Ethnic food in strip malls

Tyler Cowen recommends going to strip malls where rents are lower for good ethnic foods. That's probably true in large metro areas such as Washington, DC and New York/New Jersey metro. But one of the best Vietnamese food we had in Reading,PA was not in a strip mall but in a small converted house. Sadly, it does not seem to be there anymore 10 years later.

My thought is this: If I were going to open a restaurant in a small town, does it make sense to start up in a strip mall some distance away from the town center? Does it make a difference what kind of small town it is -- for instance, one that does not attract as many tourists such as Dillsburg, PA or Leesburg, VA? We haven't been to Leesburg, but there is a Thai restaurant in Dillsburg on Rt. 15 that we've always wondered about.