Tucson Real Estate - The Faces of Tucson honors Dee Buizer, with Darren Jones & Tony Ray Baker

Hi, I'm Darren, and I'm one of the hosts of phasesoftucson.com, and I'm here today with Dee Beiser, and Dee has been awarded by the Royal Thai government. Good morning, Dee.

Good morning.

Why don't you tell us a little bit more about that?

Oh, when I had Sinee Thai Bistro in downtown Tucson, I was awarded the Thai Select Award for being authentic. And the refinement of my cuisine. And the Royal Thai government has also invited me to attend the largest Asian food expo in Thailand back in 2019 before COVID hit.

That's fabulous. Excellent. Congratulations.

Thank you.

That's quite an achievement. So, Dee, tell me a little bit more about your family.

Oh, I have a wonderful family, a wonderful supportive husband, Jim, and my two beautiful children, Sean and Daniela. I call them children, they are, but they're all grown up and very successful in their own rights. And my daughter is married to a wonderful man, Trey. They live in Phoenix and my son lives in San Diego.

Fantastic, that's great. So tell us a little bit more about your current, past, or future career, and what do you love most about what you do?

Well, I started my first our profession as restaurant. Started that 30 years ago in the San Francisco Bay Area. And I love to cook beautiful food to appease various palates out there. And I remember my grandmother used to tell me, you, First, you have to please the eyes before the stomach. So, it just— I keep that in the back of my mind when I create food, to make it look beautiful so that your mouth would start salivating, you know, and wanting to eat that food. And I've done that. I still have a restaurant in San Francisco that's going to this day. It's called Basil Thai Restaurant and Bar on Folsom Street. My brother runs that one for us. And meanwhile, my siblings open 6 other restaurants. So, we're still in the restaurant business. And I love what I do. I don't like the HR part, but I love to cook and coming up with beautiful recipes and plates of food. My second art profession, which I came to love, started back in 2005, is real estate. Helping people to find their dream home, to settle into their dream home just makes me so happy and just so fulfilling, you know. And I have customers who would email me a year after, said, oh, thank you so much for helping us find the home in this neighborhood. We would never thought, and so on and so forth. But so that's very gratifying.

That's fantastic. So now, uh, do you have a couple of favorite restaurants in Tucson that you like to frequent?

I do. One is Tito and Pep. I haven't been there in a while, but— and then the other one is a Japanese sushi place. I just love the owners. It's called IOU Sushi on Oracle. Very, yeah, fresh fish, fresh sushi.

That's high praise. So now, how long have you lived and worked in Tucson?

Yeah, so We moved here in 2012. My husband was recruited to work at the U of A. He came before I actually moved here from Scottsdale.

From Scottsdale.

Yeah. So, and after moving here, I was doing real estate when I moved here. And then after I saw that there are no Thai cuisines similar to mine, I just I had to open one.

Okay, great. Now, who would, who would you say is the most interesting person that you've met in our community?

So that's a hard one, okay, because I met many interesting—

there's so many characters—

many characters, but they're all very beautiful. Um, the first person that came to mind though, um, after thinking about this, is— would be Kathleen Erickson. Um, I had the opportunity to work with her when I the restaurant. She was, she still is a go-getter. She does so much for our community, for the downtown community, for the merchants. I'm just in awe with her, you know, her tenacity and the drive to better the community is just amazing.

Really great about working outside of the box and getting things done for sure. Yeah. So now right now, if you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?

Oh well, that's hard too. If it's a beach area, I would love to go back to Thailand. Thailand has beautiful beaches, but I also love Europe. Oh yeah, I would love to go. I haven't been to Portugal, so I would love to do that. Um, Italy is my favorite countries.

So yeah, those beautiful areas. Absolutely. Yeah. So now, what would you say is your favorite movie movie or TV show?

My favorite— there are a couple favorite movies. One is called The Sliding Door, which was in the '90s, I think. I don't want to date myself too far back. And believe it or not, I love The Avengers.

Avengers.

Avengers. That's awesome.

Superhero. Yeah. Woohoo!

So now, if you were to give advice to someone, what advice would you give them? Be kind. This world needs it more than ever now. You know, be kind, be understanding, be compassionate. We don't know where the other person comes from or what just happened to that person. So, and yeah, just be kind.

That's, that's great advice, especially today.

Yeah, yeah. Thank you.

Yeah. So now, what is something that you would like to accomplish is that's on your bucket list?

On my bucket list, traveling is— to the countries that I haven't been. Many— there are many spots that I still haven't been. I would love to do that. I don't know. I have to think about more— think more about that.

Yeah, I know. It's kind of interesting. It's kind of like right now I don't want to go to China, but I want to see the Great Wall. Yeah, you know, it's kind of a bucket list thing. You're like, okay, so yeah, I understand, I understand that.

Yeah.

So now, do you have a favorite band, or what is your go-to band when you don't know what you want to listen to?

Yeah, I don't have a favorite band anymore. They were all back in the '80s and '90s.

You can name an old one, that's fine. Most of mine are older as well.

Well, but today's music, I like Lauren Daigle. I think she has a very beautiful voice. But in general, I've been listening to Christian music more, just to help me remain calm in this crazy world.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. All right, cool. And so now, what current or formal local business makes you the most nostalgic about our community?

I'm very impressed upon Why I Love Where I Live store.

It's a great choice, yeah.

Yes, because Kristen Tovar, the owner of Why I Love Where I Live, bring that to the community. You know, she saw the beauty of our community, of Tucson, and she shared it. As simple as that.

That's right.

It's much more meaningful than that, right?

Yeah.

We know.

Yeah, that's fantastic. So if you could choose anyone alive today, not a relative, who would you choose to have lunch with and where would you meet?

Oh, who would I choose to have lunch with? Well, I actually have chosen one that's scheduled a lunch for next month, is Ms. Kelly King. And the reason I chose her is she has such a vibrant, vibrant personality. She's fun, she's knowledgeable, she's very intelligent. And just fun to be with.

Awesome. And where would that be?

Oh, we haven't decided yet. Okay. TBD.

TBD. Okay, to be determined. That's right. All right, great. So what is something unique that you admire about our community?

The people. The people are so down to earth. Doesn't matter from which echelon they're from. They— and the fact that they love their community so much. So well. They hold the community to their heart so, so well. Yeah. And then the topography. Tucson, I think, is so beautiful, surrounded by beautiful mountains and beautiful sunny days, sunshine.

Yeah, it's like, I think you hit on something there because it's like when I was first moving here, it's like one of the things that struck me is everybody I met, um, they were like a salesperson. Everybody wanted you to move here. Oh, you're thinking about coming here? You should. You know, there was this, there's this, there's this. They're going to tell you everything about their community. Everybody's so proud. Which was really interesting because I had never been to Seattle. I wanted to go to Seattle, so I went to Seattle, and I told everybody, like, what a great city, and they're going like, well, yeah, but it's not Vancouver. Yeah, what is that all about? Yeah, but no, here, everybody, everybody's welcoming, wants you to be here. That's, that's awesome. So, uh, where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?

Oh, I'm Well, I'm working more on the real estate side, so hopefully I can help many more families to find their home. But from the family standpoint, I'm gonna be a grandma.

Oh, congratulations.

In January. So I'm, I hope to be the better grandma.

I'm sure you will be.

5 or 10 years from now.

I'm sure you will be.

The patient one. The one that grandkid would say, "Oh, I want to see Grandma Dee." Yeah, that's awesome.

That's awesome. So what can you share with us that most people don't know about you? Oh, first of all, Dee is short for—

Oh, my full name is Amanwadi. I know you're trying to get me to say one of the meanings.

I'm not leading anything.

It does have a beautiful meaning. It means goddess of eternity.

So I'm here today with the goddess of eternity who has been honored by the Royal Thai government. Okay, so no pressure. Oh my goodness. No pressure.

Oh, that's funny.

So what would you say is one of the most beautiful places you've ever been?

And that is a tough question too, because I— not that I'm biased toward Thailand, but Thailand is a beautiful country to be. Beautiful people. Um, yeah.

And ultimately clean.

Ultimately clean?

I mean, just—

they're trying.

Yeah, that's like, well, compared to other large cities, they're really known for just how beautiful and clean and spotless everything is.

No, that would— no, that would not be Thailand so much. I think you're thinking of Singapore.

Oh, okay.

Well, yeah, but Thailand is a fun place. Um, they are cleaning up the main street because it used to be filled with lots of street food vendors.

Okay.

And, and now they're cleaning up and asking those vendors to go to a spot similar to our, uh, farmers market type of setting. Okay. Under the white tents. And, oh, I see. Yeah, so they're doing that, but the beaches are just beautiful and clean, for sure.

Yeah, awesome, awesome. So what would you say is your favorite month, holiday, or best single day of the calendar year?

Um, favorite— I don't have a favorite month or day. Any day is my favorite at this stage in life. I try to live a day at a time and just be appreciative of of what comes my way.

Is there anything that you particularly look forward to during a year, something fun? Like, I always like, you know, fall and pumpkins and apple picking and that type of thing.

Well, I enjoy our summertime when my family, my husband and I, and the kids all gather up in Washington State. That's where my in-laws are. And what we do is we go berry picking Oh, that sounds very fun. It is fun, and the berries are the best. It took me a while to accept the fact that the berries in Washington State are the best.

And what kind of berries were these?

Blueberries, raspberries.

Marionberries?

Marionberries, I did not have the chance to pick them.

Okay.

But, but, you know, Linden, Washington is known as the second largest raspberry grower.

Oh, really?

In the world.

Wow, that's crazy.

Yeah. But, you know, yeah, no, but now that I have chances, many chances to taste the berries up there and they're just so wonderful. Blueberries. Yeah. Did I say blueberries? You did. Okay. Blackberries, raspberries.

Fantastic.

Yeah.

So share with us something that you would rate a 10 out of 10. What is always just superior?

Oh, wow.

What?

Darren!

Surprise!

10. 10? I was gonna say he's pretty close.

Oh, look, it's your husband.

He just messed up our video.

He was hinting.

He's pretty close. I'm pretty lucky there.

Yeah.

Yeah. He's a kind-hearted, compassionate, very, very smart man.

All right. Good job, Jim. So, or maybe, okay. So who inspires you to be better?

It would be Jim and my children.

Oh, here comes Jim again.

Yeah.

All right. So what would you say are one or two of your favorite smells?

I love the night-blooming jasmine and gardenia.

Yeah. What a beautiful thought.

Yeah.

That's— those are great choices. So finally, share with us what three words or phrases What words come to mind when you think of the word home?

Welcoming. Comfortable. Loving.

3 beautiful choices.

Yeah.

And you know, you're also just a major— this is, by the way, Chef Dee, as we all know her, the amazing Thai cuisine. And so many people know her from the Sine Thai Bistro which was in downtown Tucson. So, you know, we thank you for all of your, all of your work, all of your beautiful dishes and everything that you've given to our community. We miss you so much on that front and wish you the greatest of luck in everything that you do.

Thank you.

So thank you so much for being here today. I'm Darren, and that's us for thefacesoftucson.com.