{"id":88329,"date":"2024-08-21T10:10:39","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T14:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/met\/?p=88329"},"modified":"2025-06-05T17:24:50","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T21:24:50","slug":"acclaimed-brookline-restauranteur-has-met-beginnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/met\/news\/acclaimed-brookline-restauranteur-has-met-beginnings\/","title":{"rendered":"Acclaimed Brookline Restaurateur has MET Beginnings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Like a good conversation, you never know where life might take you. When Chompon \u201cBoong\u201d Boonnak (MET\u201913) earned his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/met\/programs\/business-management\/\">master\u2019s in administrative studies with a concentration in financial economics<\/a> at BU\u2019s Metropolitan College, he couldn\u2019t have known that someday he\u2019d be the owner of two much-regarded Brookline Thai food and drink establishments. But the part-time work he did at restaurants while earning his degree ignited a passion for service, which led him on his path to greater success.<\/p>\n<p>Boonnak was recently featured in a <em>Bostonia<\/em> article spotlighting the success of his restaurant, Mahaniyom, which specializes in \u201cThai tapas,\u201d as well as his newest venture, Merai, which he calls an \u201celevated dive bar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, Boonnak\u2019s newest establishment has found great success, as Merai has been named a finalist for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jamesbeard.org\/stories\/2025-james-beard-awards-restaurant-and-chef-nominees\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">2025 James Beard Award<\/a> for Best New Bar.<\/p>\n<p>Read more in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/articles\/2024\/chompon-boonnak-runs-mahaniyom\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Bostonia<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A MET degree can lead you to success in any number of fields. Chompon \u201cBoong\u201d Boonnak earned his master\u2019s in administrative studies with a concentration in financial economics, and now he\u2019s in charge of two of the hottest Thai restaurants in town\u2014Mahaniyom and Merai.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19676,"featured_media":88339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[40,211,129,37],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/met\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88329"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/met\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/met\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/met\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/met\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88329"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/met\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93475,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/met\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88329\/revisions\/93475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/met\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/met\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/met\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/met\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}