New Haven restaurant brings conventional Thai meals downtown
NEW HAVEN — It is Thai Time on Orange Road, the town’s latest Thai restaurant, affords genuine, conventional Thai meals.
However its pedigree differs only a bit from another Thai eating places.
Proprietor Brenda Jain spent years working in one other, well-established downtown Thai restaurant. She even met her husband, George Teutle, there.
However she grew up in New Haven, not Bangkok or Chiang Mai — and is a proud native of Tlaxcala, Mexico.
Not that you’re going to be pondering of that if you sit all the way down to a plate of pad Thai, drunken noodles or spicy panang curry or a steaming bowl of piquant tom yum goong.
Although It is Thai Time has solely been open for simply over a month, Jain is used to being requested the “However you are not Thai?” query.
“What I say is, ‘No, I am not, however my first job as a highschool scholar was in a Thai restaurant,'” she mentioned.
When she does get requested, although, it isn’t normally by native Thai individuals.
At It is Thai Time, the meals is all Thai. Jain, 37, has purposely stored it conventional, which distinguishes It is Thai Time from another eating places within the metropolis that purpose for extra of an Asian fusion vibe, usually mixing Thai dishes on the menu with Vietnamese or Laotian delicacies.
In a method, It is Thai Time — which opened in early October and hosted Mayor Justin Elicker and different officers Thursday for a grand opening celebration — is a product of the town’s range.
“We’re making an attempt to go slightly extra genuine,” mentioned Jain, who grew up within the metropolis’s Hill, Honest Haven and Newhallville sections, graduated from Profession Excessive Faculty and now lives in West Haven.
She first tried Thai meals as a teen. She had a greatest good friend whose mom labored at Pad Thai, which, on the time, was a well-liked restaurant on Chapel Road.
“I used to be so afraid as a result of I am a really choosy eater,” Jain mentioned. However her good friend put a plate of pad Thai in entrance of her and the remainder is historical past.
Earlier than lengthy, Jain, then a highschool scholar, went to work at one other downtown Thai restaurant. She ended up working there for years.
“Mainly, it was my first job ever,” she mentioned. “I had tried Thai meals just a few instances earlier than that.”
However over time, as she continued to work there, she bought to know Thai meals properly. Her husband, who now owns a building firm, was working there as a cook dinner on the time.
One other cook dinner from the restaurant, Arnulfo Tlacotia, got here with them once they opened It is Thai Time and is now its head chef.
Nowadays, “I can eat pad Thai each single day,” Jain mentioned.
Opening her personal restaurant had been Jain’s dream for a couple of decade earlier than she ran throughout the fitting spot.
She took the plunge after stumbling throughout the vacant restaurant area at Orange and Courtroom streets, which most not too long ago was Ceviche 181, a Peruvian restaurant, in a hyperlink in an e mail from an actual property agent whereas trying to find a home in West Haven.
Instantly, she thought, “It is New Haven. It is downtown. It is on Orange Road, tremendous near the Inexperienced — 5,000 sq. ft — and I mentioned, ‘That is it!'”
It additionally occurs to be proper across the nook, instantly throughout Courtroom Road, from the Blue Orchid, a pan-Asian restaurant that features Thai meals in its combine — and the place the chef and co-owner, Kyu Tipjak, is a local of northern Thailand.
Jain would not see competitors there.
“I take a look at this place very in another way,” she mentioned. “I attempt to maintain it as nice eating as I can, not shedding contact with the place all of it started.”
She’s making an attempt to maintain the costs as little as attainable.
Whereas you may get a $30 complete fish dish at It is Thai Time, that is for a complete fish, she mentioned. On the lunch menu, “We now have $14 combo specials,” Jain mentioned.
Thus far, they’re doing fairly properly, she mentioned.
“We’re getting prospects,” Jain mentioned. “We now have repeat prospects already.”
One current night, Helen Malley and Kathryn Bussey have been eating at It is Thai Time for the primary time after strolling by it on the way in which to a different restaurant that turned out to be closed.
“I feel it is actually nice,” mentioned Bussey. “I actually just like the drunken noodles. It is spicy however not too spicy.”
Malley, a Washington, D.C., transplant, was having fun with a bowl of tom kha kai, a coconut soup with hen and galanga, a ginger-like spice.
“Good environment! I feel it is a good addition to the neighborhood,” mentioned downtown resident James Choi, who was sitting close by.
Jain is getting used to proudly owning her personal restaurant — and loves the truth that she’s a New Haven-raised Mexican American who owns a Thai restaurant.
“I feel to me crucial factor is individuals understanding that it isn’t all about, ‘Properly, you must do issues from the place you come from,'” she mentioned.
“I am a individuals’s individual. I’ve at all times labored in customer support,” she mentioned. “It actually warms my coronary heart when individuals say, ‘That is so good. I will inform my pals about it.'”
