The End of an Era! Lamai Thai Massage on Abbot Kinney Blvd closed its doors on July 24. – Venice Paparazzi | Venice Beach CA, Photo Agency, Community Info, News, Events

Here is a message from Lamai Thai Massage.

After ten years of doing business on Abbot Kinney, Lamai Thai Massage and Yoga Supplies will be closing its doors on July 24, 2016. We have mixed emotions about this announcement: in the past ten years we have made many friends and like to think that we have played a small part in the increasing awareness of massage as a holistic therapy, and for that we will always feel grateful. We also know that separation can sometimes be a difficult emotion to embrace, and for that we are preparing ourselves. At Lamai we’ve made many friends over the years, and we all know how hard saying goodbye can be.

In light of the frequency of announcements such as these (it seems like every month-or-so we say goodbye to one of our retail neighbors), we want everyone to know that our decision wasn’t one ‘forced’ on us by a cold and heartless landlord who saw an opportunity to cash in on the AK popularity. Quite the contrary, our landlord is one of the kindest and most thoughtful men we know. He has helped us in many ways throughout our long-term Lease at 1350, and found ways for our business to survive in the post 2008 economy. We will always be grateful for his honesty and for his understanding, from the earliest days of Lamai, that we were offering a service to the community that was in keeping with the Venice ‘spirit’ of openness and willingness to experiment with an alternative to established Western thought.

Abbot Kinney Blvd.

And, in an attempt to ‘keep it in the family’, one of the existing tenants from our building will be expanding into our space. When we first opened our doors at the little bungalow on Andalusia St, we knew that we would be the first of our kind for Venice and much of the West Side… Getting people to accept a new approach to wellness and a new form of massage was at the top of our list; after we grew in popularity we then found ways to make Lamai different from other Thai massage shops. For example, we were the first to offer organic green tea and filtered water to our customers following their massage; we were the first to introduce a unique ‘sign-in form’ that allowed customers the chance to customize their massage (what areas to avoid or concentrate on; how strenuous, etc.), the first to tailor Thai massage to the special needs of pre-natal, geriatric and pediatric customers… Many of our ‘innovations’ are now standard in most Thai massage shops, which we are proud of, since it benefits all customers.

What we aspired to was nothing less than to introduce a non-medicated form of stress relief that alsoallowed people to detoxify their bodies and begin a schedule of wellness for themselves. In order to‘spread the word’ of Thai massage therapy, we vowed to minimize our profit margin so that thiswellness regime would be accessible to all: from those with a disposable income that allowed forindulgence to local residents who we felt were previously priced out of other forms of physical therapy.

In general, we hoped from the beginning to present an “East meets West” philosophy, by combining anAsian holistic practice that dates back 2500 years with a modern Western business model. Sometimes it wasn’t an easy combination to reconcile, but we were happy with the results, and we hope you were as well.

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WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?

Some of our therapists are finally putting plans in place to return to Thailand… In many cases, these plans were often spoken of, but always ‘put off’ until a later (unspecified) time. It seems the right time has finally arrived!… Other therapists (like JJ) will be opening their own shop, or (like Jessy) have plans to continue in private practice… Many will continue offering Thai massage at other shops in the area.

In all cases, please let us know if you would like to continue getting massage treatment from your favorite therapist… If you send us an email([email protected]) we will do our best to put you in touch.

12976864_10206186399682145_5399941506265736316_o As for the owner, Dianna will continue being active (part-time) in her field of Yoga and Fitness, though she has siezed this opportunity to realize a long held dream of pursuing her goals in real estate. She is already licensed and has built a small team at Keller-Williams. Joining her team are some of the Lamai managers! It may be a moment of serendipity, but they plan to bring not only their combined years of experience running a successful 7-days-a-week business, but also to introduce to the high pressure real estate world a sense of what professionals can actually achieve when stress is removed from the equation.