The big scissors came out last week once again, this time to welcome the long-awaited Tik’s Thai Yellow Springs. Business owner Siriya “Tik” Sripol — third from left, next to her husband, Gita — told those gathered for the grand opening that she’s worked for 20 years to find a Yellow Springs home for her Thai cuisine. There to welcome the Sripols and their staff were Mayor Steve McQueen, left, and YS Chamber Executive Director Phillip O’Rourke, right — and, naturally, a group of hungry villagers. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
After a long wait, Tik’s Thai opens in Yellow Springs
- Published: September 1, 2026
For more than a year, the promise of Thai food has hung over 134 Dayton St.
Yellow Springers knew Tik’s Thai was coming; they knew Siriya “Tik” Sripol, longtime owner of Tik’s Thai Express in Fairborn, had taken over the former Jessica’s Poke Island space. They waited as the restaurant underwent a lengthy overhaul. And then they waited some more.
Last month, the wait finally ended.
Tik’s Thai Yellow Springs held a soft opening Thursday, Aug. 6, when hungry customers lined the block for samples of Thai tea and fried rice. After closing for several days of “system updates and kitchen reorganization,” the restaurant opened in earnest Thursday, Aug. 13, when the Yellow Springs Chamber of Commerce marked the occasion with a ribbon-cutting.
But depending on when you start counting, the wait for Tik’s Thai in Yellow Springs has been much longer than a year. As Sripol told her new village neighbors outside the restaurant during the grand opening last week: “I’ve been wanting to be over here a long time ago — 20 years.”
Tik’s Thai staffers preparing to feed a hungry crowd at the grand opening. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
Sripol’s food has made appearances in Yellow Springs before: In 2013, the News reported that Tik’s Thai Express had begun bringing its mobile food truck to Yellow Springs, setting up at the Village BP and Yellow Springs Brewery.
At the time, Sripol and her husband, Gita Sripol, already operated several Thai restaurants around the Miami Valley. The food truck, which the couple often entrusted to their sons, Peter and Steven, was slated to return to Yellow Springs throughout that summer. The truck eventually moved on, but Sripol’s interest in Yellow Springs remained.
Speaking with the News last year, Sripol said she had been visiting the village four to five times a month since around 2005, while also talking with Yellow Springs residents who made the trip to eat at Tik’s Thai Express in Fairborn. Over the years, she kept an eye out for an available storefront.
An assortment of Thai food offered at the grand opening. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
The right village location proved elusive, but Sripol expanded elsewhere, opening restaurants in Bellbrook and Springboro before eventually downsizing and focusing again on the Fairborn restaurant. After that, she turned her attention back toward Yellow Springs.
Eventually, Sripol said, the owner of YS Pizza Company came into Tik’s Thai Express last year and told her Jessica’s Poke Island was for sale. She made quick work of securing the Dayton Street space — but opening the space took longer than expected, as the space needed extensive work, particularly to its kitchen, to fit the restaurant’s needs.
“I don’t know if you’ve been here through the transition of everything that happened here,” Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Phillip O’Rourke told those gathered at the ribbon-cutting, “but this has been a long time in the making with some diligent, hard work.”
Sripol immigrated from Thailand in December 1988 after marrying Gita, a Thai-American man. After learning English and having two sons, Sripol took a part-time job at a food court, where she offered samples to passers-by. With help from family and friends, she later opened a small stand serving her own Thai food at Dayton’s 2nd Street Market.
In 2003, Sripol went into business with Pakawan “Fon” Christman to purchase the Yummy Burger Diner in Dayton, which served both American and Thai food as White Lotus, though even after the menu transition, the restaurant was, and is, still referred to as “Yummy Burger” (and sometimes “White Lotus Yummy Burger”); the two later sold the business to Yong Shoop, who operated it until late last year.
In 2005, Sripol and Christman opened the full-service Thai restaurant Ban Thai in Beavercreek, before selling it in 2008; the restaurant operates today as House of Thai. In 2009, Sripol opened Tik’s Thai Express, which later expanded into Tik’s Thai Grille in Bellbrook in 2011 and Tik’s Thai Grille II in Springboro in 2013.
Overseeing staff at three locations and maintaining the quality she aimed to uphold became difficult, Sripol said; that challenge, combined with the distance from her home and a breast cancer diagnosis, led her to sell the Bellbrook and Springboro locations. Since then, Sripol has focused on Tik’s Thai Express, bringing chefs from Thailand to work in her kitchen.
Tik’s staffer Apple holds aloft some fried rice — a free dish the restaurant offered at its soft opening. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
“It took a while [to bring the chefs over], but if I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it correctly,” she said.
But Sripol never quite gave up on Yellow Springs as another home for Tik’s; as she told the News last year, the village holds a special appeal for her.
“When I visit Yellow Springs, I always see people smiling, much like people in Thailand,” she said. “Thailand is called ‘The Land of Smiles’ because we are always smiling. It gives me a warm feeling, so I like it there. I want to bring Thai food to people in Yellow Springs.”
The opportunity to feed village locals came after Jessica’s Poke Island closed in March 2025, after about 18 months in business. Jessica Alt had purchased what was then Miguel’s Poke Island from Miguel Espinosa on Sept. 1, 2023, and opened Jessica’s Poke Island the following Labor Day. Alt told the News last year that the restaurant’s year-and-a-half of operation had been “very successful,” and she had hoped to operate it until retirement, but reconsidered after the death of a family member.
“It put things into perspective for me,” she said. “Poke Island took up all of my time, and that’s time I will never get back. Life is way too short and precious to spend every moment at a restaurant and not with family.”
Alt ultimately decided to sell the restaurant and return to teaching in order to spend more time with her family. She said she received a number of offers for the restaurant, but felt a quick affinity with Sripol.
“I love her!” Alt said. “Tik is a very intelligent, fun businesswoman who has been doing this for years.”
Now that Sripol has finally made it into Yellow Springs, the kitchen she inherited from Alt is smaller than the one at Tik’s Thai Express in Fairborn, and the local menu is smaller as a result. But it retains a number of her signature dishes, including summer rolls, crispy cream cheese wontons, tom yum and tom kha soups, fried rice, noodles and curries.
There is also one curry meant specifically for the new location: the Yellow Springs Curry, made with Thai yellow curry sauce and coconut milk, potatoes, green and red bell peppers, onions, pineapple, mango, carrots and basil leaves.
When a News reporter — after happily munching on fried rice, chicken panang curry and cream cheese wontons — told Sripol that Yellow Springers, too, have long wished for a Thai restaurant within the village limits, she had a message ready.
“You just give me a call,” Sripol said. “People tell me what they want and I’ll make it for them.”
Tik’s Thai Yellow Springs is open 11 a.m.–8:30 p.m., Thursday–Sunday. For more information, go to http://www.tiksthaiyellowsprings.com
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