Do you know someone in Dracut who goes above and beyond? Someone who helps in the community but doesn’t receive a lot of recognition? You can nominate that person for the Heroes Among Us award at Thantawan Thai Restaurant. Once a month, owner Jim DiCecca selects one nominee to receive a $25 gift card to Thantawan.
“People can nominate someone who has done good things in the community based on whatever criteria they want,” Jim says. “It can be somebody who volunteers or a police officer – whoever. Just contact me at the restaurant. We’re just trying to put positive things out there in the community.”
Jim bought the restaurant in October 2017 from its former owner because his girlfriend, Pun Stewart, is a chef who specializes in Thai cuisine.
“She’s worked everywhere and been to cooking schools in Thailand,” says Jim, who was interested in buying a food establishment after retiring from Fidelity.
“I was thinking a sports bar would be a fun business, but we started talking about it, and a friend of a friend of Pun’s was working for the former owner here, and she was looking for a partner. But I decided to buy the whole thing.”
He completely redid the interior and opened Thantawan in December 2017. He has been happy with the clientele so far and has a lot of return customers. Even the forced two-month closure caused by the pandemic wasn’t much of a roadblock.
“We do 65 to 70 percent takeout anyway, so we had no problem going 100 percent for a couple of months.”
Thantawan is open Tuesday and Wednesday, 11:30 to 3 and 4:30 to 8; Friday, 11:30 to 3 and 4:30 to 9; and Saturday, 4 to 9. It’s closed Sunday and Monday. Visit www.thantawanthai.com or call 978-275-9902.