Tongue Thai’d: Morrisville and Stowe welcome new Thai restaurants

Saen Sook brings an Eastern vibe to the space that once housed O’Grady’s Irish pub, which folded last October. Saen Sook owner and chef Patrick Sovikul says that while this is his first time running a Stowe restaurant, he owned a similar place in New York for the last two years.

Sovikul was born in Thailand, but has lived in the U.S. for more than 25 years, he says, after meeting his future wife in New York. Also Thai, she’d been living in the U.S. longer than Sovikul had, and they stayed and had a son, who is now in college.

Sovikul said when he first arrived in the country, he had a full-time job exporting and importing silk flowers, but his real passion was always cooking.

“I like cooking for myself and my family,” Sovikul said. He can remember learning to cook at the patient hands of his mother as a child in Thailand.

“My sister and I both love cooking,” he said. “Everything I know, I learned from my mom. She’s a really good family cook. I learned as a child.”

Sovikul’s first foray into the restaurant industry was his Thai venture in New York. He did that for two years before making the decision to retreat to Stowe.

He first came to Stowe at the invitation of a friend of his, who at the time owned Red Basil, a Thai restaurant on Mountain Road. Red Basil went out of business in 2012, and Sovikul took the opportunity to start considering a move to Stowe. “My friend called me to come here, and I thought I would like to open a Thai restaurant here without competition,” he explained. “I believe I can bring my food to this town. We do good quality food, not cheap quality, but the price is reasonable. We do only Thai food right now.”

Sovikul is expecting that to change as he gets both his sushi bar and his liquor license up and running. “Right now we’re only open for dinner, but I hope to be open for lunch too in two weeks,” said Sovikul. The liquor license should follow, he said, along with the restaurant’s planned sushi offerings.

Sovikul is excited to finally have his shingle out in Stowe. “I want local people to come here,” he said.

Saen Sook’s dinner following is looking solid so far, Sovikul says. “Last week we weren’t too busy until Friday and Saturday night,” he said. “We were busy then. It definitely made me feel more confident. We even had people come back. They were saying how they didn’t know we were open, so I made sure to put a sign out.”

The restaurant’s interior is surprisingly spacious, with room for 99 guests, and it’s decorated in what Sovikul says is traditional Thai style. The statues that feature prominently in each room serve a cultural purpose, as well as an aesthetic one. “It’s a tradition for Thai people,” Sovikul said. “When you have a business, you put out the lucky lady [statue], and she brings people to your restaurant or your business. It’s similar to the waving cat you see in Chinese restaurants.”

Authentic Thai culture is a huge presence in Saen Sook, right down to its name, which carries personal meaning for Sovikul. “Saen Sook is the name of my hometown,” Sovikul explained. “It means happiness. ‘Saen’ means happiness. I want people to be happy here.”

The Thai Kitchen

The old Bee’s Knees restaurant in Morrisville has a new tenant, and it’s bringing a little spice to town.

With their children in high school and college, Pirom Ratanapratum and his wife, Phanumat, wanted to try something new. With a love of cooking and a niche in the restaurant market in town, they decided to open a small, family-run Thai eatery on Lower Main Street.

“There is no Thai food around here,” said Pirom. “We have a lot of Chinese and pizza. We have sandwich shops, Hoagies, McDonald’s, a Chinese buffet, but we offer something different. Morrisville needs something different.”

Pirom and his family have lived in Morrisville for nearly 12 years, and about ten years ago, he worked in another Thai restaurant in town, Thai Orchid, with his friend Ornan Jilandharn. However, in 2008, Jilandharn moved his business from the former Melben’s Restaurant building on Portland Street to Main Street in Waterbury. He renamed it Ocha Thai.

“I stayed here, and I had to look for a new job,” said Pirom. “I worked at MSI for almost eight years, after the friend of mine left me. I just quit about a couple of months ago, and I try to support my family.”

With one child at Castleton University, one child going to the University of Vermont, and another in High School at Peoples Academy, Phanumat, who had always been a stay-at-home mom, decided she wanted to go back to work. She wanted to start her own business.

Pirom came to the United States in 1980, and much of his time spent here has been in Thai restaurants. He started in Los Angeles, where he lived for almost 14 years. Then he went to Portland, Oregon and worked with a friend in a Thai restaurant there as well.

“Everybody has their own business,” said Pirom, “so, I thought maybe I’d do something for myself instead of working for someone else. The main thing is I want to support my family. I want to raise my kids to get a good education and good opportunity. I want my kids to be smart. That’s my big investment.”

Pirom said his wife is happy too, because she is working now, and he is going to take an early retirement once the Thai Kitchen is up and running. Pirom will be 64 this July.

The Thai Kitchen offers a quaint little dining area with a handful of four-person tables. A single-page lunch/dinner menu graces each one.

Phanumat and Pirom couldn’t start a bigger business, he said , because everything costs a lot, especially in the Stowe area, but Morrisville is a good start for them.

“A lot of customers come in,” said Pirom, “and we like to make them happy, make the food taste good. The main thing is to get them to try what Thai food tastes like. Some people have never had it before, and when they like it, it makes me happy.”

The Thai Kitchen has 23 items on its menu, and Phanumat is the head chef and does everything in the kitchen. Their children help when they’re not in school, and Pirom helps, but says he likes to stay out of the way, because his wife enjoys cooking everything.

The Thai Kitchen has no employees, because they don’t have enough money to pay them, but if the business picks up in the next six months, they may hire a few.

“There is a lot of money and a lot of work to start a restaurant,” said Pirom. “A lot of people don’t realize that. The main thing we want to serve is good food, and let people know the taste of Thai.”