The Urbani family‘s history is tied to truffle since 1852, when Constantino Urbani began to export fresh truffles to France. Roberto Ugolini, banker turned to food, is the guru of Italian catering in Thailand with restaurants, bars, bakeries, and caterings. Together they opened the Urbani Truffle Bar & Restaurant on the 39th floor of the Sathorn Square Building, one of the skyscrapers that stand out in the skyline of the Thai metropolis.
The 700 square meters luxury establishment seats only 120 people at a time – placing great value on privacy and comfort -, and it is dived in fine dining area, private room, and bar. Obviously, the Italian truffle is the undisputed protagonist; it is in the restaurant dishes, in chips form, and even in the refined cocktails created by the bar’s mixologists. The focus is on the great classics such as egg and fettuccine, which are truffle’s ideal complements, but there is also room for innovation, as in the combination of truffle with chicken, and in the “truffle sushi”. In consideration of the luxury brand embodied in the restaurant, great importance is given also to sales of products and branded merchandise, thus, those who enter the Truffle Bar have the opportunity to buy truffle-based oil and foods, as well as fresh products.
However, Urbani Truffle Bar & Restaurant in Bangkok is only the first step in what Ugolini sees as a long journey along which he and the Urbanis have the intention to replicate the formula throughout East Asia. The next location to open may be in Singapore, from where they already received a formal request by Italian group wanting to invest one million euros to open another truffle bar.
Paolo Del Panta