(Photo by Sue Vliet)

Thai Lotus Restaurant, 3800 W. National Ave., is the winner of a business plan competition for Silver City restaurants.

The competition, sponsored by the Helen Bader Foundation, was open to all restaurants and delis in Silver City, according to Beth Haskovec, Silver City Main Street manager. Contest entrants took part in a free business consultation process over the summer.

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Thai Lotus restaurant was awarded a $2,000 grant. Asian International, 3401 W. National Ave., came in second, and received a $1,000 grant. Mr. Sebass, a new Peruvian restaurant at 3427 W. National Ave., was awarded $500.

Following the advice of the business consultants, Raphael Sivongsa, owner of Thai Lotus restaurant, plans to use the money to increase his food wholesale business.

“We sell egg rolls, noodles, pot pies, simple things that don’t take long to make,” said Sivongsa.

The contest “was part of a plan to strengthen the Silver City commercial corridor’s niche as a dining destination,” Haskovec said.

She said that during 2010, more than $1 million was invested in Silver City, with four new businesses opening so far this year.

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Raised in a South Side neighborhood where he still lives, Edgar Mendez is the managing editor of the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. Mendez is a proud graduate of UW-Milwaukee, where he double majored in journalism and sociology, and of Marquette University, where he earned a master’s degree in communication. He won a 2018 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award and 2014, 2017, and 2018 Milwaukee Press Club Awards for his reporting on taverns, marijuana law enforcement, and lead in water service lines. In 2008, he won a Society of Professional Journalists’ regional award for columns dealing with issues such as poverty, homelessness and racism. His writing has been published by the Associated Press, Reuters, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other media. He has also co-authored three articles published in scholarly journals.