OUR STORY

The history of the highly successful and well-loved duo of restaurants, Siam Marina, alongside its sister restaurant Asparagus, can only be appreciated when understood in the context of the individuals who created and oversee these venues.

The married couple arrived in Chicago at different times as refugees from Vietnam in their early teens. Sam came with his mother and siblings in 1979. Tammy arrived by herself in 1985, sponsored by Red Cross. Once she arrived she worked hard to finish her degree in Electrical Engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology while also working full time at the Star of Siam in the River North district of Chicago to support herself and her family back in Vietnam. After graduating, Tammy took a job at Sony where she first met Sam, who was managing the department in which she worked. Sam also earned a degree in Electrical Engineering, acquired a few years earlier from the University of Illinois Chicago Circle.

Tammy soon discovered she was too confined in the corporate world at Sony. Her creativity and passion insisted that she find a more satisfying outlet. Just about that time, a former co-worker at Star of Siam contacted her. He had opened a little Thai restaurant in a strip mall in Calumet City. He wanted to go back to Thailand and wondered if she’d like to purchase the restaurant so he could go home. They struck up a deal where she could learn the menu, wait on tables, and slowly earn the money to purchase the restaurant while working for him. In 1995, just a short year later, she earned enough money to purchase the restaurant, and, more importantly, her native talents as a chef blossomed allowing her to significantly enhance the recipes she inherited. The restaurant’s popularity was also boosted by Tammy’s considerable artistic gifts which transformed the linoleum-topped take-out storefront into a lovely, intimate, space where customers fell in love with the chef, the food, and the surroundings, and kept coming back until the doors were closed in 2009.

By the time 1998 came around, Tammy and Sam had been dating for some time. They became engaged and soon thereafter, they opened Siam Marina II in River Oaks Mall. It too became a local favorite, developing a loyal and growing customer base who continued to return year after year for the flavorsome and attractive menu in the lovely, welcoming environment.

The now-married couple gave birth to their only son, Saffion, in 2002. He is now a graduate student in collaborative piano, balancing his musical studies with managing the restaurants from afar.

Siam II went dark in 2013 when the mall advised that the building would be torn down because the 8-story, mostly vacant office structure was no longer economically viable.

In 2014, Tammy and Sam re-opened Siam Marina in its new home at 16846 Oak Park Avenue, Tinley Park, Illinois. This signature site has already garnered rave reviews for its fresh, sophisticated, contemporarily elegant environment and its ever-popular menu.

Family values of loyalty, dedication, commitment to serve you to the best of their ability, and taking pride in creating a memorable, quality product are all hallmarks of Tammy and Sam’s history as restauranteurs.