Lylah Hatfield, Business owner

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Resident of Yarraville

Business owner of Yim Yam Thai Laos Restaurants

In 1992, I was a student in NSW, and like all Thai students then, I would work casually in Thai restaurants. I felt I could do a better job than those restaurants, so my husband Guy and I opened a Bangkok-styled coffeeshop called ‘Good Moon Cafe’.

Back then, Thai food could only be eaten in a restaurant or a food court, but there was nothing in between. I was always frustrated that I couldn’t do it my way and I thought of doing something different.

We ran ‘Good Moon Café’ for a year but decided to travel as Guy and I didn’t have any kids. We were both still so young, and felt there was more to life instead of running the cafe. We sold the business to a friend.

In 1999, Guy got a job with Save the Children UK in Vientiane, Laos and my eldest son Ryo was born in July 1999. Two weeks later we moved to Laos, and remained there for 3 years. Ryo could only speak Laotian, not “one of the world’s greatest languages!’ and since he was getting up to school age, we thought maybe it’s better to move back to Australia.

As we had spent time in Sydney, we didn’t really want to go back there and wanted to live in a different city. Coincidentally, Guy was offered a contract at Save the Children Australia in Hawthorn, Melbourne in July 2002.

I didn’t really feel comfortable in Hawthorn. We have a friend Kathy, who lives in Footscray, and she convinced us to move to Footscray.

I remember arriving by train on a Saturday morning, and as the train pulled up at Footscray, there was a Thai ad in the station saying “Videos for hire”. We stood in the middle of Footscray Market that day, and I turned to Guy and Kathy and said “That’s it, I don’t want to be anywhere else. I want to stay here.”

We moved to Austin Street, Seddon, which was close to the village and made good friends. Just having a kid changes everything; we can’t live in isolation due to childcare and school.

Living in Seddon, back then it was really quiet and small. I remember Guy and I went for dinner in Seddon one night, and thought to myself “We should open up a restaurant here because now we are part of the thriving community. This place could use a good Thai.”

I thought nothing of it after, as we had to make a living. I had to work in a nursing home but I knew nothing about it. Guy was always travelling for Save the Children in South East Asia and he was never home.

My daughter Tiane was born in September 2005. It seemed like whenever we have kids, something good happens. There was a Greek café where Yim Yam is now, and I walked past it. I remember looking under and saw hundreds of letters stuffed under the door. I got in touch with the landlord and decided to rent it. We took over in late 2005 and in March 2006, Yim Yam was open for business.

Yim Yam means ‘smile’ in Thai. Names are very important to Guy; when we were deciding on a name, we wanted a name that was easy for locals to pronounce correctly, easy to say and rolls off the tongue.

We do Thai and Laotian food, offering different and interesting dishes. People don’t realise a lot of iconic Thai dishes is actually Laotian. All the warm salads made famous by the Thai are originally from Laos.

A highlight we had was from Matt Preston himself; he was the first to review our restaurant and he has always been a great support to our business in The Age. We were voted ‘Top 5 Thai’ by The Age and were in Melbourne Cheap Eats for many years.

Coinciding with the birth of our second son Karun was our expansion next door to the video store. The restaurants keep us busy seven days a week.

The registration on my car is aptly called Yim Yam, and over the years we have travelled all around the state and we still meet people who ask us what it means. It’s a great conversational starter and turns out a lot of people have been to our restaurant in either Yarraville or Ascot Vale.

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