Sneak Peak: Pakpao, New Thai Place From Owners of Oak and Belly & Trumpet

Tiffanee Ellman, the co-owner of Belly & Trumpet restaurant in Uptown and Oak restaurant in the Dallas Design District, sends word that she, her husband Richard and business partner John Paul Valverde will open Pakpao, their Thai-inspired restaurant next to Oak, on Friday, June 21.

Pakpao will serve dinner only then expand to lunch and dinner in mid-July. Pakpao is located adjacent to Oak. Ellman’s note says “Eddy Thretipthuangsin, born and raised in Thailand,” will be Pakpao’s chef.

Hmmm, that leads me to wondering what happened to the widely rumored plan that Brian Zenner would move from Belly & Trumpet to Pakpao. Wasn’t Zenner born in Thailand?

Lots of locomotion recently at Oak and Belly & Trumpet. Hope Pakpao isn’t too much for the sharing plate.

Pakpao’s dinner menu runs almost a dozen pages — too long to reproduce here — but I’ve excerpted the noodle section at the top of this page since everyone’s going to order pad thai anyway. (It’s on there.)

(And before you venture to Pakpao to judge their pad thai, here’s the recipe and technique that should be the standard bearer: real pad thai, made in a makeshift kitchen on the streets of Bangkok. I caught it on video during my trek through Thailand three years ago.)