Los Angeles Magazine
One of LA’s Oldest Thai Restaurants Buys Their Building
Family photo in the original Chao Krung Thai
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Kuntee family
Chao Krung has been a Hollywood dining landmark for more than 50 years
When Angelenos thought Italian food was strange and unusual, reviewers warned of the intense spiciness. One 1940s ad for pizza spelled it phonetically and described it as a “food bread.” By the time Gino’s Spaghetti House was closing on Hollywood Boulevard in the 1970s, you could enjoy foods from around the world in Los Angeles, although critics could still be a bit provincial. Describing the Gaeng Liang at Chao Krung restaurant in 1982, a critic for the L.A. Weekly still had to explain fish paste to his readers. “Don’t go ugh,” he wrote. “It’s unusual and delicious.”
Chao Krung founders Supa and Somboon Kuntee took over Gino’s and stayed in the old Gershwin Hotel building for at least a decade, one of the first Thai restaurants that eventually helped give this part of the city the nickname Thai Town. They expanded to a second location on Fairfax Avenue near CBS Television City and spent the next forty years serving up Pad Woon Sen and Panang curry to hungry fans. In 2016, the Kuntees turned the business over to their two daughters Katy Noochlaor and Amanda Maneesilasan.
This week, the restaurant announced that after being in L.A. for more than half a century, one of L.A.’s oldest Thai restaurants has finally been able to purchase the building that its landmark restaurant occupies on Fairfax Avenue.