The chainlet of Thai by Thai restaurants in Northern Virginia gets another location Oct. 1 (2676-A Avenir Place, Vienna) when the doors swing open in Merrifield. It will be the first to offer breakfast, giving diners a window into what chef and co-owner Eed Banchanurat Landon may have eaten in the morning growing up in Bangkok. Dishes will include a hearty rice porridge, coconut pudding, soft bread with Thai custard, roti pancakes and beignet-style doughnuts—all accompanied by hot or iced Thai coffee and tea. It’s a smart move, given the restaurant’s proximity to morning commuters headed to the Dunn Loring Metro Station.
The other Thai by Thai locations in Sterling, Fairfax City and Annandale also plan to introduce breakfast once the menu is finalized. “Our style is to first roll out an innovative menu, letting customers try and judge the results,” Landon says. “We then add the most popular ones into our menu.” This strategy is how the formerly “secret street menu,” featuring more feisty Thai dishes, became a permanent section of the menu. “The secret’s out,” Landon says.
In fact, Thai by Thai’s menu has three tiers: “TBT classics” for those new to Thai cuisine; “adventurous,” for those with more experience; and the secret street menu for advanced Thai eaters. This means you’ll find everything from a traditional pad Thai to pad jungle, which is “Bangkok hot” on their heat scale.
Landon attributes Thai by Thai’s successful expansion in the region to several factors, including a casual environment and the option to finish a meal in 30 minutes if speed is desirable. Then there’s the renewed commitment to healthy eating.
“Customers in Northern Virginia are more health conscious, and we have always been market innovators among Thai restaurants in this regard,” Landon says. “ For example, 8 1/2 years ago we began with having brown rice as an option and using canola oil as our cooking oil rather than generic vegetable oil. As gluten sensitivity became more widespread, we developed a gluten-free designation on our menu.”
The grand opening of the 55-seat Merrifield Thai by Thai location on Oct. 1 will take place from 3-8 p.m., with 50 percent of the evenings’ proceeds going to Inova Life with Cancer.
Laura Hayes hails from Philly (but don’t hold it against her). She’s been covering the local dining scene for three years, and her work has been published in the Washington Post, Food Network, Washington City Paper, Arlington Magazine and more. Having lived in Japan for two years, she finds herself in a constant state of craving sushi. Laura always orders her favorite savory dish again for dessert and keeps her gut in check through lots of CrossFit classes.
