Restaurateur brings Thai food to Georgetown

When Dia Ewton opened her namesake Thai restaurant in downtown Georgetown, she knew she wanted to serve accessible Asian food in an untapped market.

"I would drive my car around Georgetown, and I saw it was quiet and unique," she said. "I thought, 'Here is a small town with no Thai food.' So it's a good market."

Ewton said the restaurant's location on the Square makes Dia Thai Cuisine convenient for families who do not want to cook every night.

In the three years since the restaurant's opening, Ewton said she created a menu full of the best noodle, rice, soup and salad plates at affordable prices.

"[The menu] is small, but if you see five pages of food, you don't know what to choose, and I think it's complicated for people to choose what to eat," she said.

Ewton spent her early years in Thailand, where she said much of her family still works in restaurants, serving steaming plates of fried dumplings, pad thai and green curry. But Ewton said for her restaurant, she customizes classic Thai dishes to accommodate Texans' taste buds.

"Here I use my own recipes, and some are different because we have to adapt to the tastes of the people," she said. "I can do almost everything, even if it's not on my menu. If I have enough ingredients to make it, I will."

While Thai food can be spicy, Ewton said she can adjust the level of spice in each dish to make sure none of the dishes are too spicy for her guests.

With a staff of seven, Ewton runs the restaurant six days a week, cooking, cleaning, buying groceries and managing. She said she's proud to serve the only Thai food in Georgetown.

"I will not let my food go out if it's not any good," she said. "If something is wrong, I will fix it."

Classic appetizers

Dia Thai Cuisine offers a variety of classic Thai appetizers for guests.

• Spring rolls ($3.50)
• Egg rolls ($4.50)
• Cheese rolls ($4.50)
• Fried tofu ($4.50)
• Satay ($6)
• Dumplings ($6)
• Fish cake ($6)
• Coconut shrimp ($7)
• Sampler tray ($9)

Best sellers

Owner Dia Ewton said the top-selling noodle dish is pad thai. Yellow and green curry dishes are also popular.

The Dia Thai Cuisine menu lists about 30 lunch and dinner entrees, in addition to soup and salad options, for $14 or less. Guests can select their own meat or tofu for most dishes.

Ewton said she purchases as many fresh ingredients as possible to reproduce dishes similar to those served in her native country of Thailand.

Desserts galore

The restaurant sells five desserts that highlight Thai flavors.

• Fried banana with honey ($3)
• Coconut, vanilla or green tea ice cream ($3)
• Fried ice cream ($4.50)
• Sweet rice with fresh mango ($4.50)
• Sweet rice with coconut custard ($4.50)

Dia Thai Cuisine, 114 E. Seventh St., Ste. 105, 868-0023, www.diacuisine.com

Hours:

• Mon.–Thu. 11 a.m.–3 p.m., 5–9 p.m.
• Fri.–Sat. 11 a.m.–3 p.m., 5–10 p.m.