In the late 80s, American born restaurateur Tom McNamara came to Thailand. He spent several months staying at the Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok before moving to Phuket in 1988. He had decided to go fishing and his aim was to catch a Black Marlin, only to be told there weren’t any left in this part of the world. His first time out he caught a 127-kilo Black Marlin.
Tom decided to stay in Phuket and rented a lovely old Thai-style teak house on the rocky outcrop at the far end of Patong beach. It was a long way from the nightlife and the roads weren’t made. But he thought it would be a great place to put up his feet and retire.
Not long after someone suggested he should open a restaurant instead of running dinner parties at his house. Tom had owned restaurants in other parts of the world, so why not Phuket?
Baan Rim Pa was born. In March 1990 he turned his house into a 30-seat restaurant.
Tom only did things the right way. He asked Charlie Amattayakul, the Head Master of the cooking classes of the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok to come and train his staff – Charlie grew up and was trained in the Grand Palace Bangkok before joining the Oriental.
Charlie spent three months training the Baan Rim Pa team, some of whom came from the Oriental and stayed. Chalermpol “Das” NaNakorn was one of them and was appointed General Manager. Das is now one of the owners of Baan Rim Pa.
As time went by Baan Rim Pa grew from 30 seats to 220 seats today. It continues to win numerous awards both locally and internationally such as Wine Spectator, Thailand Tatler, HAPA and Time magazine to name a few. Television shows from around the world come to film Baan Rim Pa. In recent years teams from the USA, Russia, Australia, China, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand and France have chosen to use Baan Rim Pa as a special location.
In November 2008 Tom passed away after a long battle with cancer. He left the restaurant to general manager and business partner Das, his wife Pensri McNamara and his two adult children. He wanted Baan Rim Pa to remain a family business as it still is today.