<\/p>\n
Greg and Si Hayden opened their Si Uthai Restaurant and Cafe in May on Grooms Road in Clifton Park, seven years after she suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident.<\/p>\n
Steve Barnes\/Times Union<\/p>\n
To create the Si Uthai interior required a complete renovation, from floor to ceiling and lighting, including the installation of a bar.<\/p>\n
Steve Barnes\/Times Union<\/p>\n
The cafe will open later this fall, featuring Thai-style coffee and pastries and other Asian baked goods. The large chandelier, long a fixture at the Century House in\u00a0Latham, was purchased after it closed.<\/p>\n
Steve Barnes\/Times Union<\/p>\n
The paloma cocktail gets a spicy Asian spin with the addition of a chile pepper. If you dare, break the chile in half and swirl it through the drink. The truly spice-tolerant will then eat it.<\/p>\n
Steve Barnes\/Times Union<\/p>\n
Like a chandelier in the cafe area of Si Uthai, a mirror behind the bar was sourced at a sale of fixtures and equipment from the former Century House.<\/p>\n
Steve Barnes\/Times Union<\/p>\n
Mindful of opening in an Instagram era, Si Uthai installed a wall for selfies.<\/p>\n
Steve Barnes\/Times Union<\/p>\n
Si Uthai took over the former Celadon Thai space in a plaza at 675 Grooms Road in Clifton Park.<\/p>\n
Steve Barnes\/Times Union<\/p>\n
This column originally appeared in Steve\u2019s Table Hopping newsletter, delivered for free via email on Monday and Thursday afternoons. Subscribe now at\u00a0timesunion.com\/newsletters\/table-hopping.<\/p>\n
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In the short version that Si\u00a0Hayden tells of her last seven years, she hit her head and decided to open a restaurant.<\/p>\n
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While true as a highly condensed outline, those 10 words elide the traumatic brain injury she endured after a car accident, endless doctor visits and medical frustration, several years when she could barely get out of bed and refused to drive, depression, the collapse of a banking career and busy social life, the birth of a daughter to her and husband Greg and the creation, over just five months earlier this year, of Si\u00a0Uthai Restaurant and Cafe in their hometown of Clifton Park.<\/p>\n
Open since mid-May in a retail plaza on Grooms Road that is surrounded by residential neighborhoods, the restaurant combines her nickname, Si\u00a0\u2014 pronounced \u201csee\u201d\u00a0\u2014 and part of the name of Uthai Thani, the province where her mother, Kulisara Jiraprapai, was raised in their native Thailand. (Si\u2019s given first name is Paullin.)<\/p>\n
They gut-renovated what had been the home of the second location of the restaurant Celadon Thai, adding a bar, an old chandelier and elaborate mirror purchased from the Century House in Latham after it closed, a new floor and ceiling, and a mural that depicts the palace from the famous Ramakien murals, a Thai adaptation of the ancient Sanskrit epic poem Ramayana.<\/p>\n
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The\u00a0Ramakien palace mural has hand-applied gold accents.<\/p>\n
Steve Barnes\/Times Union<\/p>\n
Nearby residents have quickly discovered them\u00a0\u2014 \u201cWe thought we might have a few tables that first night,\u201d Greg says, \u201cbut we had 20,\u201d in a restaurant seating about 50 diners total\u00a0\u2014 as has the smaller community of people with traumatic brain injuries who have heard Si\u2019s story and want to come and talk or to sit by themselves, knowing they\u2019re in a safe, welcoming space where someone understands what they\u2019ve been going through.<\/p>\n
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What sets Si Uthai apart, the Haydens believe, is the authenticity of the ingredients, the recipes developed by their Thai-born head chef,\u00a0Janyaporn Onsa, and their staff\u2019s devotion to Thai-style hospitality. In that tradition, hosting and feeding guests is an honor, and those guests may be sitting on a chair or barstool wiped down with a cloth during the afternoon break between lunch and dinner by Si and Greg\u2019s 4-year-old daughter, Naomi, who shares a middle name, Malai, with her maternal grandmother.<\/p>\n
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Northern Thai curry with spare ribs is one of the restaurant\u2019s most popular dishes. The fiery chile paste at lower right, meant to be stirred into the sauce, is so potent that it sets off sneezing fits in the kitchen when large batches are made.<\/p>\n
Steve Barnes\/Times Union<\/p>\n
What truly distinguishes their story from those preceding the opening of the scores of new independent restaurants in the Capital Region each year, however, is how they got here.<\/p>\n
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In 2019, a decade after Si arrived from Thailand with a suitcase, a dream of an American life and a position as an au pair, and nine years after she met Greg, she was driving on Erie Boulevard in Schenectady to an event at which she was to represent a big regional bank. She\u2019d risen rapidly from neophyte teller to lauded branch manager in about five years, and she believed she\u2019d found her career path.<\/p>\n
A car behind Si smashed into the rear of her vehicle, sending its hood into the truck stopped in front of her. She happened to be on the phone with Greg at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was on Bluetooth talking to me when the guy hit her,\u201d Greg told me during a joint interview with Si at the restaurant. He said, \u201cWe\u2019re just having a normal conversation, and then, all of a sudden, some loud noise, some silence, and then (she said), \u2018Oh, my God. I\u00a0gotta call you back.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
After he arrived at the scene, Si, in shock and a little incoherent, resisted going to the hospital. Greg prevailed. The verdict: a concussion, from which about 80% of patients fully recover within two to four weeks. Si did not.<\/p>\n
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As the months passed, she experienced blurred vision, vertigo and loss of coordination. Sometimes, while walking, \u201cIt was like my feet just flopped on the floor,\u201d Si said. On one of the rare occasions food appealed to her, \u201cMy eyes had the feeling like a slot machine, and I remember the fork and spoon flying away.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was brutal to watch,\u201d Greg said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t really help her, beyond just being there, and we didn\u2019t have any answers.\u201d The bank fired her. Greg had to cut back on the time he\u2019d been devoting to learning to take over his family\u2019s business, Hayden Glass and Screen in Albany. Accident flashbacks triggered by passing vehicles meant Si would get in a car only to be driven to medical appointments.<\/p>\n
Persistent headaches nearly debilitated her until finally, after several years, her third or fourth neurologist suggested Botox to try to address them. It worked, after a few weeks, but the several days following sessions in which 35 to 40 shots went into her head with a 10-gauge needle were agonizing. And this doctor, the first\u00a0\u2014 for whatever reason\u00a0\u2014 to order an MRI and a CT scan, found and patched a leak of fluid from her inner ear.<\/p>\n
While symptoms began to abate, Si\u2019s mental state didn\u2019t immediately improve.<\/p>\n
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\u201cShe developed real social anxiety,\u201d Greg said.<\/p>\n
He invited friends over to help celebrate her birthday, but this upset her.<\/p>\n
Remembering her reaction, Si said, \u201cWhy do you have to pretend to be happy when you\u2019re not?\u201d<\/p>\n
Being pregnant with Naomi in 2022 changed Si\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n
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She said she thought, \u201cNow I feel like I\u2019m worth something. I\u2019m not hopeless (anymore). There\u2019s things I want to do. I have to eat. I have to get up and walk, for her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Si also volunteered at a Buddhist temple in Duanesburg.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo cook for (the monks), have somebody eat my food and appreciate me, it was an inspiration,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
After trying a return to banking, Si and Greg happened to be eating at a local Thai restaurant when its owner mentioned a desire to sell the business, charting a new course for the couple. That deal didn\u2019t work out, but they discovered that Celadon Thai\u2019s owners\u00a0\u2014 for whom Si\u2019s mother had once worked after first moving to the Capital Region, and for whom Si had processed a bank loan\u00a0\u2014 wanted to reduce their responsibilities back to only their Latham location.<\/p>\n
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That was in December. The Haydens took over the space in January.<\/p>\n
Speaking of his wife, Greg said, \u201cShe did all the work to get it all done. She made it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Greg\u00a0Hayden has never before worked as a waiter or\u00a0bartender, but with his wife in the kitchen, he\u2019s\u00a0learning the arts of front-of-house service and mixology.<\/p>\n
Steve Barnes\/Times Union<\/p>\n
Si Uthai Restaurant held its grand opening on May 17. The cafe part, with the Century House chandelier, Thai-style coffee and pastries and other Asian baked goods, will roll out later this fall.<\/p>\n
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Si has not fully recovered. But she is happy.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike (people said) after COVID, this is the new normal,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s OK. It is good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Si Uthai, at 675 Grooms Road, Clifton Park, is open Tuesday to Sunday, closed Monday, serving lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner from 4 to 9 p.m. Online ordering is available through its website. Phone: 518-579-0011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greg and Si Hayden opened their Si Uthai Restaurant and Cafe in May on Grooms Road in Clifton Park, seven years after she suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident. Steve Barnes\/Times Union To create the Si Uthai interior required a complete renovation, from floor to ceiling and lighting, including the installation of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12,858,374,1284,7,8,1787,1283],"class_list":["post-36251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-restaurants","tag-food","tag-latestnews","tag-local","tag-new-restaurants","tag-restaurant","tag-restaurants","tag-sarco","tag-table-hopping"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117389890957241694","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}