ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – A new restaurant is bringing Asian fusion cuisine to Delta County.
Thai’d UP opened for business earlier this month. However, this is not owner Charlie Yang’s first time serving up Thai food in Escanaba.
“Back in 2016, we had opened up Thai Express on Ludington Street,” he said. “That went really well, but we gave it up during COVID.”
Thai Express then moved to Menominee.
“We were thinking of coming back here for a long time,” said Yang. “We just didn’t have the opportunity to come back until we found a spot.”
The building at 1835 3rd Avenue North became available, reopening as Thai’d UP. Yang describes the restaurant’s food as “Asian fusion.”
“There’s a lot of American restaurants here, you know?” he said. “Our cuisine is much different, and just having access to that in this area makes a diversity of choice.”
Thai’d UP offers many options that are difficult to find locally.
“Most of our rice noodle dishes you can’t really get anywhere else—like the pad thai or the drunken noodles—and those seem to be very popular, so we want to expand on noodle dishes,” said Yang. “A lot of the curries.”
The menu also includes alternatives for a variety of dietary restrictions and preferences.
“It seems that tofu is also not offered around this area much, so we offer tofu and vegetarian options, as well as options of no MSG or gluten-free,” Yang said. “If your dietary needs are like that, then we can definitely cater to it.”
Since returning to Escanaba, Yang says he has been overwhelmed by the community’s enthusiasm and support for Thai’d UP.
“We knew before we left that we had a lot of good customers, but coming back, there was even more than we expected,” he said. “All the customers have been really understanding and really showing that they care about us and making sure that we want to stay here.”
Thai’d UP is open Monday from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Visit Thai’d UP’s Facebook page to see the full menu.
