by Taylor Stewart Monday, May 3rd 2021“Thai Pearl co-owner Sujitra Chubthaisong said her husband owned their West Asheville Thai food restaurant a week before Gov. Roy Cooper implemented the state’s safer at home order. She said surviving the past year has been difficult.” (Photo credit: WLOS staff)
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — “The Small Business Association began accepting applications for the Restaurant Revitalization Fund on Monday. Small businesses in the foodservice industry can apply for a share of the $28.6 billion relief funding, included as part of the American Rescue Plan….. cont.”
2020 WINNER
“TOP DINNER RESTAURANT”
Voted by local Asheville residents
Taking it to takeout
Posted on July 14, 2020 by Kay West
In West Asheville, Sujitra Chubthaisong — aka Chef May — and her husband, Travis Queen, had already opened Thai Pearl restaurant on March 9, excited to be in the walkable neighborhood and next door to Haywood Road mainstay Nine Mile. “My sister and I had a Thai restaurant, Boon Choo, in Hendersonville,” says Chubthaisong. “When Travis and I married, I moved to Asheville, and he and I decided to do a restaurant here.”
They took over the former Nantahala Brewing space in mid-February, renovated the interior and were serving traditional Thai dishes in their cozy dining room less than a month later. “The response was overwhelmingly positive; we were slamming,” Queen recalls. “On our ninth day, the state shut everything down at 5 p.m. “
The experience from their first week of business, the couple say, turned out to be a saving grace as they immediately turned to takeout while other restaurants on Haywood totally closed. “We did not have that option,” says Queen. “We had to pay rent.” Due to being open less than two weeks before the shutdown, they were ineligible for aid from the federal Paycheck Protection Program or the $5 million Buncombe County Tourism Jobs Recovery Fund.
Thai Pearl ran its full menu on takeout for lunch and dinner, seven days a week. “The community really rallied behind us, and most days we’re breaking even,” Queen says. On July 2, he and Chubthaisong set four safely distanced tables in the dining room and have continued offering takeout as well.
2020 BEST NEW RESTAURANT
“I have written a lot about Thai Pearl, and Chef May Sujitra Chubthaisong recently, including several nominations for awards in various categories, as well as a bunch of “Food Feed” reviews, and facebook posts. In terms of the food, the reputation, the work ethic, the level of excellence, service, and just sheer impact on the food scene and eaters of Asheville, I don’t know if there’s any place that outdid Thai Pearl, let alone any place new. As you may have already read in a previous post, Chef May has quite an impressive culinary background, having cooked at the Thai Royal Palace for example, and so I feel like we are dang lucky to have her here in little ol’ Asheville, WNC!….
“I think the words “power-house” should have a picture of Chef May from Thai Pearl next to them in the dictionary. Full-name Sujitra Chubthaisong, Chef May handles a tremendous number of orders and customers for lunch and dinner service, 7 days a week, and she does it all while being short-staffed, during a pandemic. One of my roles with KickbackAVL.com is doing what we call “dispatch support,” AKA calling in orders, and handling customers service. This role places me in a unique position to see just how much business this chef handles, and just how willing people are to wait a half hour, 45 minutes, an hour, or more to get her food. On a Friday night, forget about it, Thai Pearl is SLAMMED. Orders are coming in through our app like crazy, plus they do take-out, and limited in-house dining! The phones ring and ring, and the food gets cooked, bagged or plated and sent out into the world at a furious pace. “Fire times” (the amount of time it takes to cook something) can get cra-cray, and I sometimes have to call the Kickback custys and ask them if they want to cancel their orders, or if they wanna wait. Most of time, they’ll wait. I wouldn’t say they’re happy to wait, but they wait. I know I would. I’d just be like, “okay, I’ll just have another cup of coffee for dinner, and then hoover down several pounds of Thai food at 9:30 pm.” Seriously. 100% realistic scenario. For building such a loyal audience, in such a short amount of time, during such difficult times, and working her ass off to do, Chef May Sujitra Chubthaisong is my fourth nominee for Chef of the Year 2020!” -Stu Helm ; ASHVEGAS
“Thai Pearl opened their doors on March 9th, 2020 and Buncombe County issued it’s first stay-at-home order, what, like 5 days later? How shitty is that? Ooftah. I know it’s not a unique story, or this category wouldn’t exist, but Thai Pearl seems to have been, all, like, “F*ck it, we’re doing this, and we’re going to CRUSH IT, and no one can stop us.” Before coming to the States, Chef May cooked in the royal palace O _ O in Thailand, so y’know, I’m sure she wasn’t going be like, “oh well, dream over! I came all the fucking way to Asheville, WNC to cook for these yokels, but it didn’t work out exactly how I hoped, so I guess I’ll put down my knives and sell real estate now.” Nope. Instead of her knives, she put her head down, and got to cooking. And cooking. And cooking and cooking and cooking! She’s approaching legend-status already in my circle of friends for her work-ethic, as well as how fucking goooood the food is. I’ve already nominated Thai Pearl for “Best Lunch,” so I won’t go on too much about the food again here, I’ll just say that it’s excellent, it’s consistent, it’s both creative and traditional, and it comes out of that kitchen at a pace unmatched, and for all those reasons and more Thai Pearl is my 3rd nominee for 2020’s New restaurant of the Year!”
-Stu Helm : Ashvegas
ALL proceeds go to NCRLA's Restaurant Workers Relief Fund to help North Carolina restaurant workers currently in need.
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