The Address Magazine Nov-Dec 2013 #92: The Winter Issue

— Absolute Thai Gardens at The Gardens Mall
← I mean, they can make the decor beautiful but the food
is not there.” That’s an interesting comment from someone
whose background, and heart, is in design – and from someone
who still designs, with immense interest, his own restaurants.
But for Thanee, food is unquestionably the priority.
“Food is number one. In Malaysia, pricing is number two,
service is number three. Decor comes last.” That doesn’t
stop Thanee spending great amounts of time and creativity
on the look of every outlet though. “I love designing them
all differently,” he says, pointing to Busaba in Bangsar Shopping
Centre as his current favourite.
His afternoons, he says, are spent designing, and he dedicates
time to travelling the world in search of inspiration
and ideas. This is why Thanee believes it’s a blessing that
he’s not in the kitchen himself. “Can I cook?” He laughs. “If
you can cook, you can have maybe one or two restaurants,
because you’ve got to go to the kitchen and cook. When
you don’t cook, you’re not scared to leave; you can keep on
opening.” Providing, of course, there’s still time for fun.
“You know, there are many places we could expand to. But I
don’t want to go very far because I still want to get up in the
morning and play golf!”
Thanee lives at Tropicana Indah, which means he’s never
far from the clubhouse. “I get on the golf course – either
KLGCC or Tropicana Golf and Country Resort – at about
6:45am.” But golf is much more than a wake-up call; he
sees great parallels between the course and the workplace.
“Golf is just like business; we cannot make 18 holes the same
score, right? We have to mix it up – bogey, par, birdie. It’s
about how to make the whole 18 holes into a good package.
That is my business; that is golf. It’s the same thing.”
It is this calm approach that has seen Thanee drop his
handicap to nine while also growing his business, and the
early-morning golf is not a habit that he would give up lightly.
He loves the game so much that he goes to great lengths
to protect his morning round. His office staff, for example,
take a company trip annually to locations like Cape Town,
Italy, Japan, Korea and next year to somewhere in Scandinavia.
The goal, of course, is to show the team other restaurants,
businesses and ideas around the world but, Thanee
winks, it’s also important to keep them happy. “I mean they
serve me well, so I can play golf every morning!”
It seems Thanee is living the dream – wake up, play golf,
taste food, design a restaurant, visit a restaurant and then
go home – but he has worked for this lifestyle and he likes
to enjoy every moment. He fell in love with Malaysia when
visiting from Singapore and has since married a Malaysian
and settled with his two children, now 16 and 13, who definitely
consider themselves Malaysian.
“I moved to Tropicana Indah because of my children; we
found a school nearby. I rented the place but after three or
four years I felt comfortable so I bought it. Now I’ve been
there for eight or nine years; we’re very happy there and
with the recent development it’s become like a city by itself.”
Thanee moved to Malaysia more than 30 years ago, and that
time here has had a big impact on his identity. In fact, he feels
so settled here that he finds himself facing a dilemma few people
can appreciate. “Every time Malaysia and Thailand compete
at sport,” he sighs, “I don’t know who to support!”
Whichever side he picks, one thing is for sure when it
comes to Thanee Laivarintr: there will always be a smile
beaming across his face.
62 TA | NOV/DEC 2013