Time to break the curse of 29 Maple St.

The good news is there is a Thai restaurant coming to Potsdam. The bad news it is moving into a building that for years has been eating up restauranteurs as eagerly as a fat guy who loves Asian food would devour a plate of gaeng sapparod goong.

Mr. Donut was there and got dunked. Dixie Lee Fried Chicken went south. Monkey Joe’s Bar slipped on a banana peel. California Rotisserie Chicken spun out. The Riverbend took a dive. O’Mally’s Pub and Grill went on a bender. Six restaurants tried. Six restaurants failed. The building is cursed.

I know there will be logic-lovers out there who will say that O’Mally’s failed because it was the only Irish pub in the world that didn’t sell beer. Or that Mr. Donut would still be frying if it didn’t get cited for a laundry list of health department violations. Or that California Rotisserie killed itself by selling chili that was made with white beans and chicken. These are arguments made by the same folks who deny the Curse of the Bambino and suggest the Boston Red Sox lost the 1986 World Series because Bill Buckner was a shoddy fielder.

The logic lovers and all their fancy factoids fail to recognize that the building curse is what caused the problems that led to the restaurant failures. If the curse didn’t exist, O’Mally’s would have easily gotten a state license to sell beer, Mr. Donut would have washed his hands before frying, and nobody would have let California near the chili pot.

Dixie Lee and diners like The Riverbend survive just fine in other buildings in St. Lawrence County, but failed when they gave it a go at 29 Maple St. This is not coincidence, it’s the curse. Monkey Joe’s was touted in the Times as “fun, festive and funky” when it opened. How could a full-proof formula like fun, festive and funky fail? Two words (and for once they aren’t Wal and Mart): the curse.

The Red Sox ended the Curse of the Bambino by signing Johnny Damon for $32 million and then waiting three years. The foodies of Potsdam have a much faster and cheaper way out. All we have to do is support the restaurant when it opens. Thai one on for dinner at least once a week and we can send the curse packing. It won’t be easy. The curse will be there at every turn. It will be the curse telling you to stay home and make tuna fish casserole. It will be the curse telling you to avoid spicy food. Don’t listen.

We have to break this curse. And it’s not just because I am a fat guy who loves Asian food and hates driving all the way to Ottawa or Watertown for a fix of pad prik. OK, so maybe that is one reason. But we also have to do it because commerce at 29 Maple St. has suffered long enough. It is time to take the bad news out of what has for too long been a good news-bad news story.