Thai Basil - closed

We went by the safeway complex friday night and noticed that Thai Basil space was posted as available for lease. Not sure when they closed.

 

Their Chantilly spot is still going strong last I was there. One of the best Thai in the area.

 

When we live in Centreville we did go to Thai Basil all the time... Very good food and service.

 

I think because there are soooo many Thai restaurants in the area....there's not enough people to keep them all in business. It's a shame.

 

i think the real shame is ppl not researching this area well enough before deciding to open yet another duplicate style biz! ask a few questions, drive around- you don't need a market researh pro to see what we DO NOT need around here!!

If one more thai, chinese, dry cleaner, burger joint, car wash, nail salon, hair salon, wine shop, indian restaurant or harris teeter shows up anywhere between Leesburg and Sterling- i may just lose my mind. :scaredeyes:

 

I'm with you! And the people who rent out space certainly don't give a flying leap either......they just want to rent out the space!

 

Someone contact Hard Times Cafe and have them move into the Thai Basil space - although it might be too small - they could always buy out the neighbor to make it more spacious

 

I wonder if there is any way the Residents of Broadlands could let potential renters know what we would like to see in our neighbourhood?

I am sure that marketing people would love to know what the residents want...and are willing to spend their money on.

Say perhaps a good German place with a deli? :drool:

Of course it is a given that we need way more Harris Teeters and Starbucks. LoL

 

I would LOVE for our voices to be heard. but it really has to reach the right ears- the ears of the potential business owners. i'll definitely put out some feelers with a few folks and see who has their eye on empty restaurant pads here. cuz guess what- if no one wants to open a good german gathaus or peruvian chicken casa, but 10 ppl are clamoring to open another repeat biz- the landlord will give it to the highest bidder regardless. taking into acct the agreements within that plaza of course...

 

For those of you who are fans of the original Thai Basil in Chantilly, I'm told that the Food Network is filming a show there today.

 

HTC is considering the Ashburn area for their next location since the Herndon location closed. But it will not occur (if ever?) for a year to 2.

 

If you turn back the hands of time a few years, that is how it was done. B.F. Saul requested input from residents and there was alively discussion thread on it.
It also helps to call the business you want to see out here and tell them to open up.
I persued the Dunkin' Donuts thing for years, continued to persue them after they said no, and now....hopefully...maybe...possibly....we may finally see it!

 

It's worth the wait! This was one of my favorite places to go when I lived in Arlington and I did manage to get to the Herndon location a few times while living here in Ashburn. I miss my Terlingua Red 5-Way Chili Mac!

 

From what I'm told, Bobby Flay is filming a Pad Thai cookoff with the owner of Thai Basil in Chantilly today.

 

Thanks everybody for supporting this great restaurant - not!

You won't get much better Thai food in this area, but yet nobody patronized Thai Basil. People go to all these other mediocre restaurants but stay away from a reasonably priced, high quality place. Why do the sorry places stay in business instead?

It's a shame we lost them. I know the economy is tough, but they never got the traffic they should have. There are too many Thai places in the immediate area, but none of them stack up to Thai Basil.

 

there were no less than 6 thai restaurants within 10 miles of each other, of course some were going to fail. we tried thai basil and weren't impressed- we tried Anothai and WERE. so that's where we put our support. different people have different tastes- sorry you aren't happy with the 4 thai places left available...

 

The Thai Basil folks knew that they faced a tough, tough market. I remember talking to the manager within the first few weeks of its opening and he lamented the decision to open with so many Thai restaurants in the area and all of the other restaurants in the immediate area. A great product alone does not equal a successful business.

 

Once again I wonder if any of these restaurant owners do even the most basic market research?

Thai food is already a "niche" food market anyway. There are people who love it, some who hate it and probably the majority who don't care. Plunking a thai restaurant in an area already possessing several thai restaurants is very risky.

As redon1 posted, there are 10 thai restaurants in the area. Did Thai Basil really think they were offering anything significantly different from the other 10? Thai Basal may have been good (a subjective term) but were they "that" much better? So better that they thought they could take business from the other 10 places?

Clearly not.

It was a poor business decision to come here. Thai Basil would have been much better off finding a residential area not already saturated by thai restaurants. Restaurant owners need to understand their market. There is a finite number of thai restaurants that any residential area can support.

While it is unfortunate that Thai Basil closed down, I can't muster up too much sympathy for, what I perceive to be, a bad business decision based on a lack of conducting an appropriate market survey.

 

You make goods points about the poor business decision-making, although I think when Thai Basil opened Bangrak and My Thai Place in Brambleton weren't open yet. So it seems the market became even more saturated after they arrived on the scene. Again, good points about a niche market.

 

Ozgood, you reminded me of what the manager actually said in our conversation. I mentioned to him that they had not advertised their opening very much. He stated that in talking to the advertising folks (those ad packets you get in the mail, etc.), he FOUND out that there were so many Thai places already here and more opening up. So, I think you are right about the lack of in-depth market research.