Green Line Checklist Update Part 5: Thai Boat 89 to Sidewalk Kitchen
The Churn for Friday, January 30, 2026
In this week’s edition of The Heavy Table’s Churn newsletter, we continue our revisiting of the Green Line Checklist, trying everything from Thai to African to Chinese and more. It’s the Green Line Checklist Update, and if you dig it, consider supporting us by subscribing, and you can read all the forthcoming editions in full.
GREEN LINE CHECKLIST UPDATE, PART FIVE
We get out to a wild variety of spots, including Thai (Thai Boat 89), African (Afro Deli), Chinese (Sidewalk Kitchen), Caribbean (West Indies Soul), and East Asian (Cha Yes).
By M.C. Cronin, James Norton, Becca Dilley, and WACSO
This Checklist outing happened under the pall of “Operation Metro Surge,” which, as a name, sounds to me more like a Call of Duty extension pack targeted at undeveloped adolescent minds jacked up on Mountain Dew in their parents’ basement than any kind of real attempt to enhance safety in our communities.
With that in mind, we did not run into any of the thousands of masked, armed agents we’d already seen roving our streets.
Given the thoroughfare we’re exploring is filled with immigrant-owned restaurants embedded in immigrant communities, we knew there was a strong possibility of an encounter. We had to be ready for it. But ultimately, we were thankful to be able to focus on our job at hand and not to be thrust into the middle of any kind of situation. – M.C. Cronin
Thai Boat 89 | 712 University Avenue West, Saint Paul | 651.313.6281
Thai Boat 89 gave us a jump scare. The mere fact that they shared a wall with one of the more memorable disasters in our Checklist history put us on high alert.
Inside, though, it was pleasant, even if the lights were set to a brightness level that, on a scale of 1-10, we’d classify as “dentist office.” But hey, at least we could see things were clean and tidy.
Someone had clearly made design choices. The space didn’t feel like a placeholder for takeout orders. It felt like a room intended for humans to sit in. Unlike China One.
In the corner, a snow shovel sat like a blunt testament to what it takes to keep a restaurant going. It doesn’t matter if you’re the owner, server, chef, prep cook, dishwasher, cashier, take-out coordinator, accountant, or business manager (or, as is the case of many small, independent restaurants, you’re all these things), someone’s got to glove up and clear the sidewalk because nobody else is coming to do it.
One of the quirks of the way we do this — descending as a small pack, taking photos of everything that holds still, chatting up servers and customers — is that we don’t exactly fly under the radar. We’re not trying to get special treatment. We actively try not to. But sometimes a room clocks you anyway.
In this case, the owner noticed us and sent over a dish. It’s a move we appreciate for two reasons: (1) it’s generally going to be a dish they feel strongly about, and (2) often it’s something we never even considered ordering. So when it happens, we can be reasonably assured we’re in for something interesting. And that’s basically our Checklist mission statement. – M.C.
What is it about the Thai restaurants on University? It wouldn’t surprise me to hear that nowhere outside of Thailand is there such a strong collection of spots within a couple miles of each other. Thai Boat 89 isn’t at the top of my list (I’d put Basil Thai, On’s, Thai Cafe, and the semi-Thai Mandalay up there as the current champs), but it’s really pretty damned good and a spot that I’d be comfortable recommending.
That said, a quick note about the restaurant’s Thai Iced Tea ($5) - it’s not actively bad, but it’s much closer to cereal milk or milk mixed with butterscotch syrup than we’d like. We missed the astringent bite of real tea.
The shop’s Thai Boat Noodles ($14) included big slices of thin beef, beef meatballs, and beef blood broth, making it a massive, delicious hit of beefy flavor served over delicate rice noodles. The mint that’s served on the side should not be regarded as an optional condiment - it absolutely completes the dish and elevates it from “real good / real meaty” into “my God, it’s a symphony of flavor!” territory. Absolutely a dish worth returning for.
We dug the restaurant’s Pad Thai ($14) for its big citrus kick and chewy noodles, but felt that it could have brought more heat, more funk and more depth. This would be a top 20% pad Thai throughout the state, but it’s probably more around the 50% mark on University Avenue.
Thai Boat’s Tom Yum ($15) has a nice zesty bite to it, and brought refreshing boldness to the table.
The chef sent a plate of Pork Belly to our table, and it was a textural sensation - chewy, crunchy, and yieldingly tender all in one bite, plus an herbal / hot dipping sauce that made the dish explode with flavor. – James Norton
Cha Yes | 738 University Avenue West, Saint Paul | 651.756.7565
A small printed sign on the entrance door told us we’d accidentally wandered into their grand opening. This was an unexpected surprise as we actually hadn’t planned to be here at all, but that’s how the croissant crumbled during our outing that night.
Cha Yes has been around as a boba tea place for a while, so the grand opening seemed to be a celebration of them leaning hard into the bakery side of the business. Based on signage inside and out, the bakery side appears to be called “La Delicious Bread,” which is simultaneously a fun name and an objectively ridiculous name. A bit like something brainstormed at 11:47 p.m. by someone who’d been staring into a bakery case too long.
The vibe will be familiar to anyone who’s been in a café. There’s a long counter packed full of baked goods and deli items where you can stand and point at the item you want and then immediately regret not pointing at three more things.
They had everything from giant, Flintstones-sized cream-filled macron sandwiches to straight-up butter croissants.
