Thai Kuu aiming for a Friday opening

 

After originally announcing it would be opening sometime in February, new restaurant Thai Kuu, located at 8705 Germantown Ave. in the Top of the Hill Plaza, should be opening this Fri, Mar 18.

Thai Kuu will serve mostly traditional Thai food, according to its owners. It’s hidden away from Germantown Ave traffic. It’s in the back of the Plaza where Shundeez restaurant was located, and before that where Rollers was.

 

Delays

Stephen Cooley, husband to owner Atchara Cooley, said that Thai Kuu’s opening was stalled because it took longer for renovations to be made than originally anticipated. He said that most renovations were completed by the couple themselves, ranging anywhere from fresh paint on the walls to brand new upholstery to new countertops and everywhere in between.

“There was just a lot of little stuff,” Cooley said. ” We just couldn’t get in there and get things done.”

Cooley, a full-time employee for Boeing, estimates that he and his wife have spent at least 10 to 12 hours a day cleaning up the restaurant every weekend for the past several months. Still, more time was needed before the place was ready for the public.

Cooley said that an awning is going to be placed on the restaurants’ parking lot side sometime in the upcoming weeks.

“It’s taking a lot longer than we had anticipated,” he said.

 

Stone cooking added

Some minor changes have occurred in the game plan for the restaurant as well. Originally envisioned simply as a traditional Thai food restaurant, Cooley and his wife decided to include another feature that is not usually integrated with an eatery of this sort.

Called stone cooking, Cooley said, food is heated up on slabs of stone in the oven to 700 degrees, and brought to the table hot but fairly raw. The stone acts a sort of personal oven that customers can use to cook food to their taste. “Each bite is as hot as the first,” Cooley said.

Cooley acknowledged the stone cooking is a bit of deviation from the restaurant’s original menu, but believes some customers will like it. “We wanted to have something for everyone,” he said.

 

Friday opening?

Cooley said that he was concerned about passing health inspection, not because the restaurant is unsanitary, but because those inspections tend to be unpredictable in nature. However, he remains optimistic and said that if all renovations were finished as expected the weekend prior to March 18, and if the health inspection goes as hoped, the restaurant should be open for business on Friday.

Despite the hold ups, Cooley said that using a place that was formally a restaurant was essential.

“You have to have another restaurant,” Cooley said. Without certain features already in place, Cooley said it would have been far to difficult and cost too much money to start from scratch.