A lot of people use the word “visionary” when describing themselves. I know I have but what are the true criteria for giving yourself that moniker? It’s quite a label to bestow. I believe we all have our moments but are not “visionary” with every thought in every endeavor, all the time.
That said, I do have a story to tell but it is not about me being visionary. But it is what emanated out of a visionary moment I had in 2013, which has made me feel such a huge sense of pride in another person, I simply had to write about it.
In late 2012, when I was a Senior VP in one of the subsidiary portfolio companies owned by a large PE firm based in New York, they acquired a very large hotel in downtown San Francisco. In the course of doing my job for the firm, the task was to evaluate all the food and beverage offerings in the hotel and make appropriate recommendations to not only elevate the offerings (done in a variety of ways including renovations), but to reduce operating costs at the same time.
When touring the property, there was a smallish, family-run Thai restaurant on the back corner of the hotel. Arguably one of the worst corners in San Francisco, the restaurant was doing under $400,000 a year in sales and paying rent in the neighborhood of $36,000 a YEAR in downtown San Francisco!
After I walked through the kitchen and saw what they were doing, I told my colleagues: “We need these guys out”, and went about figuring out what to do with the space.
The 2100 square foot space was the only space in the 1000-room hotel that was carved out of the collective bargaining agreement with the local labor union. Once we decided what to do, we would need to meet with union representatives and work through our plan with them to get their approval.
I called an acquaintance of mine whom, along with his girlfriend, I had met at a dinner with John Miles (of Steelite USA) in Napa Valley. He had a two-Michelin starred restaurant in Northern California we were talking about him branching off into doing other projects at the time. I called him and asked him if he’d consider doing a small, simple noodle bar in the space and he told me that kind of thing wasn’t for him but I should chat with Pim.
“Your girlfriend?” I asked. “Is she in the restaurant business?” He replied with “No, she’s a food blogger, but is super intelligent, has four generations of authentic Thai family recipes, and has worked in my restaurant in various capacities for 10 years.”
I told him to give me her number and I called her to meet me for breakfast.
I had another client at the time and was working on the conversion of the Mandarin Oriental in San Fran to a Loews. That is where we met for breakfast. While I was waiting for Pim to arrive, I was looking at her Twitter feed and she had 77,000 followers- and without a restaurant! “This woman is a marketing machine” I thought.
We talked a long time and I left that meeting thinking that we are going to get a deal done with her.
It would be complicated but we’d get it done.
I came back to her offering a lease and giving her a nice sum (but commensurate with the size) in a tenant improvement funds assuming she would at least match it to get the restaurant open. We kept all the expensive “people” out of the project (PM’s, etc.), which would just have driven up the cost. Then, we successfully negotiated the buy-out of the other tenant, who needed to stay on the lease due to the CBA and worked with the local union officials to allow her to take over the space. All is moving along the way it should…
I later attended a couple of menu tastings and her chosen Chef De Cuisine- Michael Gaines’- house and was impressed with the flavors, colors, and textures being presented. This was definitely going to be unique to San Francisco.
The restaurant got built and opened in February, 2014. It took off immediately. Kin Khao was VERY busy, in fact it became THE place for ‘the industry’ to go when they got off work. In fact, the hours from 11pm to 2am were the busiest time period!
In June her CDC, Michael Gaines, was named “Best New Chef” by the San Francisco Chronicle. In September, Mark Bittman wrote a two-page spread on Pim in the Sunday New York Times Magazine. Kin Khao was named best new restaurant of the year in the U.S. by Esquire magazine. Food & Wine wrote a piece. Bon Appetit wrote a piece. Vanity Fair wrote a piece and so did Elle Decor, and the Wall Street Journal. The marketing machine was clicking and the restaurant was excellent, as well.
The first year closes and Kin Khao did over $2 million in sales. Rent was 10% of sales- a huge improvement on the prior tenant and also more than 50% of our investment was returned to us.
Pim calls me and tells me she has to shut down her busiest day part due to the fact that BART closes at midnight and she’s having to hand out- and pay for- Uber cards so he staff could get home at night. Her busiest day part was also costing her money. I knew it would be no problem and that people would just try and come earlier.
Roll forward to October 2015 and Pim calls me to tell me Kin Khao is getting a Michelin star! I almost fell out of my chair but we were all super ecstatic for her- this is so cool! We now had probably the only Michelin-starred restaurant in the hotel brand’s system in The Americas.
Kin Khao continues to roll and over a few years is turning over $4 million in sales. During this time, Pim takes over the kitchen at Nahm in Bangkok and returns to her roots, so to speak. Nahm has a Michelin-star.
Our company then acquires a smallish, hotel in an offbeat part of San Francisco with a bigger, vacant restaurant space right on a main street. I call Pim and ask her to jump in and do a new concept that would not compete with Kim Khao but still be within her wheelhouse.
In simplified terms, we agree to agree, we get her tenant improvement funding she needs from our real estate and asset management teams and she is off to the races- again! She designs and builds Nari (a tribute to Thai wowmen) and opens just slightly before the pandemic occurs, which will throw a significant wrench into both her and our plans. I was there on opening night and there had to be 12 Michelin stars sitting in the dining room eating, drinking, enjoying.
San Francisco was one of the hardest hit cities in American as it relates to the pandemic and restaurants. Pim somehow makes it through and re-opens. Kin Khao just reopened recently after being shuttered for 2-1/2 years. Nari has been open for a while as of this writing.
Last week, I was back there on unrelated business and stopped in for dinner (I have eaten there a half-dozen times since opening). I was cleaning up some email in the lobby of the hotel and out prances Pim to see me with her newly-adorned Michelin star plaque in hand that was given to her the previous evening.
I have to say that, amongst the successes I have been fortunate enough to have had in my professional life and the pride derived from the successes, I am seriously the most proud of finding Pim, backing Pim, knowing helping Pim and, mostly, for what she has made out of what we ‘gave’ her and what she has become to her people, the industry, and San Francisco itself.
Pim Techamuanvivit
