Owners of longtime Spokane restaurant Thai Bamboo seeks buyer for three locations

Thai Bamboo is not closing, but the owners of the 25-year-old franchise of three restaurants are looking to sell to a buyer who, ideally, would keep the name, employees and menu.

Tom and Matavee “May” Burgess have listed the restaurants for sale with commercial real estate firm NAI Black and broker Mark McLees. They are looking to sell all three locations at 5406 N. Division St.; at 2215 E. 29th Ave. on the South Hill; and in Coeur d’Alene at 2010 N. Fourth St.

“It’s got a good name. It’s a profitable business. It’s turnkey,” Tom Burgess said. “I’m hoping someone will buy it and keep my employees.

“It’s just going to pass on to the new owners and family to bring it to the next level.”

For customers of the restaurants, the pending sale does not mean they need to rush to get their favorite dishes before a certain date.

The restaurants and underlying properties are being listed together for a total of $8.5 million.

“It’s going to take a while to sell,” Burgess said. “It has great potential. It just needs younger people.”

The road that led to so many Thai dishes served over a quarter century started in Seattle in 1994.

That’s when Tom Burgess went to a Thai restaurant in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood. It was run by the family of his future wife, May.

“I was actually on a date with someone else,” Burgess said. “I had lived in the Fremont area for several years. There was only one Thai restaurant in Seattle. Now there are millions.”

Burgess had traveled to Thailand in 1985 as part of a business trip. He now lives part time in Thailand and May spends half a year there.

But it is those flavors from home that brought the couple to Spokane, where Tom Burgess was raised. He graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in 1976.

The couple opened the first Thai Bamboo in 2001 at 12722 E. Sprague Ave.

“We took over for the Thai Kitchen that was there for 10 years,” he said. “For over 30 years, it was a Thai restaurant.”

Within a few years, the couple opened a new location on North Division. The Burgesses added the Coeur d’Alene restaurant in 2008 and the South Hill venue in 2021.

The original restaurant in Spokane Valley has been closed.

“It had single-paned glass. Customers would come in with their coats on,” Burgess said. “The other three restaurants are new and shiny.”

The couple kept the business afloat despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent inflation following the recovery.

“During COVID it was horrible,” he said. “You couldn’t get anybody to work. We had to work our good employees overtime. It was pure hell.”

The pandemic also shifted customer habits.

“Everything changed. People got used to having their meals delivered,” he said. “They don’t go out to restaurants. The industry has never recovered.”

Washington state’s minimum wage also added pressure to the situation.

“When the minimum wage goes up, everything goes up. Managers need raises, too,” Burgess said. “And inflation has made everything much more expensive.

“I’m very angry at what has happened,” he continued. “It’s very hard to be a small business owner in Washington state.”

Despite the challenges, the sale of the restaurants has mostly to do with personal, not business, decisions, he said.

“It’s a turnkey business operation,” he said. “It’s been profitable.”

Burgess is 67 and his wife is 61. They have a daughter, Audry Burgess, 28, who lives in Los Angeles.

“I’ve been living in Thailand for three months of the year and (May) lives there six months every year,” he said. “We are thinking of buying an RV to drive around and visit people.”

Regardless of how the sale goes, the couple appreciates all the business that Spokane patrons have provided over the years.

“We sold over 10 million dishes. We’ve served millions and millions of people in the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene area,” Tom Burgess said. “We’ve had thousands of employees over the years.”

The couple has also hosted workers from several different countries.

“We had great pride seeing them become citizens. Even now we have employees who speak 10 different languages,” he said.

Like many longtime restaurants, the couple has seen customers who ate at Thai Bamboo as kids only to grow up and bring their children to the restaurant.

“Speaking for myself and my wife, we want to thank our wonderful employees and millions of customers over the years,” he said. “It’s been a blessing to know these people.

The restaurants have “always been a beautiful, peaceful place where people can enjoy a meal family style,” he said. “It’s just going to pass on to new owners.”