A compact Thai restaurant comes back from devastating Montpelier flooding

This profile of Wilaiwans is the latest in a series planned by the Burlington Free Press on Montpelier restaurants as they reopen following flooding that devastated Vermont’s capital city in July. What has the experience been like? What does the future hold?

MONTPELIER ― The owners of a Thai eatery on State Street hoped damage from flooding that struck on a Monday could be cleaned up quickly, maybe by the following weekend. Then the reality of the devastation set in. Nearly three months later, the restaurant was finally back in business.

What happened during the flooding?

Tim Azarian, co-owner of Wilaiwans, a Thai restaurant in downtown Montpelier, was at work briefly the morning of Monday, July 10, while his wife, Wilaiwan Azarian, ran the business for the day. As he left he could see the Winooski River that runs beneath the restaurant, swollen from days of rain, was starting to rise.

Soon, his wife started hearing flood warnings. “We usually never get it up here. Usually the basements get it,” Tim Azarian said. Wilaiwans restaurant has no basement, Azarian said, but other businesses on and around State Street that do have cellars experience flooding more regularly.

He didn’t expect much flooding at street level. At the end of the work day, his wife put eight sandbags in front of the business to keep any mild floodwaters at bay.

That evening, Azarian said, his wife started seeing video reports about the flood. “It looks like it’s getting bad,” she told him. He still wasn’t that worried. The Azarians stayed away from the business on Tuesday because waters were still high, but returned to Wilaiwans that Wednesday after the floodwaters had receded.

Inside, Azarian said he saw overturned tables, a tilted freezer and wet boxes of noodles. “It was just a mess that looked like it could be cleaned up in maybe two days,” he said.

Then they started digging in.

“The penetration of the water, the damage it does, I didn’t understand,” Tim Azarian said. Images of parking meters underwater don’t tell the story, according to Azarian; the real impact seeps behind walls and beneath floors.

“The disaster just kept growing exponentially,” he said, “as you realize what you have to do.”

How has the recovery gone?

The Azarians scrubbed and disinfected walls and floors in their tiny, 400-square-foot space, and thought it would be OK. The more they looked around, however, the more they saw that the water had gone just about everywhere, risking mold throughout the building.

Tim Azarian said reality sank in when they saw how much “destruction and filth” other downtown business owners were hauling onto the streets in the days after the flood.

“After a certain point you go, ‘You know what? Everything’s coming out,’” Azarian said. They could have “nickel and dimed it,” he said, but decided on a full-scale revamp. Wooden fixtures wouldn’t work in that space, they realized, so they opted for stainless-steel shelves and concrete floors.

Progress was delayed because construction crews were in such high demand throughout town.

“Contractors are king right now,” Azarian said. “They always were kings, but now they’re super-kings.” He credited the community organization Montpelier Alive, which provided grants as well as a forum for business owners to collaborate and share plans to rebuild, as being “a beacon to look at” during that tough time.

The restaurant didn’t get propane service to operate its cooking equipment until Oct. 6. Wilaiwans reopened Oct. 7, nearly three months after the flood. Customers returned almost immediately.

“The response has been very positive,” Tim Azarian said. “We’re down from pre-flood (business) but only a little bit, maybe 10% down.” Montpelier residents have been supportive, he said, and Wilaiwan drew more foliage-season tourists than Azarian expected.

But as winter approaches, he wonders: Will that success last?

What does the future hold?

Azarian said he sees reports all the time about record amounts of this kind of weather or that kind of weather around the world.

“To me it feels like it could happen this fall,” he said of more problems for flood-prone Montpelier. Or, he said, it could be another 10 years. “All bets are off now.”

Azarian would like to see improved warning systems so business and home owners can better prevent damage from future floods, perhaps relying on more than eight sandbags to stem the tide. He and his wife are doing what they can to mitigate damage from the next flood, figuring the stainless-steel fixtures and concrete floors will help.

“I’m not worried about it,” Azarian said. “If it floods again it will be a pain in the ass, but not a disaster like last time.”

He said he and his wife remain committed to the compact space Wilaiwans has occupied since 2012.

“We have a few more years in us,” Tim Azarian said, “so we want to finish that out.”

Hours and information

Wilaiwans, 34 State St., Montpelier. 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Saturday. (802) 613-3587, www.wilaiwanskitchen.com

Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Vermont Thai restaurant comes back after devastating Montpelier floods