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Sam Rattanopas and Mina Sudsaard’s friendship has survived decades and an international move, but starting a restaurant together could have ended it. When Rattanopas decided to open her own upscale Thai restaurant, NaKorn, in Evanston after years of working in the restaurant industry, she “lured” Sudsaard in from a career as a graphic designer to be a co-owner.
Sudsaard then received an equal commitment from Rattanopas in return, assigning her ambitious DIY tasks to turn a former bank into an antique-seeming space with the feel of a bazaar: sanding lumber for tables, painting patterned wooden screens, suspending lightbulbs in birdcages.
“We built everything,” says Sudsaard. “It’s a combination of naïve and passion.”
“And stupid,” Rattanopas chimes in with a laugh.
They poured…
