Natasha Yee | CHOW BELLA | t Café Lom Wong First Taste: Fine dining and regional Thai flavors. BY NATASHA YEE When a new spot opens in town, we’re eager to check it out, let you know our initial impres- sions, share a few photos, and dish about some menu items. First Taste, as the name implies, is not a full-blown review, but instead, a peek inside restaurants that have just opened — an occasion to sample a few items and satisfy curiosities (both yours and ours). O ne of downtown Phoenix’s buzziest new restaurants makes itself at home in a familiar black-painted bungalow on Second and Portland streets. What was once Peter Kasperski’s fine dining restaurant Character and True North Studio’s Josephine before that, both open for less than a year, is now Lom Wong. The Thai restaurant debuted in March, serving the regional cuisines of its moth- erland from a cozy space with exposed brick and mustard velvet curtains. A smiling hostess greets customers as they enter the restaurant. One wall displays wine racks while rattan pendant lights shine against a green, tiled bar. On a recent visit, a passionate server gave a quick menu rundown. Stomachs growled in anticipation. Thankfully, cocktails came soon after, and the boozy concoctions made the balmy night a bit more bearable. The Thunder’s Pina Colada is airy and light, made with rum and coconut cream. A dash of fish sauce is added for a savory finish, and the A selection of dishes at Lom Wong in downtown Phoenix. Eleven Tigers, a smoky bourbon cocktail with Campari, grenadine, and ya dong, a Thai sugarcane spirit infused with herbs, proved to be excellent selections. Lom Wong’s owners Yotaka “Sunny” Martin and Alex Martin have plenty of experience with Thai flavors. Yotaka grew up in a village in northern Thailand’s Chiang Rai, planting herb and rice gardens and raising animals, then cooking them alongside her mother and grandmother. Alex lived in Thailand for 12 years, learning to speak the language fluently while working in academia. “In the most unromantic thing you can possibly explain while living in Thailand, of all the ways to meet, we met at a Starbucks,” Alex says. However, their adventurous spirits bonded and they were soon inseparable, traveling around different parts of the Chiang Mai province and hanging out in the kitchen with Yotaka’s family in northern Thailand. When Alex’s dad convinced Yotaka to come stateside, the couple moved to Washington, hosting Thai barbecue popups from their backyard. They eventu- ally relocated to Phoenix, plans for Lom Wong in hand, and hosted their first popup here in June 2019. New Times named the fragrant and inti- mate dinners “Best Popup” in both 2020 and 2021. Now served at their brick-and-mortar restaurant, the menu is decidedly more unusual than those of the 1919-built bunga- low’s predecessors. Find Som Tum Gai Yaang, a green papaya salad with charcoal- grilled chicken thigh, and Tom Yum Haend Sen Yai, stir-fried wide rice noodles with straw mushrooms and head-on langoustine. The food comes as each dish is ready and they are meant to be shared: little plates with big flavors. “We had a table on the patio last night that ordered one of everything on the menu,” our server informed us. Quite the idea. >> p 26 25 phoenixnewtimes.com | CONTENTS | FEEDBACK | OPINION | NEWS | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | PHOENIX NEW TIMES JULY 14TH–JULY 20TH, 2022
