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Kalaya, a Thai BYOB, opens in Bella Vista

Two neighbors, both restaurant veterans, are going for authenticity on Ninth Street near the Italian Market.

Kalaya is at 764 S. Ninth St.
Kalaya is at 764 S. Ninth St.Read moreCOURTESY KALAYA

Thai-born former restaurateur Chutatip Suntaranon (“just call me ‘Nok’”), armed with a degree from the French Culinary Institute in New York, has been cooking for her Queen Village neighbors for years. My-Le Vuong, a Vietnamese-born veteran restaurant manager with some of the big names in Manhattan (Jean-Georges, Alain Ducasse, Mario Batali) , moved in across the street five years ago.

Friendship blossomed. They led cooking classes and started a catering business.

April 10 is Day One for Kalaya, a homey, 30-seat BYOB, at 764 S. Ninth St. (215-385-3777), two doors from Ralph’s Italian restaurant in Bella Vista. The space was last a short-lived Ralph’s to-go shop.

Say it “ka-la-YA.”

"It's the same cooking that you will eat in a Thai restaurant in Thailand," says Suntaranon, who is influenced by the cooking of her Chinese-born mother, Kalaya (whose style is the Malay-Chinese hybrid Peranakan), her grandmother ("more adventurous"), and her great-grandmother ("upscale").

Everything in the kitchen comes from scratch, down to the chili pastes (plural). Pad Thai? Not at dinner. “It’s lunch food, a quick meal,” Suntaranon says. But you will find shareable orders of toon tong (a golden pouch filled with potato, curry powder and sweet chili sauce), kua kling (a fiery-spicy Southern Thai toasted beef curry whose lemongrass and kaffir leaf competes with long hots and peppercorns), and moo pad kapi (a stir-fried pork in shrimp paste).

There are vegan/vegetarian/gluten free options on the menu, which helpfully denotes spiciness. I’m a particular fan of the kang gai khao mun, a rich chicken curry with cilantro, pandan, and coconut rice. How’s this for home cooking? When I interviewed Suntaranon and Vuong back in January, they insisted upon serving me lunch in Suntaranon’s kitchen.

On its debut week, Kalaya is open 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday. Sunday dinner will be added on April 25, and lunch (and yes, with pad Thai) is on the way.