Name Osathanukroh, left, does the cooking at Thai Orchid, using many of her mother’s recipes. Manager Anne is at right.

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

The construction that has shut down Center Avenue was on Anne Osa’s mind as she got ready for bed one month ago.

She was in Thailand for medical care, leaving her parents and sister back in Moorhead to mind the family restaurant, the Thai Orchid. The medical news was good: Her recovery from a stroke in 2020 was virtually complete, But what her father Addy was telling her was dire: Blocked access to their eatery had shriveled its business to barely 20% of what it would normally be in what’s already a slow season.

“He told me that unless things got better, we were in trouble,” she remembers. “Honestly, I didn’t know what to do. What should I do?”

So she shared a sad and simple message on Facebook: “We would like to tell our customers that with construction in front of restaurant which makes it difficult come in, we still open to serve you. The past 2 months have been harsh and were worst situation for us since our opening 8 years ago. Please dine in to support us, take way or order online. Thank you so much.” And then she turned out the lights and went to sleep.

An hour later, she reached again for her smartphone – and what she saw amazed her. “The first time I looked, there were 97 shares. I couldn’t believe that was right, so I turned the phone off and back on. By then, there were more than 100.”

She clicked on the video feed from cameras outside and in the Moorhead restaurant. “I saw a line of people and full tables and everybody running around. I could hear the phone going beep-beep-beep – nobody had time to answer it.”

It was mid-afternoon in Moorhead (where the time is 12 hours later than in Thailand). Her Facebook post had inspired a flood of support. Faithful customers were eating in, ordering out and buying gift certificates. One Thai Orchid regular ordered 20 $100 gift certificates to share with friends. A Fargo women’s store, The Nines, purchased $500 in gift certificates for its customers and is offering a 15% discount through the end of August to those who show a receipt for a meal there. Another customer, a regular, bought 20 $100 dining certificates to give her friends.

“It kept on like that for days and days,” Anne says. “The sharing went up, up, up. There were 300 shares in the next three or four hours, then more and more in the next days. I had goosebumps the whole time.”

As of early this week, her post on the Thai Orchid’s Facebook account has been shared 597 time and viewed by 89,833 users … a truly viral posting.

More importantly, business has turned around. Though another month or so of construction remains, the restaurant’s traffic is back to what was normal in the past. The Osas are looking forward to another boost as college students, always faithful patrons, return to school this week.

“I wanted to say to everyone on Facebook: Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Anne says, expressing gratitude with the traditional Thai folded-hand gesture called wai. “Our customers are our friends, but we could never have imagined how they would support us in this difficult time.”

The Osa family (they use the shortened form of their surname, Osathanykroh) purchased the Thai Orchid eight years ago. All are involved: Mother Pasorn has brought her family recipes and still makes every sauce. Father Addy provides the business expertise, much of it drawn from the far larger restaurants they operated in Thailand. Anne’s sister Name is the chef, while Anne handles the front of the house.

Anne and husband Saranyu Viriyavegakul have perhaps the longest-distance marriage on the globe. Saranyu, who wass born in Fargo while his parents were studying at North Dakota State University, chose Fargo-Moorhead to raise his and Anne’s two daughters; her parents purchased the Center Mall restaurant and also settled here. Saranyu continued his military career in their homeland, rising to the rank of brigadier general before his recent retirement. Anne spends most of her time here with her girls, parents and sister, while her husband comes to Moorhead at least once a year.

This summer’s disruption isn’t the first to affect the family business. They briefly shut down the Orchid three years ago when an earlier construction project made access impossible. Then came Covid. The Osas hung on, then – as now – thanks to loyal customers who supported them with take-out orders. “The restaurant was down to just Name and me. We wanted our parents to stay home,” she reports.

Then Anne had a stroke. She returned to Thailand for medical care. “It was the toughest time in my whole life,” she admits. She returned to the U.S. five months later and continued her recovery here. She had flown back for a follow-up evaluation by her Thai physician when this summer’s crisis unfolded.

Anne came home to Moorhead last week with more than a clean bill of health. She brought two new ideas that will take shape in September: Their full-service coffee bar will be introducing orange coffee and coconut coffee, and she will debut a Thai Market in the entrance to their restaurant stocked with a selection of Thai imports – coffee beans, handmade items and her own line of coconut lotions and soaps.

In the meantime, the Thai-American entrepreneur is visiting colleges out East with elder daughter Honor, who graduates from Moorhead High next spring. “I was thinking of moving to wherever she enrolls and possibly teaching there,” she confides. (She holds two doctorates, including one in business from the University of South Australia.) “But after all this, with wonderful friends like these, how can I ever leave here?”