Modern Thai Closing(?)
My favorite local place to eat dinner, Modern Thai, has apparently closed. I say “apparently” because there’s renovation work going on in it, so there’s a small chance it’ll return… but there are no signs on the door to explain anything to patrons, which makes me suspect that it’s gone for good.
Unlike the Red Door Café, there wasn’t any warning from Modern Thai. I was supposed to meet Seth there on Saturday evening, and he called to inform me that they were closed.
I’ve been going there for years. Their Basil Tofu appetizer is a dish unmatched by any other Thai restaurant that I know of, and I have a friend who essentially goes there for that alone. (I would go there for that dish alone, too.) I’m not sure if they do perfect Thai Iced Tea or if I’d just grown accustomed to their version over the years, but I certainly now prefer it to that of any other restaurant.
Over the last year or so I’ve become very partial to their Green Papaya Salad, which is light and just spicy enough. Again, I haven’t found another Thai restaurant that does that dish as well as they do.
I really hope that they’re just doing some badly-organized renovation, and that they’ll return… but it doesn’t look that way. With the Red Door going as well, that’s my two favorite places to eat in the neighborhood disappearing. Furthermore, while I remember a time before ther was a Red Door locally, I don’t remember the pre-Modern Thai period, and that makes it seem like more of an upheaval.
Losing what seemed like permanent fixtures in the neighborhood feels quite strange. It alerts me to the fact that I’ve been living here for a long time—seven years—even though it oddly doesn’t feel like it’s been that long. In some respects, I may have never fully shaken off the original feeling of impermanence that came from intending to stay only a year.