{"id":200608,"date":"2026-03-11T23:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T23:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/200608\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T23:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T23:55:07","slug":"customers-rally-to-keep-richardsons-thai-soon-restaurant-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/200608\/","title":{"rendered":"Customers rally to keep Richardson’s Thai Soon restaurant open"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Richardson restaurant nearly closed as rising costs and rent pressures mounted. Customers are now rallying to support the nearly 40-year-old Thai Soon.<\/p>\n

RICHARDSON, Texas \u2014 A Richardson restaurant that has served North Texas for nearly four decades is still cooking \u2014 but only after its owner came within days of walking away.<\/p>\n

Thai Soon has built a loyal following over the years, serving dishes made the same way owner, Irean Wongchingchai, learned from her mother. That tradition helped define the restaurant, which customers say has long been known for fresh ingredients and generous portions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe food is good. The food is fresh and wonderful,\u201d said customer Margaret Mulvey-Claiborne.<\/p>\n

But in recent weeks, Wongchingchai began opening up to customers about the pressure behind the scenes. Fresh ingredients are getting more expensive. She\u2019s fallen behind on rent.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is getting harder,\u201d Wongchingchai said.<\/p>\n

Last month, she nearly closed the restaurant.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a matter of days. I was ready to just leave. Taking some equipment, making plans to do a takeout kind of operation on my own, rent a kitchen,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She wouldn\u2019t be the first restaurant to make that move. Last month, New York Sub closed its brick-and-mortar location<\/a> near SMU to focus on deliveries.<\/p>\n

Industry groups say the pressure facing small restaurants is widespread. The National Restaurant Association says about half of restaurants statewide reported they were not profitable in 2025. Mom-and-pop restaurants often face some of the biggest challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cMom and pops probably face some of the biggest challenges because they don’t have some of the scale and the benefits that come with scale as some of the larger brands,\u201d said Kelsey Erickson Streufert with the Texas Restaurant Association.<\/p>\n

She says many customers don\u2019t realize how fragile some of their favorite restaurants can be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we’ve all had that experience where we’re like, oh my gosh, I’m so upset that business is no longer there. And then when you ask yourself, when’s the last time I went, it’s sort of, you know, you draw a blank,\u201d Streufert said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why some customers say they\u2019re making a point to show up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just a lot of flavor in having mom & pop small businesses in the area. And I\u2019m grateful for that,\u201d Mulvey-Claiborne said.<\/p>\n

For now, Wongchingchai says that support has been enough to keep her mother\u2019s restaurant going.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want to voice their love for us. I appreciate that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Richardson restaurant nearly closed as rising costs and rent pressures mounted. Customers are now rallying to support…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[160,162,161],"class_list":["post-200608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}