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from: TASSANEE VEJPONGSA, Associated Press
Posted: Oct 7, 2021 / 10:33 AM CDT
Updated: October 7, 2021 / 11:17 am CDT
Customers of the Chaopraya Antique Café on the riverside enjoy themselves despite the unusually high water level in the Chao Phraya River in Nonthaburi, near Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, October 7th, 2021. Loving gourmets flocked to its water-saturated deck to amid the splashing To eat flood. Instead of empty chairs and tables, the “Chaopraya Antique Café” is now full as ever and offers an experience that the clever owner has renamed “Hot Pot Surfing”. (AP Photo / Sakchai Lalit)
NONTHABURI, Thailand (AP) – A flood-hit riverside restaurant in Thailand has become an unlikely culinary hotspot after fun-loving foodies began to dine on its water-saturated deck to dine amid the tide.
Instead of empty chairs and empty tables, the Chaopraya Antique Café is now as full as ever and offers an experience that the clever owner calls “hot pot surfing”.
If you like to rinse your food with plenty of water, you’ve come to the right place.
Shortly after the water rises above the parapet, the first guests arrive. Before long, the deck is crammed with carefree customers who happily stock up, as if dining in a deluge were the norm.
The operating staff – some of them dressed in rubber boots – carefully walk through the vortex, which quickly rises over 50 centimeters (20 inches).
The restaurant in Nonthaburi, near Bangkok, opened in February in a riverside location that perfectly matches its ancient architecture and decor.
But another severe tropical storm and heavy monsoon rains merged to raise the river’s water level. Add the tides and the result is a daily inundation.
Immediately after the coronavirus was shut down for months, this could have been a catastrophe. Instead – boosted by publicity in the Thai media – it is now so popular that customers have to reserve.
“It’s a great atmosphere. During this flood crisis, this became the restaurant’s signature attraction. So I wanted to challenge myself and try this new experience, ”said 24-year-old Siripoj Wai-inta as he chewed his food while the water crawled up his shins.
The owner called the experience “hot pot surfing”. When a passenger ship passes by, you find out why. The happy scramble to avoid getting soaked by the wave is the moment everyone is waiting for, and with someone dropping by every 15 minutes, no one goes home disappointed.
It is the first restaurant company run by TV presenter Titiporn Jutimanon. He said he was worried about what would happen when the tides came.
“It turns out that customers have had a great reaction. Are you happy. We can see the atmosphere of the customers enjoying the experience of eating in the water. This is how a crisis turned into an opportunity. It encourages us to keep the restaurant open and keep customers happy. “
Best of all, he says, he can make his employees happy by keeping them busy. Even in economically difficult times, only the restaurant itself needs a rescue operation.
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