Twelve years ago, in the middle of the night and after more than a few beers, I called my father. I was 29-years-old, building my first restaurant in a city that was confounding and new, and I was running out of patience, and especially money. My dream was slipping through my fingers. My father, a contractor, boarded a plane for Bangkok, and we built a restaurant together, with our own hands. And then, a humble little Thai restaurant grew into something far greater than myself, or my wife Candice, could’ve ever expected.
Sometimes, life presents challenges that one can’t fix with a phone call. After all our struggles and success at SFM, we never expected that we’d lose our restaurant to a virus. Or that slowly, this city’s dining scene – one of the world’s absolute best, and one whose growth we’re incredibly proud to have been a small part of – would be slowly and systematically strangled by unreasonable regulations, and a lack of strategy and financial support from the Thai government. So much has been lost; but much has been learned. Things that, unfortunately, we can’t easily forget.
We’re closing Soul Food Mahanakorn, and its’ spinoff, Soul Food 555. Soul Food Thai, in Hong Kong, will live on. And who knows – there might be another incarnation of Soul Food Mahanakorn, somewhere, someday. Covid has taught us many lessons we’d prefer not to know; the futility of laying certain plans for the future being one of them.
So this is goodbye, for now. We’re pulling the old metal door down, for good. We thank you, deeply and sincerely and from the bottom of our broken hearts, for all the wonderful years we’ve shared together. So many small acts of kindness have happened under this roof that we’ll be eternally grateful for.
But we’d love for it to live on, in some form. If there’s anyone that would consider taking this space, we have a fully operational restaurant for you, ready to go. We’re looking to sell it quickly, and for a very good price. There’s a lot of history here, and we’d like to see someone make new memories in this space, and realize new dreams.
Please contact us, if you’re interested.
Love, from Jarrett and Candice, of Soul Food Mahanakorn.
Email: eat@soulfoodmahanakorn.com
Address: 56/10 Sukhumvit Soi 55 (Soi Thong Lor), Bangkok, Thailand, 10110
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/soulfoodmahanakorn
IG: https://www.instagram.com/soulfoodmahanakorn/