Bain Coffman and Gui Junta met on the Staten Island Ferry when she was showing the city to friends who were visiting. Coffman grew up in upstate New York’s dairy country, and Junta grew up in Thailand. He lived in Staten Island; she lived in Queens and ran a restaurant in Manhattan. Junta had partnered in restaurants on the Lower East Side when he encouraged her to come see his neighborhood, which sits in the shadow of Borough Hall. Like every borough downtown, St. George has a big lunchtime crowd. But few business owners live in the neighborhood, even with its large residential population. The potential to connect with customers was something that drew Junta to the area, as her Manhattan customers were more transient.
“This is our home, this is our business, this is our neighborhood, and you have more connection,” said Junta. “In Manhattan, people might come in only one time in their lives, and then they’re gone. The tourists come, sit down, laugh, and don’t come back. In the restaurant here, I feel more connections, that everyone is like a friend.”
As the center of government in the city’s most Republican borough, the two see more customers from across the political spectrum than most city restaurants, even though the immediate area sways to the left. On a recent weekend, customers coming and going in the cozy eatery numbered about a dozen. Three languages were spoken at different tables. “It would be great,” said Coffman, “if people could understand each other and not say, ‘That’s weird,’ and instead say, ‘That’s just different; why do you do it like that?’”
Junta thinks the multicultural city would thrive if more people saw things through an immigrant’s eyes. “This is not my culture,” she said, “so everything is new in this country. As Bain said, I wish everyone would treat us kindly in the same way—if you are white, Asian, black, or anything.”
She has experienced prejudice, even in her own neighborhood. “Some people don’t like that I’m not the same color, the same culture, or the same people,” she said. But she believes that simply operating a business in the area has the potential to change perceptions. “People leave here and respect me and the restaurant; everyone respects each other. You can make peace together.”
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> St. George, Staten Island: Bain Coffman and Gui Junta, Restaurant Owners at Chang Noi Thai
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