NEW HAVEN — There are things downtown New Haven lost during the so-far-yearlong pandemic, but new things have been brought to the urban landscape, as well — one of which is the Blue Orchid, a new Pan Asian restaurant and kaw soy palace on Court Street.
The Blue Orchid, which opened in the brick-and-wood space that formerly was the Beer Collective (and previously the Blue Pearl) is the baby of Natthawut “Q” Tipjak and Michael Flora.
The husband-and-husband team used the pandemic as a spur to help Tipjak launch one of his dreams: to serve his favorite comfort foods to the masses, with influences from Thailand, China, Korea and the Philippines, among others.
Tipjak is from a rural village in northern Thailand, outside Chiang Mai — and from a family in which his 92-year-old grandmother, mother and aunt all have long cooked up a…
