Couple proud to open Live Mon Thai-Malay Restaurant in Akron

After moving to the United States as refugees in 2010, husband and wife Sike and Sajin Lawi have recently realized their dream of owning their own business — Live Mon Thai-Malay Restaurant in Akron.

The couple moved briefly to Kentucky before relocating to Akron that year. They are originally from Myanmar and had moved to Malaysia in 2003 as refugees before coming to the United States. The Lawis are from the Mon ethnic group of Myanmar.

Before becoming a restaurant owner, Sike, 34, did factory work at Steere Enterprises, a plastics fabrication company in Tallmadge. Sajin, 42, worked as a nail technician at DN Nail Spa in Montrose.

But both have a restaurant background, with Sike having worked his way up to chef and manager at a Chinese-Malay restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Sajin worked at a Thai restaurant in Malaysia for six years.

The Lawis became American citizens in 2017. Last year, they began consulting with Thet Win of the nonprofit Asian Services in Action (ASIA) about starting their own business.

Win, a small-business adviser with the Apex Fund for Economic Opportunities, which is part of ASIA, talked to them about their restaurant cooking and management background. They talked about their cash flow, what rental price they could afford, and their need to find a building with a kitchen.

In late August, Sike learned that the building that formerly housed the Happy Crab Chinese restaurant was available on Brittain Road in Akron. The Lawis and Win saw the space right away and the couple signed a rental agreement with the building owner the next day.

Through ASIA (Apex), Win helped the couple with their business registration, building license, health department application, and translation and language assistance with their landlord. The Lawis renovated some space to create a storage room, painted and put a new freezer in the kitchen.

Win, who is Burmese, also provided the couple with her own hands-on help for Live Mon's grand opening, which was Nov. 9.

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The restaurant has two dining spaces, with the main room seating 24 and a separate room that can serve as a party room seating 50. The main dining room has a large bar that Live Mon isn't yet using. The Lawis have decided to wait to see what customers want.

The menu at Live Mon

The restaurant menu, which features Thai food with a Malaysian taste, features more than 30 appetizers, soups, salads and entrees. That includes spring rolls and Thai dumplings for appetizers, two lemongrass-based as well as wonton soup and papaya salad.

Entrees include red, yellow, green, panang and massaman curry; Pad Thai; pho and six fried rice dishes. Their best business so far is for dinner but the restaurant owners want to get the word out they're they're also open for lunch, six days a week.

Live Mon's most popular sellers are orange chicken, sweet and sour chicken, fried rice and pineapple fried rice, Sike said.

Sajin recently demonstrated making mango popping boba soda juice, using mango flavoring, simple syrup, water, ice and popping boba pearls.

"We have a lot of flavors," she said.

The popping boba soda juice and yogurt juice come in nine fruit flavors. Live Mon also offers bubble tea milk shakes and smoothies in 10 flavors, ranging from chocolate to green tea to watermelon.

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So far, a number of the restaurant's customers are from Asia, including Chinese, Burmese, Korean and Malaysian guests.

The Lawis, who live in Akron's Firestone Park neighborhood, were drawn to Akron because of its Mon community. They have two other restaurant employees who are also Mon — Htaw Lewi and Khin Loon.

Sike Lawi's friend, Na Ba Htoo, whom he used to work with at Steere Enterprises, also was helping out at the restaurant during lunch in late November.

"That's what all of this community (does)," Win said of the Mon people helping each other.

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The Lawis used their savings to start their business. Now, Win has applied for a low-interest $25,000 Apex business loan on their behalf for restaurant supplies.

Win said starting Live Mon was a lot of work but was well worth it to the Lawis.

"That's the American dream, so right now, their dream (came) true," she said.

Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.

Details

What: Live Mon Thai-Malay Restaurant

Where: 1312 Brittain Road, Akron

Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Saturday

Phone: 234-312-9826

Information: Live Mon Thai-Malay Restaurant on Facebook

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Couple opens Live Mon-Thai Malay restaurant with aid of ASIA nonprofit