Sophia Chanthapanya, 14, moves between tables at a local restaurant, taking away plates and refilling drinks while customers talk over dinner. After school, she trades her homework time for a towel and tray, helping as a bus girl while her mother stays on her feet from open to close. For Sophia, this busy routine is less about earning money and more about supporting the effort that keeps her family business running.
Chanthapanya’s family business, known to locals as the St. Louis restaurant Pad Thai, is the result of her mother, Mimi Chanthapanya’s, lifelong dream of starting a business that would celebrate and share her culture with the United States.
“It was definitely about sharing culture and bringing Thai food to America. [My mom] wanted to show people the culture of Thailand,” Sophia Chanthapanya said. “It’s important for people to open their minds, to acknowledge that we exist too, even though we’re different. It’s nice to know other people and how they were raised.”
Mimi Chanthapayna immigrated to America after Sophia’s aunt, Mio Guyer. Their lifelong friendship began in high school and continued as they earned their bachelor’s degrees in Thailand, married in America, and eventually opened a business together. After Mio immigrated, she recommended her friend Mimi to a man who worked at a Thai restaurant in O’Fallon, Illinois; he would later become Mimi’s husband. Mimi then joined them in America, and the three worked at the same restaurant, gaining the experience they needed to open their own restaurant in Lamplighter Square.
“That’s how we learned how to do business here, and we had a background in cooking already, so we opened Pad Thai over here. It was very small, so we expanded. We have been open since 2013, so about 12 years,” Guyer said.
For Mimi and Mio, the success of their restaurant translates to safety, security and their idea of the “American Dream.” They were able to start a business that provides the family with the means to live comfortably and independently, without financial burden.
“Some people dream this big, and some people dream this big, but for me, I don’t dream so big, but I achieve it because I’m an immigrant. We live comfortably, and we make some good money; we don’t need to look at the price tag before buying, so I think I’m happy. I don’t have to have a helicopter or a plane, y’know, I’m happy,” Guyer said.
Despite their success, this stability is not guaranteed. Like many immigrant-owned restaurants, Pad Thai has felt the overwhelming pressure of rising food costs tied to tariffs on imported ingredients, forcing the owners to raise prices just to keep up. According to Sophia, her parents tried to keep the increases small, concerned that higher prices might discourage customers or make regulars stop coming in. For Sophia, these anxieties regularly surface.
“We had to raise food prices a bit. We still made it affordable. My opinion was that we would have to raise prices a lot so that we could afford the prices and the ingredients.”
While her parents shield her from most financial details, the stress still finds its way home through work and fewer days off.
Beyond rising costs, immigration policies remain a constant presence in her family’s story. Mimi and Milo were able to open their restaurant only after navigating extensive legal requirements and background checks that make business ownership challenging for immigrants. Mio explained that while she and Mimi came legally, she worries for others who come to the U.S. looking for the same chance at security, only to face uncertainty and fear instead.
“Everyone that comes here wants their life to be better; that’s why they cross the border. For some people, they come in and stay. They don’t go back to their own country. It’s not right [to immigrate illegally] but those people take a chance to come here even though they become illegal, and they think that America will make their life better. But immigration is so hard for them that you have to pray for everyone, you know? And since we see and we know people, they don’t do anything bad. They just want to live here peacefully,” Guyer said.
