Jackson Heights Life

DNAinfo New York has an article on the opening of the new Arunee Thai on 37th Avenue.  There's a brief slide show of photos included.  The place looks nice!

Revamped Arunee Thai Brings Taste of Manhattan to Queens

  Recently had a fun celebratory dinner there and was very pleased. The food was nicely prepared and "clean" if that
is a possible food description in that the flavors seemed distinct. Atmosphere was great with good lighting and ambiance.
The only glitch so far is the service could step up a tad. But overall it's absolutely great to have this type of place in
the neighborhood and my crystal ball predicts that they should do very well in this new location. The neighborhood
looks to be giving them a big, warm, welcoming hug.
 Congrats to Arunee for making 37th avenue your new home!

Had lunch at the new place this weekend, food was just like it was at the old place. They were slammed (at 3pm) with folks coming in right up until 4 (they close between 4 and 5). Thought they did a great job with the interior renovation.

I have been hesitating to post this, since there is so much buzz about the new Arunee and the stories about an immigrant family business. But from all the posts about Trade Fair, it does seem that many people on the list care about how employees of local businesses are treated, so here goes:

We made friends with some of the workers at Arunee a few years back; met with them regularly to help them with their English.

At some point, one of them came to us needing help figuring out a letter from the IRS. We realized that the owners were forcing them to pay the employer's portion of the social security tax -- he/she didn't realize it was illegal.  This opened a larger conversation, and to our distress we found out some pretty unpleasant things about how the undocumented workers, in particular, were being exploited and threatened. We really liked the food, so it was hard to stop patronizing them!

We didn't publicize what we knew because the workers asked us not to. However they have long since moved on, so we are doing so now. They weren't whiners -- we knew them for more than a year before they told us anything.

Perhaps, now that the business is under the management of the next generation, and they are trying to change their business model, it's worth it to have a conversation with the owners and let them know how important these issues are to many who are likely to be their regular customers?

I have been hesitating to post this, since there is so much buzz about the new Arunee and the stories about an immigrant family business. But from all the posts about Trade Fair, it does seem that many people on the list care about how employees of local businesses are treated, so here goes:

We made friends with some of the workers at Arunee a few years back; met with them regularly to help them with their English.

At some point, one of them came to us needing help figuring out a letter from the IRS. We realized that the owners were forcing them to pay the employer's portion of the social security tax -- he/she didn't realize it was illegal.  This opened a larger conversation, and to our distress we found out some pretty unpleasant things about how the undocumented workers, in particular, were being exploited and threatened. We really liked the food, so it was hard to stop patronizing them!

We didn't publicize what we knew because the workers asked us not to. However they have long since moved on, so we are doing so now. They weren't whiners -- we knew them for more than a year before they told us anything.

Perhaps, now that the business is under the management of the next generation, and they are trying to change their business model, it's worth it to have a conversation with the owners and let them know how important these issues are to many who are likely to be their regular customers?

I hope you referred them to the department of labor. They handle issues like this it doesn't matter if it's an off the books job or the immigration status of the workers.

I know it's very typical in Japanese restaurants to close between lunch and dinner to do a thorough cleaning. They do not consider it favorable to clean in front of customers. It also gives the staff a chance to rest, regroup, or change shifts before the next rush. I don't know if the same goes for Thai places, but it could be.

What about this 4-5pm closing time? Does anyone know the reason? It's strange (for me, at least).

It also gives the staff a chance to rest, regroup, or change shifts before the next rush.

This is exactly what I've heard about the hour closing time.

the new location has a great look and feel. I still think the food is a small cut below Ayada, Chao and Ploy -- no matter how much they claim they don't tone down flavors, they do so (not just heat, but other strong tones as well) -- but it's still great to have around. very happy to see that people have responded so well.

oh, and as far as delivery? I think they bluff a little bit...about a week ago, we called for delivery and the gentleman who answered the phone said 'it will be about an hour...maybe 90 minutes.' we were set on the notion of thai, so I agreed, and he thanked me for understanding...and had an order at our door in 40 minutes tops.