The Spice Club To Open With a Blessing

If you like Thai cuisine and sushi, tomorrow is your lucky day.

The Spice Club, Niantic's much-anticipated Thai restaurant and sushi bar, will open on August 9. This was not a date chosen at random.  

"I'm from Thailand," said Supawan "Tai" Au, who is opening the restaurant with her husband Ricky. "We believe in the lucky day to open."

Having settled on the most auspicious date, the next order of business was to arrange for a blessing.

"We want good spirits to bless the place," said Au. Accordingly,  to make sure the restaurant gets off to a good start.

At 3 p.m., East Lyme First Selectman Paul Formica will do the official ribbon cutting honors and then the restaurant will be open for business. So what's on the menu? 

"All the food here is authentic, from my hometown of Naknonratchasima in Northeast Thailand," said Au. "They are recipes from my childhood, from my mother."

The one exception to that is the sushi, which will be prepared by a sushi chef the couple hired away from a restaurant in New York. Ricky Au said he plans to buy as much fish as possible from local markets.

"The local fishermen, if they catch any fish we'll buy it from them," his wife added. 

The couple aren't newcomers to the restaurant business. For the past five years, they've owned and operated Thai Sawasdee Authentic Thai Cuisine in Groton. 

At The Spice Club, all the food will be cooked to order, so you can have it as mild or as spicy as you like. There are no fewer than five different types of rice to choose from and the restaurant will be serving bubble tea, a traditional Thai tea with a fruity flavor.

The Spice Club has applied for a liquor license, which Ricky Au said they hope to have by September. Until then, patrons are welcome to bring their own bottles.