Sirintip “Beau” Pramnoi with her brother and chef, Chatchai “Champ” Promnoy at Siam Square’s new home in the Colonnade on Eisenhower. “We love what we do,” says Pramnoi. “I would say my brother puts all his passion into the food.” | Photo by J. Adrian Wylie
Sirintip “Beau” Pramnoi wanted to move Siam Square out of the troubled Victory Inn from the time she bought the longtime Thai restaurant six years ago. She twice replaced rotten flooring due to a leaky roof the landlord wouldn’t fix. The bathroom in the hotel lobby was a refuge for homeless people. To-go orders awaiting pickup would disappear.
She says customers would tell her “‘I love your restaurant—the decoration and everything is so beautiful—but then walking through the hotel, it’s like a crime scene.’”
Still, moving wasn’t her top priority. She married fellow restaurateur Michael Persa of Slurping Turtle. They bought a house together in Saline and had a baby boy. Born with a heart defect that required surgery in infancy, he’s now three and doing fine.
But given all that, “We weren’t looking hard enough. Let’s put it that way,” Persa concedes. “We were just like, ‘We’ll find the right place, we’ll find the right place.’”
Then, on September 3, “want” instantly turned into “need:” the city, citing myriad public health and safety hazards, condemned the Washtenaw Ave. hotel and ordered it vacated. After pleading for the chance to remove her kitchen equipment and furnishings, including many religious and cultural artifacts from Thailand, Pramnoi was given seven days to save what she could.
Three months later, she’s back in business. She purchased the assets of another Asian family restaurant, VKitchen, in the Colonnade, and opened even before her new signage was approved.
Related: Siam Square Takes VKitchen’s Spot
“I’m just so happy to get my restaurant open again,” she says. “I’m just used to the routine.”
Born in southern Thailand, she moved to Bangkok for college and then to Michigan on a student visa, studying entrepreneurship at Schoolcraft College and Eastern Michigan. Her two daughters, now thirteen and nine, were born here.
Her brother Chatchai Promnoy—“Champ”—had been working in Switzerland as a chef, but she found him a job in Austin, Texas, so he could emigrate as well. They hoped to eventually join forces at her own Thai restaurant.
That opportunity came by way of a friend, Haluthai Inhmathong, whose mother Vasanna had owned and operated Siam Square since the 1990s. The sale was in 2018, and the Inhmathongs now run Basil Babe in Ypsilanti. Champ worked at Siam Square throughout the transition and remains its head chef.
“We love what we do,” says Pramnoi. “I would say my brother puts all his passion into the food.”
“In a way, this was a good thing that happened to Siam Square,” Persa says. “Because it was kicking the baby bird out of the nest. It was like, you gotta go. Now you don’t have a choice. So it was probably more expensive than we wanted … but in the long run, as business has shown, it’s been more beneficial to get out of there.”
The new location lacks space for the wooden elephants and other large pieces from Washtenaw, but they’ve refreshed and brightened the interior and brought in some ornate carved tables and other smaller pieces. A staff of six provides full table service, which most customers are now choosing over takeout.
The menu remains both authentic and accessible. Crispy roasted pork is popular among the fourteen house specialties. So too are roast duck curry, hot and sour tom yum soup, papaya salad, and—of course—pad thai, whether the standard version of the stir-fried rice noodle dish or the “Siam,” with tamarind sauce. Lunch options include curry, rice, and noodle entrées in the $11 range and spring rolls made fresh daily.
“I would like to have at least one day off, but right now, it’s seven days a week,” Pramnoi laughs. “Because we just started, everything’s still not ready ready. But I have a very good team.”
Siam Square, 883 W. Eisenhower. (734) 975–4541. Mon.–Sat. 11 a.m.–10 p.m., Sun. noon–9 p.m. siamsquareannarbor.com
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