After 4 or 5 years of teaching English and tired of being dicked around, I lay on a beach and thought "shit, what the hell am I going to do next? Opening a restaurant seemed like a logical step"

The Background
I gotta level with you. I love stories about ordinary teachers that have thrown off the shackles of the EFL profession and gone into business for themselves and fingers crossed, look like they're going to make a great success of things. Unfortunately, there are so few of these stories about. So when I heard that a young teacher from Devon was opening an English restaurant a pork pie's throw from the Londoner, The Bull's Head, The Offshore and other temples of culinary mediocrity, I knew I had to make an effort to sample the goodies. Plus it was early Saturday evening and I was feeling hungry.

Johnno along with his long-term Thai partner Wanna (pictured above) opened Momma's restaurant in mid-July 2005. We talked obviously about his background in teaching. He's been in Thailand for a little over 5 years, going down the well-trodden path of firstly Siam Computer and then finding himself farmed out to various government secondary schools as a contract employee. After a year or two, Johnno started to get more lucrative full-time offers from schools who had heard about his solid teaching skills and his overall professionalism. He joined a secondary school in the Bangkok suburbs and remained there for two or three very happy years. Then as often happens in the EFL profession. a new sheriff rides into town, takes up a position behind a door that has 'academic director' stamped on it, and the whole thing goes tits up. The teachers don't get on with the new AD. The school doesn't listen to the opinions and complaints of the teachers. Time to vote with your feet and bugger off. And that's exactly what Johnno did.

"I suppose I spat the dummy out in a way. I stamped my feet and stormed out. I felt that with my teaching experience I could land a job anywhere but frankly speaking I'd had enough of teaching. I chilled out on Koh Samui for a while and as I lay on a beach it suddenly dawned on me - what the f**k am I going to do now?"

Johnno already had three years experience as a chef under his belt. He rang around a few of Bangkok's first class hotels enquiring if anyone was willing to take a gamble on an ex-pat sous-chef. Surprisingly, quite a few were, but expected the employee to do ridiculous working hours. Then he got the idea to open his own restaurant - an English restaurant with man-size portions of everything at prices that would appeal to even the most thrifty of English teachers. The concept of Momma's was born.      

The Location
Taking on board the well-worn business cliche that location is everything, Johnno and Wanna set out to find suitable premises. They knew that the restaurant would eventually appeal to residents and tourists alike so the lower Sukhumwit area seemed the ideal choice.
"We spent a long time looking for the right location. Initially we fancied being in either Soi Nana or in Sukhumwit 23 but closer to the main road than we are now. Landlords were quoting silly money. One guy wanted 90,000 baht a month in Soi Nana for a single shop-house unit. In Sukhumwit 23, near to Soi Cowboy, we were talking 50-60,000 a month. You need to sell a lot of steak and kidney pies to make that kind of money back"

You do indeed. However, a short stroll up Sukhumwit 23 and bingo! a decaying Thai restaurant, the kind of place where you wipe your feet on the way out, and what's more the landlord's only looking for 10,000 baht a month. Sorted. Momma's had found a home. So if you're making your way to the restaurant, it's probably a very leisurely ten-minute up Sukhumwit 23 (lazy people can grab a motorcycle taxi) You'll pass several legitimate massage shops on the way (aye! aye!) and just after you pass the Thai-Pan hotel on the left, Momma's restaurant is on the right. Look for the signboard. If you get lost you can call the restaurant on 02-261-4010

The Ambience
With Momma's, Johnno's gone for Mediterranean bistro rather than the classic greasy spoon cafe. All it's cost him is 150,000 baht to turn some Thai restaurant fleapit into a place of beauty. At the moment there is no wide screen plasma monstrosity on the wall, the music (mainly jazz, blues, and soul) is played at a comfortable level, and the air-conditioning is cold. Be thankful for all of that. But what makes any restaurant great are the hosts, and Johnno and Wanna (whose level of English is outstanding) are about as pleasant as hosts come. With Johnno's experience of the TEFL profession, Momma's would make an ideal place for new teaching arrivals to come and enjoy good food and find their Bangkok feet. Johnno makes himself available. This is not The Londoner or The Bull's Head where you have one of those 'are you sure he's the manager because I thought it was that guy in the glasses' conversations.  

Who cares if English food is all about stodge and feeling uncomfortably full when you leave the table. That's why you go to an English restaurant in the first place.