Taste of Thai Town brings Chicago's Thai community together
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago already has a Chinatown, a Little India and a Koreatown, not to mention Little Village and Pilsen, which are predominantly Hispanic. But up until July, there was never a Thai Town. The new Taste of Thai Town will serve as both a restaurant, as well as a community hub.
For the region's 15,000 or so Thai-Americans, this recent Friday a few weeks ago was pure bliss, and a time to celebrate.
The Taste of Thai Town may sound like a weekend festival, but it's actually an old police headquarters that's been converted into a gleaming new community center, where the community can come together.
"The Thai-American community can use as a place to do a lot of activities in terms of promoting food, art and culture and tradition," said Thai Consul General Songphol Sukchan.
Inside, there are activity rooms a spa, and a new restaurant, led by Arun Sampanthavivat, owner of his eponymous restaurant barely a mile away. The food here will be much more casual.
"It will be for regional cooking of Thailand. You explore from North to South, Northeastern and Central part of Thailand," said Sampanthavivat. "All kinds of noodles, like you walk the street in Thailand, you have a dry-style noodles or a soupy kind of noodles."
Local officials realize it's the food, as much as anything, that will attract visitors, and hopefully spur new businesses.
"The hope is that in the future when people think of Thai food, when they think of Thai culture, when they think 'hey, I'd like to experience a little bit of Thailand that they think I'm gonna go to Pulaski and Montrose," said 35th Ward Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa.
Sampanthavivat says the restaurant may seem casual, but there's nothing simple about the curries his staff is making.
"Jungle curry, even sour curry; all these kind of curries that you normally would not find in any Thai restaurant," he said.
The Taste of Thai Town building immediately establishes this area as the center for Thai culture in Chicagoland, and there's going to be a lot of cultural activities scheduled here, but with chef Arun involved, it's definitely about the food.
Taste of Thai Town
4461 N. Pulaski Rd.
(773) 299-7888
