(gentle music) - You've spent much time near Belmont University in Nashville, you know about International Market.

They opened their doors in 1975, a time when there wasn't a proven demand for international cuisine in this town.

But Win and Patti Myint had a vision.

They were both from Thailand, but met in Nashville.

- And when he met mom, she kind of gave him an ultimatum.

- Oh!

- I think she's the one that proposed, right?

- Basically.

- So she was like, so basically she was like, "I'm basically the best thing that's ever gonna happen to you.

And if you don't marry me now, I'm gonna go back to Thailand."

- Oh, wow!

- And so a deal was made, (all laughing) and she ended up getting married to my father.

And 1975, the same year they opened up International Market.

So really my dad kind of had a vision as well.

He wanted to introduce some kind of commerce in the Asian community that was not yet existent in Tennessee.

And my mother was like, "Oh, this is my background.

This is what our family did in Thailand."

- [Megan] Okay.

- [Arnold] I know how to do this.

Let's go.

- What was the service like at that time with the market and the steam table and everything?

- So the service back then, it was called International Market for a reason, right?

And market being in the name.

So a big part of this was the products that you could get at International Market that weren't common in American grocery stores.

A big battle of that was that they couldn't sell the products, because people didn't know what it was.

So our mom started cooking the food, putting it on a steam table, made it approachable in a way, kind of like how meat and three is in southern cuisine, which isn't uncommon in Thailand actually.

It's actually a way of eating in Thailand, called Khao Gaeng, where you get rice, and you scoop some curries and stews on top.

So a very similar business model as a meat and three, but she just did it with Thai food.

- Wow, that makes sense.

So people who already have that meat and three culture are just like, "Oh, different meat and threes, but I love it."

- Exactly.

- That makes total sense.

- And people would buy the cans of stuff that she brought in.

- And it also opened up people's palates to trying new and different flavors, because if they could see it, then they had an idea of what they might be trying.

- Totally!

Whereas if you just hand someone a menu, I'm not sure what I like.

- [Anna] Exactly.

- It's like tasting the ice cream at the store.

- Yes!

- Like you get 10 samples and you finally buy one, right?

- Yeah.

I love it.

(bright music) How did both of you start getting involved in the business?

Were you pretty young?

Were you just kind of watching mom and team and wanting to get in there?

- You know, most kids wanna leave the nest quickly and do summer jobs, but for us, it was kind of grandfathered in that our summer jobs were in the restaurant.

We had no choice.

- It was summer camp.

- Yeah, it was our summer camp.

- [Anna] Yeah, that's what we did.

- [Arnold] We both experienced it.

Having to work the cash register.

- Even like going out to eat, like the same thing about the math.

Like my friends would always just be like, figure it out, like tax and tip and everything because I can do it so quick, like early on.

- Yeah, so that's the business savvy side of how we were raised, right?

Which kind of translates into this, but also like the food side for me specifically, I was born a couple years after the restaurant was opened.

And the ladies in the kitchen basically raised me.

I spent every moment after school there.

I built forts and tents in the market side, climbing rice bags.

Every birthday party was there.

I played with food mostly as a kid, mainly because I was bored of the food she was serving.

So I would get in the kitchen and kind of explore myself.

I always was exposed to this world at a very young age.

- And I was born 10 years later, after the restaurant opened.

And unlike Arnold, he was very interested in the food.

I was interested in the business and the money.

- Okay!

- And it kind of explains a lot of our relationship here, because I loved staying up front.

I loved dealing with the customers.

I loved making the change.

I loved counting money and like making stacks.

I love going to the bank with my mom.

Like it just translates so well to how we are as adults now, is that he's the chef, and I'm the business side of the restaurant.

And I also deal with like all the customers and the people because I truly love it.

And he truly loves what he does in the kitchen, so- - That's amazing!

- It translates- - So complementary.

- Yeah.

- [Arnold] Yeah.

- [Megan] The Myints sold their original location to Belmont University, and the restaurant closed its doors in 2019.

But after working as a buyer at Macy's, and living in New York City for years, Anna realized that what she enjoyed about this work in retail, she could get at International Market.

So Anna and her mom developed a plan to work together for the next iteration of the restaurant.

Unfortunately, Patti Myint passed away in 2018, and never saw it come to fruition.

But she knew Anna had a vision to carry on the legacy.

During this time, Arnold had become a celebrated chef.

So naturally, Anna tried to lure him back.

- Now, what sold me to come back initially was the fact that we're opening up International Market again.

And I'm the one in the family that knows the recipes and that cooked.

So for her to be able to do money was one thing, but we had to have the proof in the product.

- I mean, there was also negotiation, 'cause he wanted to do more than mom's hot line.

And he was like, I can do so much more.

- [Megan] It's evolved.

- [Anna] I can be more creative.

And I was like, "Fine."

Because International Market is the hot line, so we'll keep that as lunch.

And then International Market too can be dinner, and that can be your baby.

- [Megan] Yeah!

- [Anna] And so that was the negotiation to really get him- - [Arnold] Yeah.

- [Anna] Hooked him.

- [Arnold] Yeah.

- [Anna] Hooked him in.

- I have no doubt at all that your parents were incredibly proud of you, and would be blown away by what you built here.

What has it meant to you to be able to carry on their legacy and make it your own?

- It means a lot.

The stories are stories I never heard before from customers that still come in.

We have families from different generations coming in.

Like the grandmom brings their daughter who we were their first Thai food experience, and now they're bringing their daughter.

And so it's just been really sweet to see that we're introducing this cuisine to the whole family, kind of makes us feel like we're part of their family.

And when we first opened, it was actually kind of tough, because I was hearing, the stories were flooding in.

When we first opened, we were busy.

I couldn't stop what I was doing to hear a conversation.

And also these conversations, 'cause again, I'm in the front of the house, I'm taking it all.

It would make, they would start crying, I would start crying, and then was like, "What am I doing?

I can't do this."

My therapist suggested I get a sheet of paper and just hand it to everybody and have them write down their story.

So that's what we did the first couple months we were open is on their receipt, their bill.

We handed them like, "What's your International Market story?"

So now we have a stack of stories that if I'm ever wanting a little pick-me-up, I get to go read, and I actually get to listen and hear it.

Versus someone telling me a meal, just kind of like blanking.

- Oh, that's beautiful.

What a gift to have too, to be able to pass down.

- Yeah.

(bright music) - Tell me more about certain popular dishes.

What would you say are kind of the top ones that people order?

And what do you think they love about them?

- Oh, that's a trick question.

- Oh, I didn't even know!

- So what do people order the most isn't exactly what we most pride ourselves on.

(Arnold laughing) - Okay, well I'd like to hear both then.

Yeah!

- So you think of a Thai restaurant, and you have some go-tos.

So obviously we have a dish that's number 30 on my menu, right?

The way I designed it.

But it's the number one on the order list, which is kind of, it's a little bit of a struggle, but that's okay, I get it.

It's Pad Thai.

I don't really advocate for that.

It's just a gateway.

- It's a gateway dish!

- For, it really is.

- Okay.

- If you dig deeper, it was a government kind of propaganda.

- Oh!

- From Thailand to introduce Thai food to the world.

So for me, it's one of these, I call it the pumpkin spice latte of Thai food.

But because you're in our walls, and you came in, we have other things to offer.

Now our signature dishes that we're most proud of, I mean, we're in Nashville, right?

And I think it's pretty ballsy to say that I have a fried chicken on the menu, that why would you put a fried chicken on a Thai restaurant in a city that's known for fried chicken?

Well, truth be told, there's fried chicken in almost every country.

And there's actually a city in Thailand called Hatyai that serves and is known for their Thai fried chicken.

So that's kind of our new signature move, is that Thai fried chicken.

The things that we're doing and playing with within these walls are definitely Tennessee cooking traditions with Thai flavor.

We do a lot of braising and smoking, like barbecue, of our meats.

We have a beef dish and a duck dish that's basically a slow stewed Thai flavored soy braise.

But then we throw applewood smoke onto it.

So it almost gives you that barbecue hint with a Thai sass.

I also love that in the work that we've done with media and press publications like Southern Living shouted us out for being one of the top Southern restaurants.

My cookbook even being a top five Southern Living cookbook, but I'm not making ham biscuits, pimento and cheese.

- [Megan] Yeah.

- I'm doing Thai food.

And also when the James Beard Foundation gave us a shout out as a significant restaurant in the South, are we a definition of Southern cuisine?

Or the landscape of what southern food is?

And for me, that is really cool because we are.

We are a southern American food story that happens to serve Thai food in Tennessee.

So for us to have that identity, more so than the accolades and the trophies, is so significant to what maybe my mother unintentionally put out there in the world, but unquestionably deserves.

(gentle music)