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Main Line Times
Teikoku: another Main Line restaurant victory for Win
By Len Lear
Posted on Thursday May 29th, 2003
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I think it was Mark Twain who said, “Countless millions of people long for immortality who do not know
what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.”
On the other hand, Win Somboonsong is one person who always has more than enough to keep himself
busy any day of the week, thanks to the four Main Line area restaurants owned and operated by him and
his wife, Sutida.
When Win, 37, came to this area as a teenager in 1980 to attend Valley Forge Military Academy,
however, he was as insecure as two left feet. His parents had sent him 9,000 miles from his home in
Bangkok to benefit from the discipline of a military school, made even more traumatic by having no
friends or relatives in this country and by not speaking English.
But when Win was thrown into the fires of this cauldron, he came out the other end as solid steel.
He knew he could accomplish anything he dedicated himself to, and true to his first name, he did.
After military school, Win attended both Temple and Texas Tech Universities, earning a B.A. in civil
engineering from the latter.
Then came a Master’s Degree in engineering at Colorado State University, followed by a tour of duty
in the U.S. Navy as an officer in the civil engineering corps. Just to make sure there were no idle
Sunday afternoons, Win also earned a Ph.D. in engineering from Drexel University while serving in the Navy.
At this point Win’s wife, an excellent chef, decided to open a restaurant, so Win helped her open Thai
Pepper in Ardmore in 1991, and when he began walking on the high wire, he found he did not want to get off.
(The two Thai immigrants, who now have three children, had met each other by chance in Philadelphia.)
“I never meant to go into the restaurant business myself,” explained Win, “but the more I got involved
with my wife’s restaurant, the more I realized it was much more enjoyable and challenging for me than engineering.”
Thus began Win’s career metamorphosis. In 1997 he and Sudita opened the second Thai Pepper in Wayne; in
1999 they opened their third Main Line restaurant, Mikado, in Ardmore, and on February 13 of this year they
christened their fourth culinary offspring, Teikoku, at 5492 W. Chester Pike (Route 3) in Newtown Square,
formerly the home of Bobby’s Seafood.
Originally a barn, the 5,500-square foot property has undergone a Cinderella transformation and represents
a mix of Asian design styles. For example, upon entering, guests walk through a “mini-temple” with a wall of
Japanese rain chains; they collect falling water as it passes through hanging copper cups that drip into a stone
garden. Win himself planned the tranquil shrine, similar to Japanese temples.
The 185-seat restaurant employs Chinese feng shui and Japanese Zen principles to create an overall aesthetic
of harmony and simplicity. Exotic foliage, palm trees and a stone garden give the main dining area the ambience
of an outdoor courtyard, which rests under a 15-foot high exposed roof structure with an airy bamboo grid.
Tables are spaciously placed under smaller copper roofs supported by wooden posts.
General manager Umer Naim, who formerly managed Morimoto in Philadelphia, has put together a list of 10 sakes,
priced from $3.50 to $12, with flavors such as sweet, tropical and earthy. There is also a 64-bottle wine list
and a 16-seat mahogany bar with a Japanese chest displaying many different wines, beers and liquors. There is
a traditional Japanese dining room with low tables and a “Silk Room” with imported Thai furnishings.
The kitchen turns out a huge variety of fresh sushi, priced from $3.50 to $10.50. One of several signature
Japanese entrees is the seared tuna, blanketed with black and white sesame seeds, sweet potato mash and chili
soy sauce ($19), and two extraordinary Thai entrees are the Thai seafood green curry with crab claws, mussels,
scallops, calamari, jumbo prawns and salmon ($17.95) and the “Golden Bags” appetizer — marinated duck with
shitake mushrooms wrapped in rice paper with an ambrosial plum sauce ($6.95) For more information or reservations,
call 610-644-8270.
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By Len Lear
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