After a lifelong career working for American Airlines, Som Song never thought she would end up running a Thai restaurant.

Today, she is the owner and general manager of Thai Palace located at 3262 J Street, and she said it feels like fate.

“This place was originally owned by my twin cousins who were using recipes that our family had been using for generations in Thailand,” Song said. “They said they were selling it. I was all ready to retire to Las Vegas and after only a week of legal things, I owned a restaurant.”

Six months ago, Song took ownership of the restaurant and enlisted the help of her culinary trained niece and nephew to run the kitchen.

Under Song’s vision and background in both Thai recipes from her childhood and a career in airline craft services, the one-room restaurant is serving up flavorful dishes in generous portions.

“The area is a very localized place,” Song said. “So we keep the prices down and serve a lot of food that fills you up.”

The diverse lunch and dinner menu, available for both dine-in and takeout, has a wide variety of classic Thai dishes. A popular and sharable main course is the “Spicy Eggplant,” a choice of meat sauteed with eggplant, garlic, chili and Thai basil. There are also curries like “Red Curry,” which is made from scratch daily with coconut milk, pureed chilies, bamboo shoots and homemade curry paste.

Claire Phina said she visits the Thai Palace on a regularly for a particular dish.

“I always come for the ‘Drunken Noodles,’” Phina said.

Song oversees nearly every detail that goes into the preparation work of every dish such as the careful measurement and grinding of spices that make up the curry pastes, which are the backbone of many recipes.

“We don’t buy processed chili pastes and curry pastes,” Song said. “Everything has to be made in house, to keep the homemade taste.”

Thai food differs from other Asian cuisines in its practice of using bright citrus flavors and spices rather than heavier, saltier flavors found elsewhere. 

Thailand’s location in proximity to other Asian nations has influenced the popularization of many types of dishes like noodles and curries, but through use of unique flavors like galangal root and kaffir leaves, Thai food developed its own taste.

Other popular dishes include the “Larb Gai,” a spicy chicken salad tossed with mint, green and red onion, chili and lime, and “Tom-Kha,” a rich coconut milk and lemongrass soup served with galanga and a choice of meat.

“I like to think of customers as friends who’ve come home to visit,” Song said. “I want the food to be comforting and the restaurant to feel authentic and inviting.”

Customers are drawn to Thai Palace’s combination of homey food and casual atmosphere, marked with ornate-gold decor, floral carved teak wood partitions and fresh flowers on every table.

“The food is delicious,” said first-time customer Kathryn Seme. “I’ve had Thai Basil with chicken at other places, but here I love it. I could never find a Thai place in Midtown or East Sacramento that does it this well.”

Phina said she especially likes how easily the shop is accessible from J Street.

“It’s very localized and easy to get to plus it’s not usually too busy and that’s very relaxing.” Phina said.

Continuing her family’s culinary legacy may not have been Song’s initial idea for a retirement, but she is happy to keep serving the East Sacramento area for a few years more.

“After a long career I was ready to do something fun,” she said. “Maybe it was just meant to be.”