Beau Thai owners Ralph Brabham and chef Aschara Vigsittaboot opened their third restaurant, BKK Cookshop, this week. Named after Bangkok’s airport code, BKK Cookshop offers a smaller, more playful, and diverse menu than its counterparts with a mix of vegetable, noodle, and meat dishes and a bevy of housemade sauces, like mint and spicy chili.
The menu is divided into small plates, side dishes, and large plates. For the first-timer, Brabham suggests the fried tofu in ginger soy, “son-in-law” eggs (hard-boiled eggs in tamarind sauce), or the braised pork shoulder, which comes with Chinese broccoli and steamed buns.
“My husband Drew likes to joke that this is the North Carolina influence on the menu,” says Brabham, who’s from the Tar Heel State, of the pork shoulder, “even though it’s a totally Thai dish.”
Brabham says that some ingredients, including the spices, require “literal, perhaps inefficient, daily market runs” to small Thai grocers like New Grand Mart in Falls Church, Thai Market in Silver Spring, and Bangkok 54 Oriental Food Market in Arlington.
Dishes run from $3 for a side dish to $15 for an entrée .
Diners can pair their dishes with a limited selection of wines, sake, Asian beers that will rotate based on availability, or the house cocktail special—a spritzer with vermouth, lime juice, and Aperol. There’s no bartender on duty, but if you don’t see anything you like, servers will mix the spritzer on tap with your choice of liquor. Brabham calls it a “DIY bar.”
The casual dining room only has 35 seats, but there’s also patio seating out front. The restaurant is open daily from noon to 10 p.m.
Take a look at the full menu below:
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BKK Cookshop, 1700 New Jersey Ave. NW; (202) 791-0592; facebook.com/bkkcookshop
Photo courtesy Ralph Brabham