Amplifying Asian Americans: 3 Aunties Thai Market
3 Aunties Thai Market is a Thai grocery store and neighborhood bodega in Woodside, Queens that offers imported Thai products, fresh ingredients, and cooking utensils essential to authentic Thai cuisine. In this piece, the market’s founding auntie and her family invite Hailey to their new, second location for an evening filled with storytelling, smiles, and a very silly cat.
In this blog series, we highlight creative pursuits outside the music industry and by Asian American Pacific Islanders, as part of our mission in Amplifying Asian Americans, or #AAA.
Last month I squeezed into a packed 7 train running express from Grand Central to Flushing. It was rush hour, the US Open was kicking off, and there was a Mets game that night. I exited the train before most, at the 61 St Woodside station, and walked a couple blocks to the new, larger, second location of 3 Aunties Thai Market. Entering the store transported me straight back to my time in Bangkok. I was greeted with a land of smiles, adorned with gifts (money refused to be taken), and asked more questions than I could ask of the family that runs the store.
Plum (Napat Snidvongs) will be performing in the upcoming show, Linguistics, at Rockwood Music Hall Stage 3 on Thursday, September 15. Tickets are available now!
I had come to interview the store’s founder, Kate (a nickname, which is common in Thai; her full name is Katekanya Sirapatorn), and her son, Plum (also a nickname; his full name is Napat Snidvongs). Plum is a friend of my partner’s from their time working in film, and he is also a musician who will perform in our upcoming show, Linguistics. Plum told my partner about 3 Aunties years ago, when there was only one very small store, which I promptly visited and bought 5-pound tubs of curry paste that would last me through the pandemic. I did not introduce myself to Kate at the time, and when I asked Plum to interview her this year, there was some natural hesitation.
Kate is shy around strangers, not completely comfortable speaking English despite her near fluency in it. When I arrived at the store last month, she was eating dinner in the back kitchen, and she continued to manage the store throughout the interview, moving from the kitchen to the cash register and through the aisles in between. She said hello, insisted that I have some coconut water (which was delicious, of course), and quickly deflected the conversation. “She should talk to Angie,” she told Plum in Thai, who translated for me. “[Angie]’s been here since the beginning.”
Angie works part-time at the store. She is a junior in high school and lives nearby. “I was in the fifth grade when the store opened,” she said, “and I still come to work after school or in the summer almost every day.” Born in the city, Angie is confidently bilingual and is often the spokesperson for the store. Last year she was interviewed by Grub Street for a piece about bodegas and famously provided the article’s closing line: 3 Aunties is absolutely a bodega, she proclaimed, “because we have a cat.”
“In Thai culture, aunties are like Karens but less bad. ”
We’ll get to the cat soon enough, but it was around this time during the interview that Angie had to turn her attention to a customer and I turned back to Plum and Kate for some questions. Plum’s brother, Pod (Thai for “corn”) moved to Washington, DC for graduate school, and Plum followed shortly after. They didn’t like DC, so they moved to New York and found jobs, and Kate joined them around 2009. “It was too hot in Bangkok,” she answered when I asked her why she moved. Back in Bangkok, she owned a collectible items business that grew into a factory, so upon moving to New York she sold items made in Thailand on Amazon. One of her items, a shark-shaped dog and cat bed, was sold to Katy Perry and caused her business to go viral overnight.
Then, when her bed supplier went out of business, Kate was approached by an old friend who was bored from retirement and was interested in opening a grocery store. There was already a Thai grocery store in Woodside, but it was not well cared for, so Kate took it over with the retired friend and a third friend from Bangkok. They were the three aunties, which would become the store name and inspiration, coined by Plum because “in Thai culture, aunties are like Karens but less bad. They are very nosy and needy.” Nosy and needy are the exact qualities it takes to run a community store, because as Kate showed me, she’ll always find out what you need and get it for you.
“You’ve been to Thailand?” Kate asked me when I laughed about the Bangkok heat, the first time she spoke to me in English. “You are funny too!” she said when I laughed at Plum’s joke about aunties. “You like Thai food? You are vegan?” she asked when I told her my favorite brand of curry, Maesri. “Here, let me show you the pad thai noodles that Chrissy Tiegen likes! They’re vegan!”
“Humor sells for Thai people,” said Plum as Kate pulled me toward the noodles. “She likes you now.” Kate’s face had lit up when she told me about Katy Perry, so I wasn’t surprised to see that she had a small sign next to these noodles explaining that they were Chrissy Tiegen’s favorite brand.
“I think what makes this place special and successful is that Kate takes risks on the foods she supplies.”
“Your mom knows how to market,” I said to Plum. She is also a smart business woman. She had never worked in a grocery store before she opened 3 Aunties, and when I asked her what the hardest part of the experience was, she said “everything.” But during the pandemic, they only closed the store for three days before a line started forming outside. The community had always motivated Kate, and the community supported her so strongly that she soon had the profits to expand. The second store opened earlier this year, and it was specifically chosen because of its large basement, which Kate uses to supply her online Shopify that ships nationwide.
Plum and Angie took me downstairs to see the basement while Kate closed the store. It was at least 2,000 square feet and filled to the ceiling with extra stock and boxes. The basement is also where the cat lives during the day. His name is Mac–short for mackerel, his favorite food–and he loves to pop bubble wrap. He will also jump into bags face-first. Angie suspects he does this because he thinks he’ll be brought upstairs, where he eats his dinner and sleeps overnight.
Mac in bag, we returned to the store only to be met with another bag, this one full of vegan goodies Kate had picked out specifically for me. I protested and tried to pay, but she insisted that her favorite thing is to introduce new food to people. Pod was also here now, swinging by to help close, and there were still customers rolling in. One came for fresh Thai iced tea, another for the store’s famous grilled pork with sticky rice. “You’re too late!” said one of the shopkeepers, “come earlier next time.”
“This is my fun place.”
She clearly recognized this customer, so I asked how many regulars they have. “At least 60,” said Angie. Many come from out of town–even as far away as Boston–to stock up on things. One regular is a cancer survivor that Kate was emotional telling me about. There are more than just Thai customers, too. Their second store is in a part of Woodside that is more Filipinx and Irish, so they see customers of all backgrounds. “I think what makes this place special and successful,” Angie told me in private when she was showing me some of her favorite products, “is that Kate takes risks on the foods she supplies. She’ll support very localized foods from Thailand and even small businesses that Thai Americans are starting here. People trust her to have the essentials, but they also come for the surprise.”
Having been to Thailand before and experienced Thai people’s hospitality firsthand, Kate and Plum’s friendliness did not surprise me. What did was the creativity of the store, from Kate’s “risk” products and online shop, to the bold, colorful logos that Plum had commissioned from a Thai artist. The stores are small–and yes, they are absolutely bodegas–but they are also immersive and imaginative. “This is my fun place,” said Kate. “I can see why,” I said on my way out, a bag full of gifted goodies on my shoulder and already excited to return. At 3 Aunties, there is nothing but fun to be had.
