The owner of a popular Thai restaurant that has two locations in Hancock County is opening a third in Bucksport.
Siam Sky first opened in Blue Hill in 2018 and then opened a second location on Downeast Highway in Ellsworth in 2020, after another Thai restaurant and then a Mexican restaurant had unsuccessful runs at the same address.
The new location at 52 Main St. in Bucksport will be the third for owner Vee Napapornipat, but is expected to be called Chalee’s, after her husband Chalee Chaikaew, who will be the new restaurant’s chef. The eatery will feature Thai food and sushi.
Napapornipat and Chaikaew are still making improvements to the site, which a few years ago temporarily served as a local office for Whole Oceans, a company whose local permits to build a salmon farm at the former Verso Paper mill site recently expired. Prior to that, the building served as offices for the Bucksport Bay Area Chamber of Commerce.
The Siam Sky owners got their local permits earlier this year and this month were granted approval by the town to hang up a new sign at the location, which is directly next to the Bucksport Town Office and has views of the waterfront and the Penobscot Narrows Bridge.
The expansion has been planned for more than a year, but how soon it might open is not clear. Napapornipat wrote on Facebook on Friday that the former office building “requires a lot of investment” to be converted into a restaurant.
She said she has been hoping to open in December, but still is waiting to get the plumbing and other work finished. They also are working to install an underground grease trap at the site, she said.
“We got all the kitchen equipment delivered to the shop. Now we have to install the hood, working on the dumpster area that the town requires,” Napapornipat wrote Friday. “I am so sorry for the delay!”
