Oct. 29, 2025

A locally owned restaurant specializing in sticky rice and other Thai and Lao cuisine is coming to The Empire Mall.

Dokmai’s Sticky Rice will open Saturday in the food court.

Nouane Taylor of Brandon, who owns the Dokmai’s Sticky Rice with her husband, Bruce, said owning a restaurant has been her lifelong dream.

“I love to cook, and I learned to cook from my mom,” said Taylor, who was born in Laos and came to the United States as a child. The restaurant is named after her mother, who died last year.

Menu items include appetizers such as egg rolls, crab rangoon and firecracker shrimp; noodle dishes like pad Thai and khao piak sen, the Lao version of chicken noodle soup; and entrees such as lemongrass pork steak and fried rice with shrimp or chicken.

Taylor said her family will be available to help on weekends, but during the week, she’ll be working alone until she hires an employee, so the menu might be more limited sometimes.

Dokmai’s Sticky Rice will be in the former Eauthenentic Achipelago Taste, or EAT, space, which featured Indonesian cuisine. The locally owned restaurant opened in August. Before EAT, the space was home to the longtime China Pantry.

In other food court news, El Burrito has closed. It opened in February.