat Smoothie Blues as part of their home.  We love that.

It is as if we have come home too!