Meet Thomas Samuels of Mae-Khong Thai Tapas & Bar

Today we’d like to introduce you to Thomas Samuels.

Hi Thomas, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
Mae Khong Thai Tapas & Bar is a family own and operate Thai Street food concept restaurant. Our family including my father, mother, my wife, and my 8-month-old child just moved from New York City three months ago, where lived there for over 14 years. Chefs (my parents) work in a few Thai restaurants over the years.

One of them is SomTum Der who got Michelin’s in 2016. As for myself, I was also in the hospitality industry ever since I was in high school in New York City. I worked as the back of the house to management in a few restaurants in the city. With our experience combined, we thought it was time to get a place for ourselves. Why Arizona? Arizona was in our radar ever since we visit a family friend who happens to be one of our business partners.

In NYC or LA, Thai restaurant was very competitive and saturated. If we were to open one there, we have to invest a lot more and there was no guarantee for success. With the concept of traditional street food being very new in the area (Mesa, Gilbert, and Chandler) we saw an opportunity to start one here. We are certain that locals here are ready to try our traditional street food from Thailand.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Food supply. Food supply is very challenging right now for the restaurant industry.

And we are a new restaurant, we have to deal with the shortage and the PRICE! When we were working in NYC before COVID and the inflation, the food supply is somewhat steady, in terms of price and availability. Now, we are new in town and with little connection herewith food suppliers making finding gradients twice as hard.

But I believe all of this will get either better or become a “new normal” for our industry. Workers, you know how it goes. And if you know anyone who wants to work let me know.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Our restaurant is owned by family and two local partners who are family friends. As of now, we have not yet employed anyone except for my family. We prepared food here at the restaurant. We make and steam dumplings, roll our vegetable spring rolls, and mixed our own main sauce for wok stir-fried dishes in the house. These are things that we are most proud of.

Thai food is one of the greatest food in the world, said many magazines and chefs. There are so many delightful dishes that you can have. In our menu, we choose the concept of Tapas because we want our guests to enjoy more than just one dish or two. I put together a variety of street food such as Moo Ping Kra ti (grilled pork skewers), Khao Ji ( Grilled Coconut sticky rice).

Tom Zaap (hot sour Isan style soup) and some classic dishes like Homemade pork and shrimp dumpling or Ka Noom Jeeb. For these items, you can combine them to be a meal or enjoy with our Cocktails and wine as well. These might be things that set us apart from other Thai restaurant. I definitely want the reader to come to see what traditional street foods look and taste like.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
My goal is to own and operate successful restaurants. My success isn’t Olive Garden or McDonald’s. But the restaurant that people willing to wait for 2 hours for dinner and go home happy, and tell their friends and family to come to enjoy that they have experience here.

Contact Info:

• Email: maekhongthaitapas@gmail.com
• Instagram: @maekhong.thaitapas
• Facebook: Maekhong.thaitapas
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/mae-khong-thai-tapas-and-bar-mesa