A local restaurant is returning to sit-down dining in Bloomington’s historic Restaurant Row.
Blooming Thai held its grand opening Monday at the new Fourth Street location.
Owner Joy Cruz said now that they own the building, they’ve found their forever location. She said she loves the support she’s gotten from the community since the business opened in 2020.
“I know it's small, but I fell in love with this place, and we put our heart in there. We worked so hard to build this up,” she said. “We don't have a lot of money, but we try to make things happen.”
The restaurant originally opened at 107 N. College Ave. on the square on Oct. 26, 2020, taking over the building from Darn Good Soup.
After the lease ran out in May last year, the restaurant moved operations to a food truck.
Now that they’re in the new building, Cruz is training new employees with her co-owner, Peanut.
They’ll still have the food truck at events like Food Truck Fridays, “but maybe not this week,” Cruz said.
The historical Fourth Street building was empty for two years, and Cruz said they received support from the city to take over the space.
One customer, Ken Gatz, stopped by the restaurant for lunch after dropping off his daughter at Indiana University for the semester.
“We go to a lot of Thai restaurants, and we were really pleasantly surprised at the setting, and being able to sit outside and really enjoy the beautiful weather and the food was amazing,” he said.
Blooming Thai is located at 405 E. Fourth St. in the former Anatolia building. Its hours are from 11 a.m to 3 p.m., and 4:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. every day. The store is closed on Tuesdays.
