Downtown Fairbanks, Alaska, is home to a surprising culinary scene that offers a plethora of food choices—from Thai, Chinese, and Korean to Moldovan cuisine. Locals and visitors of the Golden Heart City are spoiled for options, including crepes, empanadas, tacos, ramen, barbecue, Cuban, Japanese, and Filipino dishes.
Thai Pioneers in the Interior
Charlie Boonprasert and Tutu Navachai arrived in Fairbanks in the 1980s, initially working at a gold lease. They found a small Thai population yearning for home-style food, so in 1989 they opened Thai House, a hole-in-the-wall downtown. Today, Boonprasert's wife Laong runs the restaurant, serving gai yang, tom yum kung, and pad thai, using recipes from northern Thailand but less spicy.
Home to just 31,000 people (excluding military personnel), Fairbanks is six hours inland from Anchorage and known as a gateway to the Arctic and northern lights hotspot. Yet its food scene is unexpectedly rich, partly due to geography: Alaska's remoteness makes it hard for big corporations to dominate, allowing independent family-owned restaurants to thrive.
Diverse Migration Shapes the Food Landscape
A diverse migration population has played a key role. Alaska's boom economies have attracted people from around the world for decades, and they wanted a taste of home. There are 15 Thai restaurants in and around Fairbanks. In January, temperatures hit minus 50F, the coldest winter in Fairbanks history according to the National Weather Service.
Navachai opened Lemongrass Thai restaurant in 1996 on the other side of town, now run with his two sons. One son, Natt, explains that finding ingredients can be challenging; they stock up on trips back to Thailand, bringing back herbs, utensils, and yellow curry powder from a market in Chiang Mai. US customs often stops them to ask about the powder.
Local Sourcing and Fusion Innovations
In the early days, basics came from Carl's Foodland, now the Co-op Market Grocery & Deli, Alaska's first retail food cooperative. Lemongrass now uses locally-grown vegetables from Ann's Greenhouses. The midnight sun from April to August creates good growing conditions. Lemongrass was an early adopter of fusion with Alaskan seafood; Natt recommends chu chee scallops sauteed in red curry and coconut milk.
Drive-thru Thai huts are a recent innovation, resulting from chain migration: friends and relatives followed others to Fairbanks, gained experience, and opened their own spots. Fairbanks is also known for coffee huts, but Hong Kong-born Jenny Tse founded Sipping Streams Tea Company to change tea's popularity. After a trip to China, she opened the first store in 2009. Her award-winning blends attract video gamers, cosplayers, and anime fans who prefer tea's calming effects over energy drinks.
Moldovan Cuisine in the Heart of Alaska
Perhaps the most surprising is Soba, the only Moldovan restaurant in Alaska, opened by Alla and Stanislav Gutsul. Stanislav loved his time as a summer student in 2007 and persuaded Alla to move in 2009. That first winter hit minus 50F. In 2016, they started the Acasa food truck out of nostalgia for home. A brick-and-mortar restaurant followed in 2018. During the pandemic, regulars overpaid for takeout and offered support. They bring back traditional clay pots from biannual trips to Moldova and get spices shipped from Europe via the lower 48, often at higher prices but worth it for the natural beauty.
Back in Los Angeles, a metropolis of 3.8 million, the author craved mămăligă (corn polenta with stewed pork, scrambled eggs, sour cream, feta, and garlic sauce) but found no Moldovan restaurants. Score one for the Golden Heart City.
