Amid Legal Battle, Longstanding Park Slope Thai Restaurant To Close

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Instead of waiting out an already months-long legal battle, a longstanding Thai restaurant on Seventh Avenue will close its doors at the end of the month.

"It's our decision to vacate the space," said Jonas Wong, the manager at Rice Thai Kitchen, a family-owned eatery opened by Wong's mother in 1995. "There's not much we can do because the landlord is suing us. We see no future here."

In March, the restaurant's landlord filed a petition claiming that it terminated Rice Thai Kitchen's tenancy in January, citing the restaurant's lack of appropriate insurance policy from July 2017 to December 2017 (one of the non-negotiable terms of its lease), court records show.

The landlord also claimed in court documents that Rice Thai Kitchen owed about $536,000 in missed fees — including rent payments, real estate taxes and sanitation fees — dating back to April 2020; the onset of the pandemic. As of the time of this article's publication, the case is still awaiting judgement.

Patch was unable to contact the landlord, which identifies itself as 311SA LLC in housing and legal documents. The landlord's attorney did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment.

Wong, who was forthcoming about the restaurant's financial woes, says the landlord's claims about insurance are a red herring.

"It's just one of the legal things the landlord is trying to do," he said. "We have the documentation that we've been fully insured."

Ultimately, though, Wong said his family can't withstand the pressures of a long legal battle and are instead closing up shop on June 25.

"We can't really afford to pay," he said of the missed back rent and mounting cost of legal fees.

While he didn't name specifics, Wong acknowledged that Rice Thai Kitchen fell behind on rent during the pandemic.

"During COVID [the landlord] said to pay whatever we can and we'll talk about it," he said.

When they did talk though, the landlord refused to give any sort of discount on back rent and only continued to raise the rent, he said.

Between April 2020 and May 2022, Rice Thai Kitchen's rent increased from $17,641 per-month to $19,081 per-month, records show.

The restaurant paid a few thousand dollars in rent every month from May 2020 (it was forced to close in April and had no business, Wong said) through February 2022, at which point the legal battle began, records show.

"We tried to negotiate with them several times but they won't give us any break at all," said Wong.

The decision to close, while financially necessary, saddens the longtime business manager.

"Our employees and [myself and my mom] we're sad," said Wong. "We had a really good run in Park Slope and I just want to thank the community for letting us serve them."

As for what's next, Wong and his mother are both planning to move back to Thailand. There, she'll retire and he has yet to figure out what exactly he'll do.

Asked if he would consider opening another restaurant Wong said, "it’s a different market so we need to go check it out first, but that's a possibility."

You can visit Rice Thai Kitchen at 311 Seventh Avenue before it closes on June 25 or place an online order here.