Att Maymoundok rushes in and out of the busy dining room. Smells of spicy curries and exotic seasonings wharf from the kitchen.

The small, yet cozy, dining room lined with simple wooden booth seating and basic tables fill the space to seat 50. A friendly, rustic “mom and pop diner” feeling is given off from the authentic Asian décor, and cheerful Buddha statue near the cash register. About 30 people dine within the room on a blistery Tuesday night, and customers choose from an extensive menu of curries, Thai noodle dishes of shrimp, chicken, or beef, soups and appetizers.

Maymoundok or the one other server takes down orders.

Maymoundok, learning how to manage her brother’s Charleston Thai Restaurant, is separated from her three children and husband who are still in Arkansas.

On Jan. 4, Thont Phetchereun of Champaign bought Bangkok Thai restaurant from friend Tommy Chanthaluxay, who opened it in 2007. Since then the establishment at 1140 Lincoln Ave., was renamed to the T. Garden Thai Restaurant after the owner’s first name and to let locals know it is under new ownership.

Chanthaluxay stayed with Maymoundok for one week to help her learn the ropes. Since then she has been on her own with the help of only three other workers; a server and two cooks, one cook being Maymoundok’s sister-in-law Bounmy Phetchereun. Thont, who also owns PK Jewelry repair in Champaign, comes down on the weekends to help.

“The first time (running the restaurant alone) I was a little scared,” Maymoundok said, “But when (I) first saw (that the) customer ate all (the) food and liked it, I gained confidence.”

The food industry can be grinding; the employees work seven days a week, 12 hours a day. Maymoundok and Bounmy, live in Champaign and have a one hour commute each way. They don’t come in early or stay late to do prep work because of the long days, so they hustle during slow times to get ready for the next rush. No dishwasher is on the payroll, so everyone helps to do the dishes when they have a free minute.

“When you do small business (you) need to have multifunctional person(al).” Maymoundok said. “When it gets busy (we) don’t walk, we run!”

Even with Bangkok Thai’s short history, it developed a solid local customer base. The manager said about 50 percent of the customers are locals while the other 50 percent is spread evenly between Eastern workers and students. Many of the same customers keep coming back under the new ownership; some come as far as Paris or Effingham.

Separation from her three children, ages 8, 11 and 14, makes it tough on Maymoundok. She misses seeing them everyday.

Maymoundok said, “The costumers are kinda worried and say ‘How are you doing today? How is business?'”

The locals’ concerns and kindness puts smiles on her face and relieves stress. Maymoundok said friendly customers make her days go by faster and help her forget how much she misses her children. She loves the small town feel, and the closeness that comes from it.

The manager has been in the food industry since she was a teenager. Her family moved from Laos to Arkansas in 1985. At 16, she began to work after school in her aunt’s restaurant.

There she learned to cook and prepare Thai dishes from scratch. When Maymoundok grew older, she became part owner and a cook of another Oriental restaurant. Being comfortable in the kitchen, she was apprehensive at first about serving food.

“When I go out to eat (I) always wondered, ‘Oh my how can (a) waitress carry four glasses of water with no problem?'” Maymoundok said.

Now she swiftly and gracefully serves numerous customers a day. Maymoundok quickly takes orders, offers suggestions to first-time dinners and politely answers calls for carry out orders.

She does this all while continuing to learn how to manage the dining room and all the other aspects of running a restaurant.

Even though the owner and manager are from Laos, Maymoundok said the culture, language, ingredients and food are very similar to Thai culture and food because the two countries are neighbors in Southeast Asia.

Little has changed since the restaurant was bought.

Maymoundok keeps the menu the same in order to provide customers with a sense of familiarity. She does not want to make any changes too quickly for fear of loosing customers, but she plans to add more dishes as she becomes more established.

Janice Coons who works in Eastern’s biological sciences department, brings guest Botany Club speakers every other week to the restaurant.

“It offers some ethnic foods in Charleston and it is one of the few places that do,” Coons said.

The T. Garden restaurant is the only Thai food establishment in Coles County.

The establishment is like Maymoundok’s child. She plans to bring her family to the area this summer, where they will be closer to their larger extended family in Champaign. In the mean time, the local customers act as her temporary family and keep a smile on this busy women’s face.

Colleen Kitka can be reached at 581-7942 or

crkitka@eiu.edu

Bounmey Phetchereun, a cook at T. Garden Thai Restaurant, prepares the Pho Special, a meatball soup with Thai noodles. The restaurant has nine different soups year-round on their menu, including a duck noodle soup and Po Taek soup made with shrimp, squids

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Att Maymoundok is the new manager of the T. Garden Thai Restaurant in Charleston. Her brother bought the establishment a month ago, and since then she has been learning the ropes with dreams of opening more branches in the future. (Colleen Kitka / On the

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