In 1959, a Thai immigrant named Lilly Chittivej opened a small restaurant called Chada Thai on the corner of 20th and Logan. The first Thai woman to open a Thai restaurant in Colorado, Lilly impressed diners with her cooking while teaching her son, Pop, her recipes and cooking secrets. When Lilly passed away, Pop and his wife, Nita, opened a new restaurant in Commerce City. Nita recruited the youngest of her five siblings, Arthur Suthithanin, to work in the kitchen preparing dishes using Lilly’s unique and exotic recipes.
After graduating from the Metropolitan State College of Denver, where he received a B.A. in business management, Arthur, or Art as he prefers to be called, worked for a brief period in a bank, but realized he was happier in the restaurant. In January of 1979, he and his wife Linda opened the Erawan Thai Cafe. Linda welcomed and waited on customers while Art perfected the recipes handed down from his sister’s mother-in-law. Charming and charismatic, Linda knew Erawan’s customers by name, and they knew her by her comical and loving disposition. She strove to create an atmosphere that made guests feel as if they were invited to dine in her home, not just out to eat.
Linda and her husband worked together until her passing in 1993. The cafe was recently remodeled in 2006, and Art continues to serve his customers in a friendly and courteous manner with his family’s recipes and the freshest ingredients. In addition to the variety of healthful entrees listed on the menu, any meal can be prepared as a vegetarian dish, and Art uses only natural herbs and spices including kaffir lime leaves and whole Thai ginger.
The Erawan Thai Cafe has received many positive reviews from customers and publications including the Denver Post, which described it as “a great little date spot,” and Westword where it earned the Reader’s Choice award for Best Thai Restaurant.
The history and dishes of the Erawan Cafe are described in the book, The Gyros Journey: Affordable Ethnic Eateries along the Front Range by Joey Porcelli and Clay Fong.