The VE/LA Story
Let us tell you a story
The story that almost never happened.
Our story begins with a sixteen year old boy in the middle of a global lockdown. Between cancelled exams, unfinished canvases, and long afternoons spent in his bedroom, Pete Kasidit felt a pull to build something of his own. A student of art, he dreamed of a small store where people like him could meet, browse beautiful tools from around the world, and spark new ideas together. So he started building exactly that.
During the construction of the shop, there was an empty corner he could not stop staring at. A blank space waiting for a purpose. The idea arrived on New Year’s Eve. What if that corner became a tiny coffee bar where ordering felt simple. Pete was just starting to enjoy specialty coffee, but the menus across Bangkok felt like another language. Roast levels, processing methods, and coffee regions were listed line after line, yet none of it meant anything to someone new. You could not tell which cup would taste bright or which would be cozy and round. You could only guess.
So he imagined a new way. A gradient inspired by sunrise and sunset. Two coffees, each tied to a feeling. One bright and fruity like the cups he loved. One slightly darker and gentler like the ones his mother and sister preferred. That became Dawn and Dusk, the first two coffees of VE/LA. The name itself came minutes before the fireworks. “Vela,” the Thai word for time, felt right. The slash between VE and LA became a quiet nod to the hands of a clock.
The coffee bar opened in March 2021. Within the second weekend there was a line that stretched out the door for hours. What began as a corner in an art store quickly grew into something many people carried into their own routines. Almost a year and a half later, Pete signed the first leases in three Bangkok malls. New stores followed. New ideas took shape. Cafes, Studios, and a growing collection of VE/LA at Home products for coffee, matcha, and tea.
Looking back, the story feels simple. One boy, one idea, one corner that changed everything. But the heart of it remains the same. Time spent well. Care given freely. Craft shared with anyone who walks in.
What started as a side project filled with nothing but passion became something bigger. A story about a city we hold close to our hearts. A story about mornings and small smiles. About a sentence on a package, or the way someone hands you a drink and actually means enjoy.
VE/LA might just be a café, but to us, is an assemblage of purpose, care, and craft. Something our hometown can be proud to call its own. And something we hope to be proud to share with the world.
Welcome to VE/LA.
A short n' sweet history
A VE/LA Timeline and the world's
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From the diary
VE/LA goes global with the opening of it's first ever international cafe at Mayfair, London and the announcement of it's first Singapore opening at Changi Airport. VE/LA Celebrates it's 5th Anniversary. Airecano & Cloudy Matcha joins the global signature creations line up and breaks sales records across all cafes
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Cafe Openings (so far)
• Groove Centralworld • 8 January
• Centralworld • 14 February
• Mayfair, London • 11 March
• haus VE/LA • 26 July
• Changi Airport, Singapore • Opening September 2026
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World Events
Sagrada Familia Completion: After 144 years, Gaudí’s masterpiece in Spain is scheduled to finish. Milan hosted the Winter Olympics amid the Dolomites, a setting that made the athletic look briefly monastic. Halley's Comet's debris field produced an unusually strong meteor shower, its parent comet still six decades from its next visible return. The world's population passed a new demographic threshold, the kind of number that means something only in retrospect.
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From the diary
Craft Tea introduced. Redesign of entire VE/LA at Home collection.
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Cafe Openings
• The Circle Ratchapruek • 13 March
• Siam Discovery • 6 June
• 140 Wireless • 22 August
• Central Park • 4 September
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Pop-ups
• Iconcraft Siam Paragon • 12 November
• Emporium Holiday Pop-up • 17 November
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World Events
A new pope, the first American to hold the office, took his name and his seat in April. Jane Goodall died, closing a life spent teaching people to look at other species without condescension. Labubu, an odd-eyed collectible toy, became a genuine cultural fixation, a small case study in how attachment finds strange shapes. Tariffs reordered trade routes that had felt permanent.
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From the diary
Matcha re-introduced with Sundown and Surise. VE/LA Blended launches and sells out everywhere. Our first VE/LA dining opened under the Brunch Club concept.
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Cafe Openings
• Central Embassy • 26 June
• Sukhumvit 49 • 25 September
• Charoenkrung • 10 October
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Pop-ups
• Emsphere Mini Bar • 2 July
• Siam Discovery Mini Bar • 20 August
• One Bangkok • 23 October
• King Power Rangnam • 14 November
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World Events
More than half the world went to the polls this year, an unusual density of democratic choice compressed into twelve months. Paris hosted the Olympics under a hundred-year-old promise finally kept. 2024 was confirmed the hottest year recorded, a fact stated plainly enough that it stopped being alarming and started being ambient.
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From the diary
Mango Sticky Rice Latte became our yearly spring signature. Kaimook Boba Latte joined the family. VE/LA for Business 1.0 was introduced.
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Cafe Openings
• CentralWorld Offices • 29 April
• 122 Narathiwas • 21 November
• Emsphere • 1 December
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Pop-ups
• Central Embassy Vol.2 • 8 June
• Siam Center • 10 August
• Thailand Coffee Hub Vol.2 • 4 October
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World Events
Barbie and Oppenheimer opened on the same day, an accidental study in contrasts that became its own cultural event. The word "permacrisis" entered common use, language catching up to a general sense of unsteadiness. A year that closed two very different chapters on what fiction could hold.
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From the diary
Three cafés opened within three months across Bangkok’s most prominent malls CentralWorld, Siam Paragon and Emporium. This puts VE/LA on the map.
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Cafe Openings
• CentralWorld • 5 August
• Siam Paragon • 2 September
• Emporium • 1 December
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Pop-ups
• Thailand Coffee Hub Vol.1 • 5 October
• Central Embassy Vol.1 • 15 October
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World Events
Queen Elizabeth II's death closed a seventy-year chapter, the kind of event that makes people notice the shape of time passing. War returned to Europe's edge. A small piece of software called ChatGPT appeared in November, a hinge point few recognised as one yet. James Webb's first images reached Earth: galaxies as they looked before language existed to describe them.
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From the Diary
The dawn and dusk coffee concept, along with the name and logo, came together ten minutes before the New Year fireworks lit the sky on Pete's (our founder) laptop.
The first VE/LA coffee bar opened on Sukhumvit 42 and saw two hour queues spilling out the door by its second weekend. Morning, Midday and Midnight debuted as epicurean drip coffees.
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Store Openings
• Sukhumvit 42 • 27 March
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World Events
A year the world learned to sit still while COVID vaccines roll out across the world. Cities locked their doors and people relearned the textures of home: bread proving on a counter, a single walk taken with more attention than a dozen once were. Ever Given wedged itself sideways in the Suez Canal for six days, a reminder of how much of the world moves unseen. Kazuo Ishiguro published Klara and the Sun, a novel about attention and devotion told through artificial eyes.
THE GRADIENTS -- OUR COFFEE & MATCHA SELECTIONS
A tale as old as time, retold.
‘VE/LA’ means time in Thai, and that’s where our story begins. Born from the idea of making specialty coffee and matcha simpler, our signature range draws inspiration from different moments of the day, each paired with a color gradient that tells the same story.
Take our Dawn and Dusk espressos, for instance: crafted to mirror sunrise and sunset, they celebrate two distinct coffee moods : one bright and fruity, the other rich with chocolate and nutty notes.
Our spaces
Cafes & Studios
VE/LA takes its time settling into every place we expand into. Whether it is a busy street in Bangkok or a storied corner of Mayfair, London, each café is shaped with thoughtful collaboration.
Together with our design and architecture partners, we craft spaces that feel at home in their surroundings. We shape cafés that are unique to each individual location yet somehow unmistakably VE/LA.
The menu
A Carefully Considered Cup
Every drink begins long before it reaches your hands. It starts with careful selection, patient sourcing, and a respect for the small rituals that shape a cup. We choose our beans with intention, build menus with care, and treat each step of preparation as part of a gentle practice.
Beyond our cafés, we extend this sense of craft into your home through capsules, drip bags, matcha, and tools created with the same quiet attention. VE/LA becomes not only a place to visit but a feeling that stays with you.
a guiding philosophy
Small, simple joys
Life often moves with a pace that leaves little room to breathe. VE/LA was created to soften that pace. We craft spaces and moments that invite you to slow down, even briefly, so the world feels a little steadier and the everyday becomes more meaningful.
Wherever you meet us, in Bangkok or in cities to come, our hope is simple. We want VE/LA to settle naturally into the rhythm of your day.
here, there, everywhere
Here to stay
We will continue to grow thoughtfully. New spaces, new cities, and new expressions of our craft will come in their own time. Through it all, our purpose remains unchanged. We are here to offer something calm, careful, and sincere.
When you step inside, allow yourself a moment to linger. Let the day ease. Your cup is waiting.