One of the East Bay’s Best (and Most Elusive) Lao Restaurants Finds a New Home in Albany
The first time I ate Souk Savanh’s soulful, funk-forward kao soy noodle soup and outrageously crunchy rice ball salad in East Oakland, I immediately crowned the restaurant one of my favorite Lao spots in the Bay Area. The under-radar-spot closed in 2016, seemingly for good, but then reemerged 10 years later in downtown Oakland, where it briefly served some of the tastiest $10 rice plates in town — only to close again after just a couple of months.
The restaurant has simultaneously been one of the best and most elusive Lao food businesses that I’ve encountered in the Bay.
Now, husband-and-wife owners Tea Chaiyasith and Nai Sailee are hoping they’ve found a long-term home for their business. Souk Savanh 2.0 — technically 3.0? — will open in Albany as early as next month, in the space previously occupied by the Match Point Brewing taproom at 745 San Pablo Ave.
Like the most recent Oakland incarnation of the restaurant, the new Souk Savanh will be a fast-casual, counter-service spot, with a focus on budget-friendly rice and noodle plates starting at $10 a pop.
“We want to make our food very tasty and affordable for the community,” Chaiyasith says, “because not everyone can afford a $20 meal every day.”
As it turns out, the couple stayed active in the food and beverage industry during Souk Savanh’s 10-year hiatus. Chaiyasith ran a Rockin’ Crawfish franchise in Sacramento for about a year, after which he and Sailee opened End Zone, a bar in Oakland that evolved into a nightclub called Everything But Hugs & Kisses — and, eventually, the first short-lived reboot of Souk Savanh.
According to Chaiyasith, the main problem was that the landlord in Oakland kept raising the rent. The new Albany location was appealing in part because it’s much closer to Chaiyasith and Sailee’s home in Richmond, where for the past two years they’ve also built up a customer base through their pop-up, Pai’s Eatery (named after the first initials of their children, Princeton, Ava and Ivy), which is open twice a week at The Lot street food market. The plan, Chaiyasith says, is to continue those pop-ups even after the new restaurant opens.
Like many Lao-owned restaurants in the Bay Area, Souk Savanh serves a mix of Lao, Thai and other Southeast Asian dishes. Chaiyasith, who was born in Laos, says he’s especially proud of the authenticity of the Lao offerings. Along with the bright and fragrant rice ball salad, another highlight is the fermented Lao sausage, which the chefs make in-house. At the pop-up, they serve it as a crisp-edged meatball — absurdly delicious when dipped in the funky-sweet house jeow som. The new restaurant will also serve the sausages in the more traditional style, grilled inside their casings, Chaiyasith says. The new menu will also feature Lao-style laab and street food dishes like meat skewers. Meanwhile, the chefs’ more fusiony dishes also have a strong following — the garlic noodles and honey walnut shrimp, in particular.
When it opens, the reborn Souk Savanh will be part of a new mini food hall run by the folks behind 310 Eatery, the Asian American burger spot next door. The food hall will also include a bakery and a beer bar.
For Chaiyasith and Sailee, the opening is the latest stop on what has been a winding, often bumpy road for their restaurant. With any luck, hopefully this version will stick around for a long, long time.
Souk Savanh 2.0 will open at 745 San Pablo Ave. in Albany in the coming weeks — hopefully no later than the end of August, the owners say. Hours are TBD, but Chaiyasith says he plans to open for dinner six days a week and serve lunch on days when the Pai’s Eatery pop-up isn’t happening.