Dara Phrakousonh said she has always dreamed of opening a café where customers can sit down with a cup of coffee and flip through a newspaper or magazine.
Phrakousonh hopes to make that a reality at Delightful Kafé at 1000 E. Union St., Â鶹´«Ã½. The location previously housed Steven’s Fire Equipment.
She plans to open in April 2025.
Dara Phrakousonh sits on the sofa inside her new business, Delightful Kafé, on East Union Street in Â鶹´«Ã½. Phrakousonh hopes the café will open this spring.
“My landlord, he’s very nice, he said he wanted to help out the community to bring up another side of Morganton,†Phrakousonh said. “He came to me and said, ‘You might be the one that could do it.’â€
Phrakousonh has started two other restaurants in Â鶹´«Ã½. The first was Asian Fusion, which she sold, and more recently she opened Pho Lao on Burkemont Avenue in the same shopping center as Rural King.
“I feel like a café is supposed to be quiet,†she said. “And then you feel like, ‘OK, you can go over there and then sit down and relax, do homework, do something.’ That’s how I like to do it.â€
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The café will be a bit different from her other restaurants, offering a selection of international coffees and teas, grab-and-go salads and sandwiches and some baked items, Phrakousonh said.
She said she also wants to offer a noodle bar where customers can pick out a pack of ramen to make with hot water the café will provide. She said she’ll have a selection of spices to add more flavor to the noodles.
On occasion, Phrakousonh said she may bring in limited food and desserts to serve in the café, but that will only happen as ingredients become available.
A few slices of pumpkin spice cake and a green tea latte on a table at the Delightful Kafé on East Union Street in Â鶹´«Ã½.
There won’t be any $10,000 espresso machines in her café, Phrakousonh said. The coffee will be made by hand.
She said she wants it to be a safe place for kids to come do homework and have a snack after school. In the future, she said she may turn a room in the back of the building into a private karaoke area and have rooms that could be rented for parties or small gatherings.
The café will be a retirement project, Phrakousonh said.
“When I retire I don’t want to do nothing at home, I still want to own something and be going somewhere and provide somebody’s job,†she said.
She said she was certain of one thing: The café will be a new addition to the city’s business lineup.
“They’re not going to find it anywhere else but Morganton,†Phrakousonh said.
