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.”
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.