A few of the great dishes at Thai Thai restaurant in Lakewood. Credit: Emanuel Wallace
It’s been quite the roller coaster ride for Siriphan “Kiwi” Wongpeng and her beloved Thai Thai restaurant. The popular Lakewood eatery closed at the tail end of 2019 in anticipation of a move to a larger location. Thai Thai 2.0 was slated to open in December, but construction delays pushed that date back (and back) for months. At long last, Thai Thai (13415 Madison Ave., 216-961-9655) announced an opening day of March 17, 2020. Needless to say, that did not happen because the pandemic shut down all restaurants just as Wongpeng was preparing to open.

Six long months after shutting down in October 2019, Thai Thai did finally open – albeit in pandemic-era fashion. In May 2020, dishes like larb, gai yang, tom yum soup, pad Thai, kra praow, Pink Soup and Massaman curry were made available for carry-out. And those carry-out orders have sustained the family run business for more than a full year.

Starting this Friday, June 18, the dining room at the new location will open to dine-in customers for the first time ever. Dine-in service will be on a walk-in basis Wednesday through Monday.

“I feel excited and nervous,” Wongpeng says of the opening. “Excited that everyone can finally see all the work that was put into building Thai Thai 2.0, but also nervous because we haven’t had dine-in in over a year.”

This article appears in Jun 2-15, 2021.

For 25 years, Douglas Trattner has worked as a full-time freelance writer, editor and author. His work as co-author on Michael Symon's cookbooks have earned him four New York Times Best-Selling Author honors, while his longstanding role as Scene dining editor has garnered awards of its own.