As a boy, Kevin Kittisoros remembers running around his parents' restaurant in northwest Las Vegas.
Back in 2000, Kit and Joy Kittisoros were working to get their Thai restaurant, Pin Kaow, off the ground, along with parenting an energetic 5-year-old.
They succeeded on both fronts.
January will mark the 20th anniversary of the original Pin Kaow at North Rainbow and Lake Mead boulevards, while a second location, just south of the 215 Beltway on Eastern Avenue, has now been open a little more than 10 years.
And Kevin Kittisoros, a 2017 graduate of the University of Arizona's Eller College of Management, is in line to take the reins of the business.
"We've been doing this for so long, we're stable now," his mother said. "We learned along the way that if a thing happens, you just deal with it."
Traveling an unknown path was nothing new for Kit and Joy Kittisoros. They came to Las Vegas in 1988 from Bangkok to work in the casino industry. Kit was a dealer and cook, and Joy was a blackjack dealer at the old Stardust.
"We heard that there was a lot of opportunity here," Kit said.
Once Kevin and his sister, Amy, now an architect in San Diego, arrived, the couple started to wonder if going into business for themselves would be better for their lifestyle.
"I had two kids and I didn't have flexible time to take care of them," Joy said. "It was drop off to school and pick up from school all day because they went to different schools at different times. We needed our own hours."
Pin Kaow, which promises an "authentic taste of Thailand," now has about 50 employees between the two locations and a loyal customer base.
There was a third location for a time, but the family found its sweet spot was operating the two restaurants.
"The city is bigger now. There's more people, more business and everything is growing," Joy said.
The foundation of Pin Kaow's success has been its core principles of cleanliness, attention to detail, quality ingredients and superior customer service, the family said.
The plan is for Kevin and his cousin, Jay Noidee, who handles many of the back-of-the-house and web administrator duties, to eventually take over running the restaurants.
Noidee, who came to Las Vegas from Thailand in 2006 at age 24, said he wasn't sure at first if he wanted to stay in Las Vegas. "It took time for me to get used to the hospitality business...but I'm in love with the restaurant business now," he said.