Thai Place in Shadyside has closed

Thai Place, in better days...

Shadyside's very own place for awesome Thai food and not-so-awesome service -- the aptly-named Thai Place -- has closed it's doors. Permanently? I'm not sure, but something in my bones tells me Thai Place ain't comin' back. This place has been a Shadyside institution at least since I was in college back in the year *ahem*...I can even recall eating there with a friend when I was 19 and ordering a Thai beer and not being carded, back in the days when I.D.-ing people was still sort of optional.

Flash forward to modern day, and Thai Place had become my favorite neighborhood restaurant for a quick pad Thai or a bowl of curry on a cold winter's night to clear up the sinuses. Good food and not super expensive. However, I'm not super suprised it's closing, for two reasons:

1.) There was barely ever anyone eating in the restaurant. In fact, the place always had a little bit of that eerie, "David Lynch movie" kind of feeling. You felt like you were being watched by cameras behind the restaurant's mirrored walls, or that the other people eating, even some of the staff, were there as props.

2.) The service was...well...not so good. More than a few times I had "hot tea" placed in front of me that was colder than cold tap water. Orders of spring rolls were forgotten to the mists of time. Many a night the silent waitress took my order, served my meal, and collected the bill without a single word. Sigh. Oh well.

The food was great though. And Thai Place will be missed.