A Glance at Lao Restaurants in the US During the Pandemic

Two Lao restaurant veterans in the United States share their pandemic experience and advice

Written by: Channapha Khamvongsa

Edited by: Dorothy Culloty

Photo: Lao Food Foundation - Chefs Phet and Seng stand together at Thip Khao in Washington DC

In the last decade, the U.S. restaurant and bar industry experienced rapid growth, the third fastest of any industry. This was similarly reflected in the growth of Lao restaurants, as a dozen or more sprung up across the US, from DC, NYC, Atlanta, Dallas, Twin Cities, to Oakland and Charlotte, among many large cities and small towns. Lao cuisine was so trendy, the leading US market trend forecaster, af&co industry forecast, called 2020, “The Year of Lao Cuisine.” 

Photo: Spicy Joi’s was one of several Lao Food restaurants that opened during the pandemic

Then the pandemic hit, beginning with government mandated shutdowns in March 2020. During the pandemic, approximately 90,000 restaurants and bars in the US closed (National Restaurant Association) and twenty two months of lost revenue and mounting debt could leave 500,000 restaurants in danger of closing (Independent Restaurant Association). 

With data out daily about the pandemic’s impact on the US economy, little has been studied or written about the impact on Lao restaurants in the US: How many Lao restaurants were open prior to the pandemic? How many are closed? What kind of support did they receive? And what is the future of brick and mortar Lao cuisine? Although disaggregated data isn’t available on this population, we spoke with several leading Lao restaurant veterans about how they fared in the pandemic.

On any given evening pre-pandemic, Thip Khao, the first Lao cuisine restaurant in Washington, DC, is packed with both newcomers and veterans of the spicy, pungent, and umami flavors of Lao dishes. At a table of four, diners in their 20’s wearing “DC Statehood” t-shirts, reaching over each other’s hands and arms to gather the nam khao into their lettuce wrap. On March 16, 2020 the chairs were turned over on the table, the huate and moh neung (rice steamers) and the dining room went dark. Thip Khao closed for about three months, then shifted to take out for most of 2020 and then in 2021, experienced on and off closures due to DC’s regulatory changes. Its sister restaurant, Hanuman, closed the entirety of the pandemic.

Thip Khao and its sister restaurant in Virginia, Padaek, laid off most of its staff, and with minimal coverage, offered a limited carry-out menu. Like many restaurants, they also asked customers to purchase gift cards for current or future use. As the pandemic continued and restaurants reopened, Chef Seng Luangrath, owner, faced the same challenges as many restaurants in DC and nationwide: high food costs and staff shortage. 

“Staffing became very competitive, we had to raise pay rates more than ever to be able to find or maintain the staff.  Food costs have gone up very high and finding ingredients is also becoming very difficult.  We have to be flexible with our team and continue to carry  our tradition of closing for summer break, which makes it even more challenging. But it's very important we pay attention to our team’s quality time with family.” 

Despite the difficulties, Chef Seng remained steadfast, “Be true and honest to your food as well as yourself is my secret of survival in this hard time, as well as in the business that already has a very slim profit margin.”

She also offered some nuts and bolts advice to others in the industry, “It's important to adjust the menu, shorten it if possible to control cost and quality.  Use free social media platforms to share more stories and create new dishes for specials as much as possible.  And finding resources to help with government loans if needed. 

Above all, she adds, “Be positive and keep high hopes.”

This advice and a solid foundation of her businesses enabled her to not only survive, but she will be expanding her business in the DC-Metro Area, with a second Padaek restaurant opening later this year. In addition, during the pandemic, she continued to share her knowledge of Lao cuisine by providing Lao Food Movement consulting services and guidance to newly opened restaurants, including Kiin in Pittsburgh and Siang Khene in Harrisonburg, Virginia Mader in Oklahoma City and HAAN Lao Kitchen in Upstate New York. 

Further up the East Coast in the swanky New York City TriBeca neighborhood is Khe-Yo, the first Lao restaurant in the city.  A family sits at a table for six, speaking Lao-lish, a blend of Lao and English, so the three generations at the table can understand each other. They were visiting from Wichita, KS and debating how spicy to order the tum mak hoong (papaya salad) and trying to explain to their mom that yes, the prices seem high, but people are willing to pay to eat Lao food in a restaurant. On March 20, 2022 like thousands of others in New York City, Khe-Yo temporarily closed its doors. Chef Phet and his partner laid off twenty-nine of their employees and with a three-person operation, shifted to carry-out, the only service that met City PPE requirements. 

Khe-Yo’s revenue fell over 80%, but two key things kept them afloat. First, their neighborhood clientele continued to order from them. Longtime customers, locked in their homes, were still able to get sticky rice and bbq chicken with papaya salad, among other dishes of a scaled-down menu. 

And second, donations to provide meals for first responders working on the front lines of the pandemic, led to large catering orders of boxed lunches to various hospitals. But even then, they were still generating a fraction of their daily income and barely broke even. The three staff ran the kitchen, operations, and deliveries. “It almost broke us, physically and emotionally,” Chef Phet said. 

Relief finally came in the support of the bailout funds. Of the 278,304 that applied for the $72.2 billion of relief funding, only 101,004 small businesses received it. Years of restaurant infrastructure and administration enabled Khe-Yo to apply and receive the loan. 

But that wasn’t enough to hire everyone back. “Our staff would ask for their jobs back and we couldn’t hire them all back. Sometimes I gave them money out of my own pocket when I was able. It was tough. But we offered family meals everyday — I said, ‘You can always come here and have a meal’,” Chef Phet recalled.

When New York City updated their PPE plans for restaurants, Khe-Yo added outdoor seating, which increased their dine-in capacity. Eventually, they were able to hire staff back, but still not at pre-pandemic levels. As they slowly built back, a new opportunity arose as commercial spaces became available due to businesses closing. Chef Phet and his partners jumped on the chance to secure a new space, and are opening up a bar and small bites place this spring. 

When Thip Khao and Khe-Yo first opened, it was celebrated nationally. It marked a new era for Lao food in America — Lao cuisine offered in a major city to Lao and broader clientele. It used to be that the only way to get Lao food was in our homes or a community member’s homes, or at the temples. At the wat (temple), you could also buy the jeow (dipping sauce), or seen savan (beef jerky), sai oua (sausages), som pak (pickled mustard greens) or som pa noy (fermented minnows). An auntie would unlatch her cooler, the equivalent of putting out the “Open” sign, and a small crowd formed to see her offering. Selling at the temple was a way for the women to earn extra money by selling their specialty dishes to members of the community, who longed for the taste of their homeland. 

When entrepreneurs, like Chefs Seng and Phet took the extraordinary and risky step of opening up a brick and mortar, it was met with hopeful skepticism. Would the public accept it? Would Lao people accept it? The answer was a resounding YES! Since their opening in 2009 and 2013, Thip Khao and Khe-Yo, along with dozens of other Lao restaurants around the country, have not only been a gathering place for a new cuisine offering, but they serve as cultural institutions akin to temples or museums.The survival of these restaurants represents the progress of Laotian Americans and serve as a vibrant homage to our heritage.

There are signs that the Lao food community in the US is not only alive and well, but thriving, despite all odds. In 2021 and the beginning of 2022, at least a dozen inspired Laotian Americans opened up restaurants all over the country:  Spicy Joi Lao Food in California, Le Mu in Maine and Nok’s Kitchen in California took the leap to a brick and mortar store, offering us even more places to gather and share Lao cuisine.  

Channapha Khamvongsa

Founder

Washington DC