There are two special places to Murrayites in the historic core of Murray, the Tea Rose Diner and the historic Murray Chapel. Soon those two places will fuse.

Anny Sooksri, the owner of the Tea Rose Diner, recently purchased the Murray Chapel, which is across the street from the existing restaurant, with plans to upgrade the historic building and relocate the Tea Rose Diner into the space. 

Sooksri has been operating the Tea Rose Diner for 18 years now, having survived ongoing construction and a global pandemic, in a tricky location. Her path to restaurant ownership started after the 2004 tsunami in Thailand, which killed more than 230,000 people in communities surrounding the Indian Ocean.

Inspired to help her homeland, Sooksri organized a fundraiser and cooked for over 100 people. When she pulled it off, she thought, “If I can do that, maybe I could do a restaurant.”

She says she’s not a person who thinks and doesn’t act. She jumps right in. 

“Life is too short, and what if I got hit by a car and didn’t do something I loved,” Sooksri asked herself. So, with that mindset, she quit her job as a supervisor at the post office, took some of her favorite recipes from home, and opened the Tea Rose Diner. 

At that time, Thai food was hard to find in the Salt Lake Valley and the offerings available catered to an American palate. Sooksri changed that, cooking food that she loved as a child in Thailand. 

Though she didn’t have restaurant experience, she said, “I love to eat and I love good food. My grandma is a chef in Thailand for a royal family, so maybe that’s where I get it.” 

Why does she love Murray?

The Tea Rose Diner opened in a former burger shop in a tiny building at 65 E. 5th Ave. Sooksri started with just one flat grill and two burners in a kitchen that is still so small that, “I joke that our cooks can’t walk by each other without sexual harassment.”

A couple of months after opening, the restaurant was written up in the Salt Lake Tribune and the next Sunday, with only herself and one server available for an anticipated slow-ish day, every table filled and she had a line out the door. 

“Some people were mad because it took so long to get their food, but many started helping to clear tables, wash dishes and cut the vegetables,” Sooksri said. “They became my friends.”

She loves Murray because she has so many regular customers. “So many people have been eating with me since I opened.” There’s Mr. Day (Clint Day of Day Murray Music) who used to visit the restaurant sometimes twice a day and still eats frequently at the diner. 

There’s Howard Brown who not only eats at the restaurant two to three times a week, but who comes in early to help, “teach my people English,” as the Tea Rose Diner has many employees who don’t speak English as their first language. 

Paul Pickett, District 1 councilmember, is also a longtime fan. “When my family immigrated to the United States, we did what most immigrant families do and that is, open a restaurant. I grew up cooking next to my mom and dad. As a result, there is a soft spot in my heart for local restaurants, especially those run by immigrants. I have been a customer of Tea Rose Diner for over a decade now, I love their food, but what I love even more is the local flavor it brings to Murray’s downtown area. We look forward to a wonderful downtown with Anny’s restaurant as a showpiece.”

The Tea Rose Diner will continue to serve from the existing location during the remodel of the chapel.

“I don’t want my people to lose their jobs,” Sooksri said. “The people who work with me are my family, since my original people are still in Thailand, and many have been with me since I opened. I don’t want them to have to travel to a different location that wouldn't be as easy for them.” 

Sooksri and her husband (who she affectionally calls, Jeffi) currently operate several other establishments, including Chabaar Beyond Thai, Fav Bistro, Uncle Jeffi’s, and Tea Rose Thai Express.

The Tea Rose Diner will blossom

Murray’s redevelopment board accepted Sooksri’s offer of $120,000 to buy the historic Murray Chapel and she plans to invest $800,000 in renovations. The chapel is situated within the Block One redevelopment area and is one of several historic buildings. 

The chapel, which was originally a Baptist church, was relocated in the early 1980s from about 4800 South to the Block One area and was used as a wedding venue. The city repurchased it in 2015 for future redevelopment. Sooksri will take it from here.

“I like to say I bought the land with the honor to keep up the chapel,” Sooksri said. “But we will definitely build out a bigger kitchen.”

She explained they plan to expand out the back in a greenhouse-type addition, with lots of windows, to keep the historic building uncompromised, understanding all changes will need to be approved by the historical preservation groups, the council and the city.  

She is currently working with an architect and talking to contractors and hopes to start construction in the summer, anticipating it will take close to a year until the new location is ready to open.

“There will be street-level outdoor patio seating, and the main door will open to the south, for feng shui reasons,” Sooksri said with a laugh. “The south entrance is supposed to be pretty and well-maintained, to create good luck and make money.”

The new restaurant will serve Thai-inspired breakfast, lunch and dinner. And unlike the current location, they plan to serve alcohol. 

“If the council approves, with the addition in the back and seating above, the restaurant will serve three times as many,” Sooksri said. “Since Murray wants to make Poplar Street walking-only and event street, I want people to have a place to sit down and relax. A place for neighbors and people who work at the hospital to come and sit and clear their head.”

She also hopes to have a coffee bar and an option to rent out the space for events, or even weddings, to honor the history of the space as a church and as a former wedding venue.