Werakul Laoworakiat Leads Curry Away

There’s a small restaurant by the name of  in the small business district of . 

Nestled between a car dealership and a chiropractor on Edgewood Avenue, this authentic eatery serves some of the best Thai cuisine in the area. If you like all things curry, you will be pleasantly surprised with the food being served there.

I recently had the opportunity to ask Werakul Laoworakiat, founder of Curry Away, a few questions about his restaurant. Here’s what he had to say:

How did you get started in the food business? How long have you been at your current location?

Let me introduce myself first. My name is Werakul Laoworakiat, president and co-founder of Curry Away, LLC. We started the restaurant business a little over a year ago. I believe the whole Curry Away saga could be told in different ways depending on who you ask. 

The reason I'm saying this is because we had four to five people involved at the beginning, and then some parted. In my version, however, I believe it's the nature of mankind to share good experiences with others. It's like when you see a very good movie, heard a darn good song or found a really great headset on amazon.com. The experience of growing up in Thailand with a variety of good food is what I would like to share. And that has brought us where we are today.

What are some of your favorite dishes on the menu, and what are your biggest sellers?

It really depends on what I'm in the mood for. There are many dishes that I love. For those that I don't like, you probably won't see them on the menu in the first place. However, we always find ways to improve our food and don't think we will ever stop doing that. I'm proud of our appetizer items. They have improved a lot from a year ago when we started the business. If you haven't tried our satay, either tofu or chicken, I recommend you do so and let me know what you think. It's difficult to tell which dish is the biggest seller because customers like different things on our menu. If I have to guess, I would pick Pad Thai because it's familiar to people and ours is pretty darn good.

What are some of your personal food philosophies? Is there a specific cooking technique that you like to use most?

Invest in quality—it might take time for people to notice, but they will appreciate it eventually. Take our jasmine rice, for example. 

For the cooking technique, anything that makes food delicious—I'm all for it.   

Are you from the Edgewood/Regent Square area? What attracted you to this particular spot?

I didn't know the area until we had the restaurant business. I wasn't the one who picked the location at the time, otherwise it would have been somewhere else, to be honest. However, once we're here it's my nature to want to be a positive part of the community—that's why we are trying to change things around the restaurant. I must say, however, that people around here are so nice and very supportive, which I didn't expect when I first learned about our location.  

Do you own any other restaurants—and would you ever consider opening a second location?

Curry Away is only restaurant we own now, but from the start, we never planned that it would be the only location.

You’ve recently added an outdoor seating area for your customers. What else would you like the public to know about Curry Away?

Now, we have also added some shade on the arbor. Lunch time customers should have less difficulty with the sun when they sit outside. I would like to thank all the people who support us. One final thing I would like to say to them is this: If you like our food, share the experience.