Alameda’s newest take-out restaurant is located at 754 Haight Avenue, between Webster and Eighth streets. Bangkok Rush Thai Kitchen [1] offers familiar Thai favorites such as pad thai, massaman curry, fried rice, and chicken satay, along with harder-to-find entrees like pad prik king (a chili paste stir-fry dish).
[2]On Saturday mornings, Bangkok Rush pivots to serving morning desserts and drinks, so customers can start their day with mango sticky rice and khanom krok (pancake made with coconut milk and rice flour).
Customers coming by for pick-up orders, however, may be surprised to find that the location is not actually a traditional restaurant, but the home of owners Kamonwan and Matt Rosenberg, who recently moved to Alameda with their young child.
Kamonwan, who is from Thailand, is the chef. She grew up with her aunt, who had a food stall, and learned to cook from her. “I started helping her to make dessert before and after school,” she told the Alameda Post.
Matt handles public relations, deliveries, and maintains the website. He said his wife was a stay-at-home mom and he was working in advertising and marketing for Amazon when they saw a Thai restaurant for sale last year. They began to wonder if they should purchase it.
“Our son just went to pre-school and we were thinking about things to do and saw this restaurant for sale,” Matt said.
Instead of jumping head first into the opportunity, the couple decided to do extensive research. Matt explained that he used AI tools for research, recording walk-throughs of the restaurant on his phone and uploading documents from the restaurant to be analyzed. They also contacted the U.S. Small Business Administration and got a mentor through the SCORE program [3]. “We just did mountains of research,” he told the Post.
What the Rosenbergs realized was that instead of purchasing the restaurant, they could make and sell food out of their house with a Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation [4] (MEHKO) license. Administered by the Alameda County Health Department, MEHKOs allow cooks to make and sell up to 30 meals a day out of their home after completing a food manager safety course. The home kitchen must also pass an inspection.
[5]Bangkok Rush Thai Kitchen launched in February, permitted with a MEKHO license, and has quickly established a supportive customer base with overwhelmingly positive reviews on Google.
They’ve also gotten feedback on the spice level of Kamonwan’s dishes. “Thais obviously have a higher threshold for spice… so we’ve had to clarify that Thai chilis are extra spicy.” Matt said. They added spice-level options to their menu, along with a no-chili option.
“People will request mild and they’re really like, hey, I don’t want it spicy at all,” said Matt. This proved challenging to Kamonwan. After being perplexed on how to cook non-spicy Thai dishes, she left chilis out of those orders. But then she questioned, “Is that really curry?”
Bangkok Rush Thai Kitchen has been selling-out of desserts on Saturday mornings.The Rosenbergs are happy to be able to bring Kamonwan’s cooking and culture to Alameda. Matt said that when he delivers food to customers, they are very excited.
“When I drop off food for people, they’ll be like, ‘Oh this is great, I just went to Thailand.’ So it’s connecting with them on an emotional level.”
Dinner is available to order online [1] Tuesday through Saturday—with adjustable spice levels. Morning desserts are available to order on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Jean Chen is a contributing writer for the Alameda Post [6]. Contact her via [email protected] [7]. Her writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Jean-Chen [8].