It's worth fighting the bridges to get to TanThai
LEO's Eats with Robin Garr
The news that Thai-Siam had closed after 25 years of dishing up Thai cuisine to Louisville-area diners came with more of a sense of nostalgia than loss, I'd say.
When it opened in 1989, I was beside myself with joy. Having discovered Thai cuisine in California way back in the day, I loved it so hard, and ached for it to make its way east. It was with mixed joy and frustration that I found Siam Thai, Kentucky's first Thai, which arrived in the mid '80s and made it necessary for me to travel frequently to Lexington for a pad thai, satay or panang curry fix.
But Thai-Siam came, and it was good, and before long we had a half-dozen Thai eateries around town — maybe a dozen at one point when the trend peaked a few years back. After the inevitable shakeout, the survivors are just about all worthy, but to be frank, Thai-Siam lost its edge when it went through a change of owners years ago.
In a curious bit of local Thai culinary lore, a number of the current Thai hot spots share family connections: Thai-Siam's original chef, Chavantee Snow, left there in 1994 to open Thai Cafe (LEO Weekly review, July 17, 2014) with her husband, Billy, and their son, Vichan. They are also kin via "family Thais," says Vichan Snow, through his aunt, the owner of Simply Thai in St. Matthews, and his cousin, who owns Simply Thai in Middletown.
I expect it's no coincidence that Thai Cafe and both Simply Thai restaurants rank high among the metro's Thai eats, in my opinion. Of course, so does Mai's Thai in Jeffersonville, Ind., and Thai Noodles out Preston Highway.
But wait! There's more! Today, I offer yet another exceptional platter of pad thai: A recent re-visit to TanThai in New Albany, which impressed me considerably on my first review visit shortly after it opened in 2009, is still going strong, with fare that impresses me as authentic Thai, very well prepared.
This raises the question, of course, of how one who hasn't yet made it to Thailand can state with certainty that a Thai restaurant in Louisville is fashioning "authentic" Thai fare.
Read the full review on LouisvilleHotBytes,
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/its-w ... to-tanthai
And in LEO Weekly:
http://leoweekly.com/dining/its-worth-f ... et-tanthai
TanThai
4510 Charlestown Road, Suite 100
New Albany, Ind.
(812) 948-2012
Robin Garr's rating: 90 points