Thailand-born restaurant owner on her path to becoming debt free

Nipaporn “Kukie” Ruadrew has a trick for running a successful small restaurant business: Be prepared to do anything and everything yourself.

“You have to take out the trash and mop,” she explained. “What if the cook walks out? Well, if she does, then I can cook.”

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Theresa Stanley

Nipaporn “Kukie” Ruadrew, owner of Jasmine Rice, recently paid off the start-up loan she used to open her restaurant eight years ago. 

Ruadrew, the owner of Jasmine Rice Thai & Vietnamese Cuisine, speaks from experience. She once had a cook walk out with no explanation the night before Ruadrew was scheduled to deliver her second daughter via caesarean section.

“I’ll never forget that I had to come to the restaurant and clean with my big belly, nine months pregnant. I cleaned until one in the morning,” she recalled. Sometimes, when she was cooking, she’d accidently singe her belly against the side of a hot wok, she said.

Ruadrew first opened her restaurant in 2010, with the help of a $50,000 loan from Community Ventures, a nonprofit resource for small businesses across Kentucky. This August, she reached an equally important milestone: Eight years after the eatery opened its doors, Kukie paid off the last of her loan to become a debt-free business owner.

With only a few payments left to go, Ruadrew decided to pay off the remainder of her loan in full this summer, after earning some additional income by setting up the restaurant’s food truck at the Crave Lexington Food + Music Festival and the Woodland Art Fair.

“Why make four more payments when I have the extra money? It feels so good to be debt free,” she said.

Ruadrew, who has two daughters now, had her girls accompany her when she went to pay off the loan. “I wanted my kids to go with me to let them know that it wasn’t easy. I want them to see how hard I work,” she said.

“I wanted my kids to go with me to let them know that it wasn’t easy. I want them to see how hard I work."

Ruadrew was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand, and relocated to Lexington when she was 23 years old. At the time she was married, but when the relationship didn’t work out, she used her training in early childhood education to secure a job at a daycare, earning $6.25 an hour. Nearly 10 years later, in 2009, she was laid off.

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Theresa Stanley

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Theresa Stanley

As an unemployed, single mother of a 3-year-old at the time, Ruadrew told her mother she wanted to return home to Thailand. She was struggling financially and didn’t see any secure future working in child care. Her mother, who owned a street-food restaurant while Ruadrew was growing up, encouraged her daughter to open one, too.

“I knew I was a good cook,” she said. “My friends always came to my apartment to eat my food, and I always took fried rice to the daycare. I said I would open a restaurant one day, but I never thought I was really going to.”

As a new new business owner, there were moments of doubt for Ruadrew. She thought about quitting at times, but she knew she couldn’t, she said, because she had to support her daughters.

“For the first three or four years, I was struggling,” she said. “I would pay on my loan once a month, but sometimes I missed payments. The loan should have been done in about six years, but it took me eight.”

Ruadrew, who has a cook and two servers on staff, is at the restaurant most days. She believes in the importance of customer service, in addition to outstanding food quality. Many who have met her attribute her success in part to her bubbly, outgoing personality.

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Theresa Stanley

Ruadrew's friendly rapport with customers and willingness to take on any job herself have been key to her success, she said.

“My customers love me, and they like to see me,” she said. “If the food is good but the service is bad, [they are not coming] back. It’s a combination of the two together.”

For Jasmine Rice Thai & Vietnamese Cuisine, the biggest challenge is continuing to grow and reach more customers. According to Ruadrew, success in the restaurant business is the direct result of hard work.

“You can do it if you’re willing to work hard for it. Even my boss from the daycare will tell you that I always worked extra. Every time they asked me to stay late, I stayed late,” she said. “Never say ‘no’ to anybody.”

Ruadrew plans to keep the restaurant and food truck in business at least until she puts her two girls through college. She also hopes to relocate the rest of her family from Thailand to the United States. As far as a second location goes, she has considered it but doesn’t want to spread herself too thin.

“Owning a restaurant is a lot of work and I don’t have two Kukies,” she said. “My goal is to get more customers and make them happy—one location, but it’s packed!”