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newlenoxpatriot.com News
the New Lenox Patriot | February 1, 2018 | 11
Oy’s brings authentic Thai food to town
Amanda Stoll, Assistant Editor
Oy’s Thai Cuisine
1880 E. Lincoln Highway,
New Lenox
Hours:
11 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-
Thursday
11 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday-
Saturday
Closed Sunday
Sunday: Closed
Phone: (815) 462-9000
Online: www.
oysthaicuisine.com
New Lenox has a multitude
of restaurants, but the
most recent addition to the
food scene is bringing a variety
to the mix.
Dozens of people, including
members of the New
Lenox Chamber of Commerce
and Mayor Tim Baldermann,
gathered at Oy’s
Thai Cuisine in New Lenox
on Jan. 24 for its grand opening
celebration.
Owners Bryan and Churairut
“Oy” Hunsaker
opened the restaurant the
week before the ribbon cutting
with a limited menu, but
rolled out the full menu for
the grand opening.
Oy is originally from Thailand,
and has been cooking
Thai food for her husband
and their family and friends
for many years — many of
whom have told them they
should open a restaurant.
“Oy’s from Thailand,”
Bryan Hunsaker said. “She’s
a very good cook. She’s
been cooking for friends and
neighbors for years doing
special events — a little catering
here and there. Everyone’s
always told her, ‘You
should open a restaurant,’
so that’s been brewing for
many years.”
Their children have grown
older, and Bryan Hunsaker
had a career change, so the
time seemed right for both
of them.
“We’ve been in the community
for close to 20 years,
and we like it here and
thought it would be nice to
set up something close to
home where we could work
together,” Bryan Hunsaker
said. “...We decided we’d
rather be partners and work
together than for somebody
else.”
New Lenox has a variety
of Italian, Mexican and Chinese
food options among
other American food establishments,
but Oy’s is the
only Thai restaurant in town.
“They’re going to bring
some of those diverse food
items that we don’t have in
town,” Mayor Tim Baldermann
said. “People want
to have a little diversity.
They’ve got different eating
habits and different tastes.
We do have a lot of nice eating
establishments, but they
are looking for a variety.”
He said the restaurant
gives community members
in New Lenox more options,
which may be especially
helpful for busy and active
families who may have two
working parents.
“They want some good
healthy options, they want
some different tastes and this
Thai restaurant is obviously
something that we don’t
have,” Baldermann said.
While some of the menu
items, such as the egg rolls
and crab rangoons, are familiar
to Chinese food lovers,
Bryan Hunsaker said the
flavors are different.
“Chinese and Thai food
are different. There’s a few
Chinese restaurants in town,
and they’re fine,” he said.
“But, they make a different
kind of food than what Thai
people make,” Bryan Hunsaker
said. “So, Thai food has
a lot of flavors. It has a lot
of spices. You can make it as
hot as you want. It’s fresh.
Owners Bryan and Oy Hunsaker pose for a picture Jan. 24 during Oy’s Thai Cuisine’s ribbon cutting. The restaurant is
located at 1880 E. Lincoln Highway. Photos by Amanda Stoll/22nd Century Media
Dozens showed up to the ribbon cutting, including
members of the New Lenox Chamber of Commerce and
Mayor Tim Baldermann.
It’s healthy.”
He said it is also hard to
make, which he said they
have experienced with
teaching their staff the intricacies
of Thai dishes. It is
coming along well, he said,
but there was a learning
curve for people not native
to Thailand.
“Thai food is hard to
make. It really requires
someone from Thailand or
someone who’s spent a lot
of time in Thailand because
there’s a lot of ingredients
[and] the prep is very intricate,”
he said.
The recipes are all from
Oy herself, and cooking
Oscar Gonzalez cooks one of Oy’s specialty dishes.
from experience all these
years has shaped her dishes.
Bryan Hunsaker said
that has posed some unique
challenges for her; however,
because she has had to dissect
her cooking to create
recipes where she may have
just added a bit of this and a
dash of that before.
“This is all previously undocumented
material. Oy’s
been cooking these things
all her life,” Bryan Hunsaker
said. “...So, it’s been
a lot of work for her to sit
down and decide what really
goes into these things
as opposed to just picking
some [things] off the shelf.”