The counter at Thai by Thai went quiet for good on Monday, as the Palm Coast restaurant served its final plates of pad thai and green curry after more than two decades feeding the community. Owner Sompong Banchanurat, known to regulars simply as “Mr. Thai by Thai,” closed the doors as he transitions into retirement, ending a run that stretched back to the early 2000s.
According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, the restaurant's final day of operation was Monday, August 31. State licensing records reviewed by Hoodline show that Thai-By-Thai Enterprises, LLC first obtained a permanent food service license in Palm Coast on July 7, 2005, meaning the business had served the city for more than 21 years before closing. That original licensed address was 124 Palm Coast Parkway NE, before the restaurant eventually settled into its final home at 250 Palm Coast Parkway NE, Unit 300, inside the Island Walk Shopping Center, next to Salsa's Mexican Restaurant.
Behind the counter during the lunch rush, longtime employee Chaw Pat — known to regulars as “Uncle Chaw” — greeted familiar faces one last time, the same routine he had followed for years. The News-Journal's report, written by Helena Perray, captured that final lunch shift as a quiet send-off for a restaurant that had become a fixture for local families over multiple generations.
Not the First Time Thai By Thai Has Closed Its Doors
This is actually the second time Thai by Thai has shut down in Palm Coast. The restaurant's original location closed on September 25, 2014, when its shopping center was demolished as part of a $40.8 million redevelopment led by Branch Properties, according to Observer Local News. That project transformed the old 29-acre Palm Harbor Shopping Center into the 234,000-square-foot Island Walk Shopping Center, per Shopping Center Business, anchored today by an expanded Publix.
Banchanurat spent nearly three years in Thailand following that first closure before public demand brought him back, with the restaurant reopening at Island Walk on April 27, 2017, the Observer Local News report notes. That comeback made Thai by Thai a known survivor story in Palm Coast's dining scene — one that this time appears to be ending not because of demolition or displacement, but by the owner's own choice.
A Retirement, Not a Forced Move
Community members reporting on the closure indicated that Banchanurat chose to close the restaurant on Monday in order to retire after decades in the local food service industry, according to patronage posts on Facebook. Those posts pointed to the deep personal relationships Banchanurat and his staff built with Palm Coast families over the years, relationships that made the restaurant feel like more than just a place to grab dinner.
Local dining guides and community forums in Flagler County have already pointed diners toward Thai and I, located at 603 North State Street in neighboring Bunnell, as the primary nearby alternative for authentic Thai food, per Facebook posts circulating among local food groups. Bunnell sits directly south of Palm Coast, making the drive an easy substitute for displaced regulars.
A Legacy Business Amid Rapid Growth
The closure lands at a moment of dramatic change for Palm Coast. U.S. Census Bureau data cited by FlaglerLive shows the city grew from 89,258 residents in 2020 to nearly 110,000 by 2025, adding roughly 25,000 people and helping make Flagler County the sixth-fastest-growing county in Florida by percentage over that span. Palm Coast, developed in 1969 and officially incorporated on December 31, 1999, still carries a median resident age of 50.4 years, according to Wikipedia — a demographic profile that shaped decades of loyal, retiree-heavy patronage for restaurants like Thai by Thai.
The local dining industry itself remains healthy by other measures. Flagler County collected $4,434,876 in Tourist Development Tax revenue for fiscal year 2025, a 3% year-over-year increase driven in part by local dining and culinary tourism spending, exceeding the county's projected $4 million budget, per Palm Coast & Flagler Beaches.
Even as one of the city's founding local restaurants closes, Palm Coast's commercial dining scene keeps expanding elsewhere. Hoodline previously reported on the arrival of Chicken Salad Chick on SR 100 in June and a new sports bar concept, Mile Marker 803 Clubhouse, opening at European Village. Those openings underscore the contrast now facing Palm Coast diners: as national chains and new concepts stake claims along the city's growth corridors, a restaurant that survived demolition, relocation, and a three-year hiatus is closing not because the market pushed it out, but because its owner is ready to step away.
