on 14/08/2024
The Thai Guy wasn’t originally meant to be a restaurant. When it started in 2023, it was a food truck serving Bangkok-style street food at festivals around town. Next came catering, and when partners Terry Intarakhamhaeng and Jade Rice found a site on Magill Road just 700 metres from their house, they decided to take the plunge and open a bricks-and-mortar restaurant earlier this year.
“It was a pretty big thing for us to add a whole restaurant onto the existing business,” says Rice, who works as Operations Manager. “It meant skipping some festivals we would usually attend and turning down a few catering events.” The pair even sold the original food truck to inject some extra cash into the business, with larger events like Gluttony, Lucky Dumpling Market and Tasting Australia’s Town Square allowing them to use a pop-up kitchen instead.
At both the festival pop-ups and physical restaurant, diners can expect vibrant flavours, plenty of skewers cooked over charcoal and a casual atmosphere that encourages experimentation. “Ultimately, we're taking what you would get in a Bangkok market and using local ingredients to deliver that here,” says Jade. And the couple were very conscious of the price point when assembling the menu, ensuring that everything remained affordable at a time when many families are tightening their belts.
The strong local connection – as well as living locally, Terry and Jade each have children who attend the nearby Trinity Gardens School – means “we’re pretty immersed in this community. That meant there was a lot of excitement about the restaurant before we opened, and a lot of the people we know from school visit on a regular basis now.”
Operating a restaurant so close to home also allows the couple to spend more time together as a family. “Terry is part-owner of Soi 38 in the city, and he had another restaurant, Fire, that closed,” says Jade. “But it was hard for us to both work in the city, so this helps us stay close to home. Now the kids are in the restaurant all the time, especially my nine-year-old daughter – she’s there three or four times a week, clearing tables and helping with simple kitchen tasks, she loves it!”
Terry is the venue’s executive chef, while Rice leads the kitchen team and looks after catering and events. And six months after opening, with the team settling nicely into the new venue, they’re looking at once again expanding the events and catering side of the business. “We’re picking that back up at the moment, and we have things on at least two weekends a month, plus some festivals that go for a few weeks,” says Rice. “Add in private catering, and we’re busy pretty much all the time.”
Having this visible presence in the community is a vital part of the business. “It helped to generate cash flow while we were opening the venue,” says Jade. “And now it really helps the growth of the restaurant by bringing more customers in. Then the restaurant helps to generate catering and events, which brings more people back to the restaurant.”
This hybrid model, where each side of the business helps to advertise the other, is key to its success. In fact, Rice says things are going so well that she’s even looking at getting a new, better-equipped food truck. It’s a move that will bring things full circle, and fits nicely with a vision that sees every element of The Thai Guy supporting the other aspects of the business. “Obviously the first 12 months in any new business is a lot,” says Rice. “But now that things are going well and we’re back on our feet from all the set-up costs, we have an opportunity to grow every side of the business at the same time.”
The Thai Guy
402 Magill Road, Kensington Park
www.thethaiguy.com.au
