Surin Techarukpong

Surin Techarukpong (born c. 1956 in Thailand; died January 6, 2024) was a restaurateur, owner of four Thai restaurants in the Birmingham area, as well as others in Atlanta and Huntsville.

Techarukpong earned a bachelor's degree in education at Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok in 1979. He immigrated to Southern California from Thailand under the auspices of a Catholic mission program and completed a master of public health in environmental health at Loma Linda University. While in school he worked a restaurants in the Los Angeles area.

Techarukpong opened his first restaurant in the Virginia-Highland/Little Five Points district of Atlanta in 1991.

Techarukpong moved to Birmingham shortly after opening Surin West in 1996 at Five Points South. The short-lived Nirus was opened a block away in 1997 and closed in 1998. He found success for a second Birmingham-area restaurant with Surin of Thailand in Mountain Brook's Crestline Village in 1999. A third restaurant opened in 2005 in the Concord Center downtown. After a couple of name changes, it settled in as Surin & Co. In 2008, Surin 280 opened at Perimeter Park South in a former O'Charley's restaurant.

In 2020 partnered with Terrill Brazelton to open Troup's Pizza in Cahaba Heights.

Techarukpong was married to Lori Livingston and had two daughters. He resided at Valleyview Farm on Eastern Valley Road in Leeds.

Techarukpong died in January 2024.

References

• Garrison, Greg (January 10, 2024) "Founder of Surin restaurants dead at 67: ‘He was always smiling." AL.com