A long-awaited restaurant offering Thai food and sushi on Bucksport’s Main Street plans to open Memorial Day.
Chalee Thai-Sushi To Go will hold a soft opening on Sunday, May 25 and a grand opening the following day, according to the local restaurateurs behind it.
It’s another new restaurant in the heart of Bucksport and a new venture for Chalee Chaikaew and Vee Napapornipat, who run Siam Sky in Blue Hill and had a sister location in Ellsworth for five years that they sold recently.
The couple, originally from Bangkok, opened their Blue Hill restaurant in 2018 and followed it with Siam Sky 2 in Ellsworth two years later. They sold that business to a friend last month, mainly to pursue a location they could own rather than lease, according to the Ellsworth American. The Ellsworth spot has since been renamed ThaiConic.
The couple first announced plans for a Bucksport location in 2023, in a former office at 52 Main St. The empty building needed a lot of work to become a restaurant and meet town code, according to Napapornipat, which delayed the opening. In the meantime, customers were eager to try it.
“People started to get excited about it, including myself,” she said.
The new location offers a sushi menu, Thai classics, soup and bubble tea with Chaikaew as the chef.
Customers love the sushi in Blue Hill, Napapornipat said, and offering both will give them more choices. The successes of their existing restaurants led them to want to expand, and Bucksport’s proximity to Bangor and Ellsworth should help it reach more customers.
“We want everyone to know what our food tastes like,” she said.
The restaurant will be open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week with some later hours in summer. Lunch is available until 2:30 p.m.
