Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Thai today, gone tomorrow
As you probably know, I live in Saginaw, Michigan. Not exactly the diversity center of the U.S. I happen to like Asian food, especially Indian and Thai. When I moved here about 8 years ago, there was a local Thai restaurant that was pretty good. It closed the first year I was here. They simultaneously increased their prices and cut down their portions significantly and soon thereafter went out of business. I don't know if the price increase was a last ditch effort to stay afloat or not, but an entree went up about 30% and they didn't last too much longer.
A couple of years ago, another Thai restaurant opened about 10 miles north of here. It lasted about 6 months and finally went out of business as well. The town of Midland, about 30 miles away, had two Thai restaurants. I would go up about once a month or so to eat. One offered a fantastic bowl of chicken-ginger soup. I loved it. About two years ago, the bowl I had wasn't very good. I asked if they changed their recipe and they said, "no - it's the same as always." It wasn't but I figured the cook might be having a bad day, so I returned a couple of weeks later to try the soup again and it was worse. I quit going and a few months later it closed. I'd heard that they got new owners and no one that I talked to ever returned.
This week I ran across a coupon for another Thai restaurant in Midland. Actually, I'd eaten there before but for whatever reason the place completely slipped my mind. We went up this weekend to eat there and guess what? It closed. The address now had a Chinese restaurant (closed as well) sign and the entire building was up for sale. I looked in the local phone book and found another restaurant of the same name on Main St. After some fumbling around the back streets of Midland we found it. Under the big banner advertising buffet for $5.95 was a smaller sign - yes "closed." Looking into the window I could see an almost empty room with one lone chair sitting in it. sigh....
2fers: Thai Recipes and Indian Recipes
