Thanda Win

#MyStory

Inspired by Family

Thanda Win and her family run Lime House Sushi & Ramen restaurant in Hamburg, NY. To them, their greatest strengths come from those who love them.


Thanda’s story starts in Burma as a young girl with an entrepreneurial mind. Inspired by her grandfather’s printing business, Thanda picked tamarinds from her grandmother’s tree to sell to local restaurants. As a teenager, Thanda started working at an airline catering company, LSG, sparking an interest in food that followed her throughout her life. 


Thanda wasn’t alone in turning to food as a career. Her father, Sein Win, worked in Japan, learning the art of sushi to support his family. Faced with continual hardship and a looming civil war, Sein Win traveled to New York City in 2001. 


A year later, Thanda, her mother Thet Thet, and her sister Saw Su Aung joined him. Her older sister had decided to stay in Burma, and across the globe, Thanda and the other Wins struggled to find work. With heavy hearts, the family gathered their belongings and moved to Buffalo.


After the move, the Wins were separated once again as Thanda moved away to live with her now ex-husband. Isolated from her family, Thanda worked multiple jobs despite her difficulty finding work while her husband provided no financial support and became increasingly abusive. With no stable income and no health insurance, Thanda was filled with overwhelming stress upon discovering that she was pregnant. 


Then, a beacon of hope arrived in Thanda’s life in the birth of her son Ronald. When he came into the world, Thanda knew that nothing else mattered except to make his world easier than hers. 


As her husband’s abuse continued, Thanda’s depression worsened, leaving her unable to produce breast milk. With nothing to lose, Thanda pawned her wedding ring to buy baby formula. After that, Thanda knew that she needed to leave. For her sake, and for her baby’s. She filed for divorce, and returned to her greatest source of strength: her family.


Together again, the Wins started to make a name for themselves in Buffalo’s restaurant scene. After managing two Wegmans’ sushi bars, Thanda was ready to be her own boss, and in 2017, the Wins started Lime House.


Opening her own restaurant brought many new challenges. Recalling Lime House’s early years, Thanda noted that “the most difficult part about starting the Lime House was getting people to come in and build a customer base.” 


Thanda’s hard work paid off and, after a few ups and downs, Lime house has become a reflection of what the Wins do best. While Thanda’s mother and sister cook ramen, Thanda and her father operate the sushi station. At the front of the house, Ronald and Thanda’s boyfriend Erik are greeting guests and taking their orders. With her family behind her, Thanda is determined to grow Lime House and give her son the life he deserves.


Thanda’s dreams aren’t limited to her family’s success. Drawing from her own struggles, Thanda offers two online entrepreneurial lessons, Money Mindset and Entrepreneur Mindset, to help other people with their journeys to becoming successful business owners. 


Discussing her motivation in starting these programs, Thanda states “I want to help people not make the same mistakes I made.”


Moreover, Thanda refuses to forget her roots, visiting the Buddhist temple and acting as yearly sponsor and board member of the Myanmar Water Festival. Her engagement with the Burmese community even had the serendipitous effect of introducing her to her boyfriend Erik. 


While there are new struggles everyday, Thanda is content with the life that she’s built for herself. However, with plans to expand Lime House, Thanda’s dreams aren’t done yet.

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