This Altadena restaurant's neighborhood is gone after the Eaton Fire. It's reopening anyway

"I was out in the evening the other day; it’s so quiet, you can picture tumbleweeds going across the street,” says David Tewasart, aptly capturing what Altadena feels like four months after the Eaton Fire tore through the neighborhood.

Tewasart, who lost his home in the wildfires, is the owner of Miya, one of the Altadena restaurants that survived.

Despite the lack of potential customers, he's committed to reopening his Thai restaurant on May 27.

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“Any step forward is a beacon of light for everyone in the community,” he says. “If that means opening up in this ghost town, turning on the neon sign to give it some life and normalcy, we'll do our part.”

It's one of several restaurants that have reopened since the fires. El Patrón Mexican Restaurant, located up the street from Miya on Lake Avenue, reopened in March.

A booming business 

Tewasart, who also co-owns a quartet of Sticky Rice restaurants serving classic Thai dishes, the tea and sandwich stall Moon Rabbit inside Downtown’s Grand Central Market, and the live music venue The Goldfish in Highland Park, moved to Altadena with his family in 2016.

The veteran restaurateur opened Miya a stone’s throw away from his home in 2023 and named it after his daughter.

“People couldn't wait for it to open. They were thanking me for opening in Altadena, of all things. I've never really experienced that before,” Tewasart says. “That initial boom, the lines, that was surprising.”

In its first two years of business, the restaurant was an instant hit among the neighborhood and nearby Pasadena locals. It drew enthusiastic crowds clamoring for bowls of fragrant khao soi noodles and Thai-style fried chicken paired with papaya salad.

When I ran into Tewasart in the checkout line at Altadena Hardware on Jan. 6, the day before the fires broke out, he shared news that business was booming — the previous month’s sales were Miya’s strongest yet.

Pad Nam, Pad nam prik pao and khao soi from Miya in Altadena.

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However, many Altadena residents have temporarily or permanently relocated elsewhere in the months since the restaurant unknowingly served its last meal. Those who lost their homes are weighing the monetarily significant and emotionally straining costs of rebuilding, while residents with intact houses are undergoing extensive remediation for smoke damage. Some residents have opted to sell their empty lots to real estate developers.

Amid uncertainty among individual households, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues to zigzag its way across the neighborhood, hauling away fire debris from the burn site. As of mid-May, nearly 35% of parcels had been cleared, with fewer than 10 building permits issued.

Total remediation

To prepare for the reopening, the landlord of the building that houses Miya remediated it from floor to ceiling and installed finer commercial air filters.

“Getting up, getting open — not as soon as possible but when it's safe for our customers and employees — was the goal,” says Tewasart.

The opening menu at Miya from January 2023.

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Cathy Chaplin

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Internet service is still unavailable in many parts of Altadena, so Tewasart is jury-rigging an online connection using a Starlink device popular among campers going off-grid. Additionally, Miya is redirecting its phone number to a burner cell until telecommunications service is running again.

The reopening menu, slightly truncated from its last iteration, features many best-selling dishes, including Panang beef curry and pad Thai. The restaurant’s plant-based Tuesday tradition, featuring oyster mushroom fried chicken among its specialties, is also returning.

A long-awaited alcohol license has finally come through, meaning there will also be a “fun selection of single-serve beers, wines, and sake to keep with the quick and casual atmosphere,” says Tewasart. To give diners more options, Miya is also offering third-party delivery in addition to its usual dine-in and takeout services.

Popular dishes such as the shrimp pad Thai aim to attract customers back to Miya in Altadena.

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Cathy Chaplin

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LAist

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While Tewasart has done all he can to prepare for Miya’s reopening, the immense challenge of operating a restaurant in a temporarily deserted community remains daunting.

“I can't help but be a little nervous about it. We just don't know what to expect, good or bad,” he says. “We didn't have any expectations when we first opened. Now, it feels like a responsibility, not in a bad way, but there's more weight to it.”