Jeff and Nuit Regular’s Sukhothai (274A Parliament, at Dundas, 416-913-8846) in Regent Park is widely recognized as one of the best Thai restaurants in the city despite its no frills digs.
Self-taught cook Nuit (pronounced new-eee) was even voted best up ‘n’ coming local chef in last year’s Nine of Dine competition, beating out such culinary heavyweights as L’Unita’s Doug Neigel, Pizzeria Libretto‘s Rocco Agostino and the Black Hoof’s Grant van Gameren among others.
The couple have just announced that they’re about to open a second, more upscale Sukhothai in the so-called Entertainment District. The new joint – dubbed Khao San Road (326 Adelaide W, at Widmer) for the busy Bangkok boulevard that’s also known as the gateway to southeast Asia – launches next month. Jeff Regular provides NOW readers with the inside dope.
When does the new restaurant open?
We’re aiming for early January. We took over an existing restaurant called Spotlight so it hasn’t been as much work as Sukhothai was. We’re just changing the way it looks. All the framing’s there and the pipes are where they’re supposed to be.
Why did you chose the Entertainment District?
The area’s very accessible so a lot of people can come and give us a try. And the rent’s pretty cheap. We want to try something different, I dunno, more high end. A little more contemporary but still down-to-earth.
Will the menu be different?
Nuit hasn’t finalized the menu quite yet. We want the quality to be as high as Sukothai’s but we’re trying to keep the mains at Khao San under $15. And we’ll be doing some new dishes that other Thai restaurants are afraid to do because of the cost of the ingredients. There’ll also be a weekday prix fixe lunch and Sunday brunch, too.
Who’ll be running Sukhothai?
Nuit is putting her focus on getting Kao San Road off the ground but I’ll definitely be going back and forth between the two. The staff there are great. Nuit trained them and she would never leave them even for a night if she didn’t trust them 100 per cent.
What’s the secret of Sukothai’s success?
I married lucky! Nuit loves cooking. It’s her passion and it works.
