It’s been a year since Khao Noodle Shop in Dallas was named the No. 2 best new restaurant in the nation by Bon Appetit. If any new restaurant could thrive in Dallas, wouldn’t it be a tiny, delicious place that gained thousands of devotees nearly overnight?
You know what happened next.
“We had just started looking for a [second] location when all hell broke loose," says Donny Sirisavath, chef-owner of Khao Noodle Shop in a recent Bon Appetit interview. “Like, you think you’re the No. 2 restaurant in the nation? Well, here comes COVID-19. Accolades don’t mean [expletive] in a global pandemic.”
Bon Appetit re-interviewed all 10 of last year’s award-winning restaurants, showing how even the country’s most lauded restaurants can’t dodge the challenges that come with COVID-19.
The Dallas Morning News has covered Khao Noodle Shop’s moves closely this year: It closed in March, as did every restaurant dining room in Dallas. It began a scaled-back business, then closed temporarily in April after Sirisavath told us “we’ve exhausted our minds, our bodies and we’ve exhausted our bank accounts.” He had dreams of opening a second restaurant, but when expansion didn’t seem possible during the pandemic, he reimagined the menu at Khao Noodle Shop, making it more suitable for takeout. He delivered the restaurant’s food — himself. (He’s since brought on a third-party delivery company.) Sirisavath and his team also started operating a market called the Khaovenience Mart, selling house-made sauces alongside packaged items and produce.
“I feel like I’m my mom now, making and selling anything and everything I can think of, like a true immigrant. Finding a way to survive,” he says in the BA interview.
His mom was the inspiration behind his Laotian soul food restaurant in the first place. A Laotian refugee, she wanted her son to work at her Thai restaurant when he was in his 20s, but he wasn’t ready. A few years after she died, Donny realized he wanted to honor his mom by cooking her food.
At the same time that Khao Noodle Shop received national acclaim in 2019, the magazine named Dallas as the Restaurant City of the Year. And despite an awful 2020, many of the restaurants that impressed the BA staff continue to do their thing mid-pandemic. Differently, though: Mezcaleria Las Almas Rotas is doing drive-through; Nori Handroll Bar has a curbside menu; Petra and the Beast moved its tasting menu outdoors and has tacked on a Sunday take-home option. Midnight Rambler, which was listed as one of the reasons Dallas was BA’s Restaurant City of the Year, is one of the few places on that list that didn’t survive the pandemic.
In the BA interview, Sirisavath says he’s been depressed and stressed — a common theme among restaurant workers enduring low wages and risking their health to serve others. He’s worried about rent, decreased sales and the lack of support from the government.
Yet despite their hardships, Khao Noodle Shop’s success is surely one of the reasons BA’s sister publication Condé Nast Traveler wrote in 2020 that Dallas is a hot spot for Laotian food.
Khao Noodle Shop remains open four days a week, selling food and T-shirts. They’re also collaborating with other restaurants and bars around town, like the recent event with craft beer spot Strangeways.
“My mom always taught me there are bumps in the road but you can’t go backward — you have to keep moving forward. It’s all you can do,” Sirisavath told Bon Appetit.
