Bon Me | Bold, Fresh, and Fun Vietnamese Cuisine

…that a Bon Me restaurant is in the works.  And the rumors are true!  Truck owners Patrick Lynch and Ali Fong have been eying a space in Kendall Square for a while now, and have finally made official.  Bon Me is moving to Kendall Square!  Just last week we signed the lease for our first brick-and-mortar restaurant in the One Kendall Building, where we will join an awesome neighborhood just around the corner from MIT.  We are stoked to finally have a real-life address, and a home that isn’t always on the move!  We’re still in the process of planning our build-out… but be looking for us to open our doors near the end of the year.

Bon Me Foods Owners Ali and Pat!

Stay tuned for more updates! I’ll be keeping y’all posted.

Teagan 

We loved teaming up with East by Northeast for our first Picnic Pop Up on the Greenway — and we’re itching to do it again with our Kendall Square friends West Bridge!

Some folks enjoying their Picnic Dinner at our 1st Pop Up with ExNE!

For this next Pop Up, we’re fusing West Bridge’s style of sophisticated French cooking and New England comfort with our bold, fresh, and fun Vietnamese flavors to provide for a dining experience that will rock your world.

The awesome dining room at West Bridge!

Our own Head Chef and Co-Owner Alison Fong and West Bridge’s Executive Chef Matthew Gaudet will be serving up a four course mash up between Bon Me and West Bridge’s offerings. Vegetarian options will be available, and can be reserved by shooting an e-mail over to jenn@bonmetruck.com.

The event will again take place at the scenic Rings Fountain on the Rose Kennedy Greenway on Wednesday, August 29^th from 5pm-9pm. We’ll be serving food throughout that whole time frame, so no worries if you can’t make it right at five.

The Bon Me Truck at Rings Fountain

Tickets are $15 when bought online (here’s the link: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/267540) or beforehand at the Bon Me Trucks and $18 the day of the event.

There’s table seating at Rings Fountain, and picnic blankets will be available upon request. We had over a 100 people come to our last pop up, so we’re suggesting to get that discount and grab your tickets in advance. We’ll be picking two lucky people who pre-order their tickets before Monday, August 27th, for housemade drinks on us!

And if all of that didn’t sound good enough — we’ve got some free tickets to this awesome event! We’ll be giving them out at random on Tuesday, August 28th at noon if you do the following pain-free steps:

1. Follow us on Twitter @bonme. (Not only could you win free tickets by doing this… you’ll also get the scoop on when we’ve got Miso-Braised Pulled Pork )
2. Tweet out about the event using hashtag #RingsPicnic
3. ReTweet our special posts about the Pop Up to your friends!

If your name is pulled and you’ve already bought your tickets in advance, we’ll refund your money back. So grab your friends and enjoy us for a great evening on the Greenway full of awesome food, friends, and fun times.

Boston is beautiful, and our friends over at the Rose Kennedy Greenway have awesome venues for you to come and soak in all this city has to offer. So when we were thinking about hosting a pop-up with the folks over at East by Northeast, the Greenway’s Rings Fountain was the first location to come to mind.

Rings Fountain at Dusk.

On Wednesday, July 25th, we’ll be throwing a Picnic Pop Up and serving up a fusion of flavors from both ours and East by NorthEast’s menus. Leading the culinary creations will be Chef Phillip Tang, who was named Best Up and Coming Chef in 2010 for Boston Magazine, and our own Chef Ali Fong, who was named Awesome at Everything by Patrick.

Chef Tang's Hood

Tickets will be $15 online and if bought beforehand on our trucks or at East by Northeast, and $18 dollars if at the event. The price will include:

• One Chilled Soup Shooter,
• The Bon Me Sandwich with a ExNE entree filling,
• A Fresh Seasonal Vegetable Side,
• and One Sweet Dessert!

A vegetarian option will be available, and we’ll be providing blankets for you to borrow to help create that picnic feel. So come grab your friends and get outside (we already know there’s not going to be anything good on TV that day….) and join us for some great food and fun times! The link to order tickets online is: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/259671

But we’re not done yet! We’ll be giving away a few free tickets at random to those who ReTweet our special tweets  and share our special posts about the event on Facebook.* Keep an eye out for these specific social media posts!

We’ll see you July 25th! Use #PicnicPopup to follow the conversation about it! For press inquiries about the event, please e-mail info@bonmetruck.com.

*** To win these free tickets, you’ll have to be either already liking us on Facebook or  following us on Twitter, depending on what outlet you choose to share. Each special post or tweet will directly mention a chance to win in it.

We’ll announce all winners on July 22, 2012. Each winner will be chosen at random, aka we’re putting all of your names into a hat — real old school. If you’re named a winner and you’ve already purchased your ticket, we’ll refund you the money you’ve spent. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor! 

With the summer in full swing, we’re making a few additions to our downtown schedule. Check it out below:

Monday: Dewey Square 11-3
Tuesday: **New Tester Spot: Rings Fountain (On the Greenway at Milk St.) 11-3
Wednesday:  Dewey Square 11-3
Thursday: City Hall Plaza 11-3
Friday:Dewey Square 11-6, Milk St. & Kilby St. 11-3

SOWA Sundays are great, and to help add to the awesomeness, we’re creating a new “drinks-only” line at this location. No need for back cuts or friends to save your spot in line — just hop straight up to the window and be on the look out for this sign:

After all, SOWA really means: “Simply Only Wanted A” Bon Me Beverage, right? Enjoy!

Unfortunately, our yellow truck has been having some hardware problems ever since the generator stopped working (Ironically, this happened after the second Back Bay Blackout. Weird, right?). It’s going to be out for repairs on Tuesday, May 15th, and potentially Wednesday, May 16th as well. Please check our Twitter (@bonme) and Facebook for updates on hours and locations. We hope to be up and running at full capacity as soon as we can!

“Mom, I need money for… books.” said the starving college student as he stared into his empty wallet.

After vending at BU for almost two semesters and lots of playing around with location and hours, (Rest in peace, Operation Manifest Destiny) we’ve decided to make getting a taste of Bon Me a little bit easier for our favorite Terriers.

Between 7 and 8pm at our Boston University East location, all main entrees will be $5 with our new BU Happy Hour program. For the same amount of money as an overpriced latte, you can get a rice bowl, noodle salad, or sandwich of your choice.

No longer a student? No worries! This promotion is open to the general public.

So drop by and bring your friends. After all, $5 footlongs were so yesterday.

Think back to grade school.

Remember that really cool friend you had — you know, the one that would always have your back in dodgeball and share his Dunkaroos with you at recess? Now remember when that cool friend moved away? Cue the heartbreak, sadness, and lack of cool snacks.

No frowny faces.

Now take another trip down memory lane, and remember when a new kid would move to town. New kids in school were all the rage — everybody would whisper about them and be strangely interested in what they were doing, what they were eating, etc. (Or so Mean Girls has shown me.)

What does this analogy do except for take you on a cringe-worthy trip to when you wore braces? Enter Bon Me. Unfortunately, we’re moving away from our Copley spot next to the Boston Public Library.  But Copley fans, don’t start crying yet! We’re just moving down a few blocks to new, close by locations on Clarendon and Stuart Street.

Starting April 1st, we’ll be at Stuart St. from 11:30 -2:45 on Saturdays, and 220 Clarendon St. 3-7 Saturdays, 11:30-6 Sundays. Come follow us down there to help our transition as “new kids on the block” a little easier! (I promise, I’m funnier in real life.) Need a little more persuasion? Check out the Copley coupons in our Pinterest for some insider discounts at each location: pinterest.com/bonme
Hope to see you soon! Don’t forget your coupons!

We have new locations coming in April!  Starting April 1st we’ll be adding shifts at Cleveland Circle, 220 Clarendon, and Stuart Street.  We’re also nearly done with our second truck, and by mid-April we’ll be adding lunch shifts at Belvidere St., the Milk St., and City Hall Plaza!  Here is the full rundown:

April 1st

Monday: Dewey Square 11-2:30, Cleveland Circle 3:30-8

Tuesday: Dewey Square 11-2:30, BU East 3-8

Wednesday: Dewey Square 11-2:30, BU East 3-8

Thursday: Dewey Square 11-2:30, BU East 3-8

Friday: Dewey Square 11-6

Saturday: Stuart St. 11:30-2:45, 220 Clarendon 3-7

Sunday: 220 Clarendon 11:30-6

In mid April we will be extending Dewey Square hours and adding the following shifts:

Monday: Belvidere St. 11:30-2:30

Tuesday: Belvidere St. 11:30-2:30

Wednesday: Belvidere St. 11:30-2:30

Thursday: City Hall Plaza 11-3

Friday: Milk St 11-2:45

Follow @bonme on Twitter for the latest updates!

Our world is made up of a compilation of people with different ethnicities, backgrounds, and stories. The food at Bon Me represents the melting pot culture, with takes on food that don’t always resemble the traditional. Our success comes from the new perspective we take on Asian cuisine, and we find that it’s time to give back to our roots.

From Feburary 13-17, Bon Me will be teaming up with Viethope and the Boston University Vietnamese Student Association to help give an education to underprivileged students in Vietnam.

For every photo of our food uploaded to the Bon Me Facebook page with the caption, “Food for Hope,” we will donate $1 to Viethope, an organization that deals directly with helping students in need in Vietnam.

More about their organization and goals can be found here: http://viethope.org/

So grab your friends, your family, and your coworkers to join us for a tasty date and help make a difference! It’s in your hands – right next to that tasty rice bowl.

The tricky fine print: When posting your photos on our Facebook page, you’re giving us permission to share your photo with other customers, as well as use them in any other publications or advertisements to highlight our food. One posting per purchase. Thanks, and enjoy!