Thai restaurant moving to former Newk’s

Everyday Thai LLC is relocating less than a mile away in a move that will more than double its square footage and increase its kitchen space fivefold.

Owner Steve Shutts said he purchased the building, a former Newk’s Eatery at 220 W. Battlefield Road, for $1.75 million. The Newk’s restaurant closed in April 2019. Shutts plans to open at the new location in mid-February.

“It’s nearly all driven by kitchen capacity and space,” Shutts said.

At its current home, located at 2926 S. Campbell Ave. in Imperial Plaza, Everyday Thai’s overall square footage is 2,000 and its kitchen space is 400 square feet. That’s growing to 4,200 square feet overall and 2,000 for the kitchen at the new location, he said.

Visibility also is a driver behind the move, Shutts said. He and his wife, Thippawan, opened Everyday Thai in January 2018 after previously operating a food truck for two years in the Fort Leonard Wood area, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.

“If you’re not really looking for us when you’re driving on Campbell, you could drive past us a hundred times and not know that we’re here,” Shutts said.

Shutts said he’s investing about $100,000 on renovations to the former Newk’s.

For Everyday Thai, 2019 was a transformative year. In January, the restaurant made Yelp’s 2019 Top 100 Places to Eat list.

“That doubled us basically overnight,” Shutts said. “It was pretty life-changing.”

Everyday Thai closed out 2019 with roughly $820,000 in revenue, far surpassing the $300,000 recorded during its first year, he said.

Everyday Thai’s No. 1 menu item is pad thai, followed by curry, he said. At the new location, he plans to hire about 10 new employees. Currently, the restaurant employs 14.

At the other former Newk’s Eatery in Springfield, at 2639 S. Glenstone Ave. near Battlefield Mall, restaurateur Michael Felts is working on a barbecue and Cajun restaurant called Bourbon and Beale.