The Strip District can now add Thai cuisine to its ever-expanding list of diverse restaurants, as Little Bangkok celebrated a grand opening on Monday.
Owned by Drew Kessler and Chef Pornpen Thammasaroret, the 60-seat restaurant occupies one-half of the former Sunseri Jimmy & Nino Co. space on Penn Avenue.
Thammasaroret moved to Pittsburgh from Nakorn Pathom, Thailand three years ago, and has worked as a chef at Benihana in Greentree.
Thammasaroret was able to build relationships with customers at that restaurant, where cooking is done tableside. When customers would ask her where she was from, and learned that she was Thai, they encouraged her to open a shop of her own, cooking the food she was most familiar with.
And so she did. Thammasaroret says everyone in the Strip District, including neighboring restaurant and shop owners, have been incredibly kind and supportive.
Thammasaroret says she didn't have to train to become a chef of Thai cuisine because she grew up with it, watching her mother and aunts cook it in the home.
“I was born with it,” she says with a laugh.
According to Thammasaroret most menu items at Little Bangkok would be eaten in the home in Thailand, but the Bangkok Basil, Pad Phet, and Pad Thai dishes on the menu are especially typical of home cooking.
Thammasaroret says she chose the Strip District because it’s close to everything she needs, and she hopes to use the freshest ingredients every day.
In the near future, Thammasaroret would like to serve traditional Thai breakfast on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, which includes light soups and a Thai-style omelet.
Little Bangkok in the Strip, 1906 Penn Avenue, 15222. 412-586-4107.
Writer: Andrew Moore
Source: Pornpen Thammasaroret