Andy Ricker's Whiskey Soda Lounge is Coming to Brooklyn

Andy Ricker has been operating in New York City for just about a year now. Pok Pok Wing opened in January 2011, but morphed into Pok Pok Phat Thai in August after the demand for Ike's Wings proved too great for the small Rivington Street space. Ricker opened Pok Pok Ny in April, four months after Pok Pok Wing, on Columbia Street in Brooklyn. The restaurant's been packed ever since and the waits are rarely shy of an hour. That might change come spring time, as Diner's Journal confirmed earlier rumors that Ricker was bringing his Portland-based Whiskey Soda Lounge to New York.

The lounge will open this spring in the former Iro Sushi space at 115 Columbia Street, half a block north of Pok Pok Ny at 127 Columbia Street. The extra space provided by the new venue will help with the inevitable waits at Ny. Whiskey Soda Lounge will serve aahaan kap klaem, which is the drinking food of Thailand. Ricker described the food to Diner's Journal as "spicy-salty-sour." Don't worry, Ike's Wings will be on the menu. [DJ]

It's Not You, It's Me; Sometimes Restaurants Need Breaks Too

Every now and then restaurants take a break so owners and employees can keep their sanity.  Despite landing on Bon Appetit's Best New Restaurants of 2012, Battersby in Brooklyn is on vacation this week.  They shut things down on Sunday and will be back to 255 Smith Street Tuesday the 4th.

Sometimes restaurants close so they can undergo renovations, as we just saw last week with Pok Pok Wing.  Andy Ricker shut things down for the week of August 19th and opened Pok Pok Phat Thai in the former Pok Pok Wing space.

The Frank's got in on the morph movement back in March.  They shut down Frankies 17 on the Lower East Side and turned the once Italian place into a Basque restaurant called Francesca.

Signs up outside the Lower East Side 'inoteca reveal this week's renovating restaurant.  Jason Denton's 98 Rivington Street restaurant closed yesterday and will reopen Saturday with a reworked menu.

Pok Pok Phat Thai is Up and Running

Andy Ricker's Pok Pok Wing reopened as Pok Pok Phat Thai Friday, after closing Sunday the 19th so the kitchen could transition from "Ike's Wings" factory to a phat Thai, aka pad Thai, restaurant.  Ricker is now serving his "Ike's Wings" exclusively at Pok Pok NY on Columbia Street in Cobble Hill. 

Pok Pok Phat Thai is serving five different types of phat Thai, Hoi Thawt (a crispy broken crepe with mussels and eggs), and "A Bangkok Chinatown specialty" known as Kuaytiaw Khua Kai (a wide rice noodle dish with chicken, cuttlefish, and duck egg).  The grub can all be washed down with the famous Pok Pok drinking vinegars or a few other iced tea and coffee options.  Nothing on the menu exceeds $12.

Serious Eats was there to document the reopening Friday, and the Pok Pok Phat Thai website has a few other pictures of some of the dishes.

Pok Pok Phat Thai Menu

The demand for "Ike's Wings" proved too much for the small kitchen at 137 Rivington Street. Andy Ricker's Pok Pok Wing closed Sunday to make the transition from wing joint to phat Thai joint. Pok Pok Phat Thai will open in the former Pok Pok Wing space this Friday. Grub Street got their hands on the menu and we posted it here for you. The base ingredients in the noodle dishes read like directions to flavor town: rendered pork fat, tamarind, fish sauce, palm sugar, peanuts, dried tofu, dried shrimp, preserved radish, egg, garlic chives, bean sprouts, and chili powder. In case you were wondering, "Sorry, no chicken Phat Thai!"

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Apparently, Phat Thai's Aren't Just What People Wore in the '70s

Diner's Journal reports Andy Ricker is changing things up at Pok Pok Wing.  The demand for Ricker's wing rendition has proven to be too big for the small Lower East Side space.  Pok Pok Wing will be closing this Sunday for minor renovations and menu adjustments and reopen Friday the 24th as Pok Pok Phat Thai.  Phat Thai, aka pad Thai, is a popular noodle dish Ricker was eventually going to build a space around.  That space will be the former Pok Pok Wing.

He introduced the east coast to his wings when Wing opened back in January.  When Pok Pok NY opened on Columbia Street in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, the wings showed up on the menu there as well.  Cobble Hill will be the only place to get the wings after Pok Pok Phat Thai opens next week.  Ricker hasn't abandoned the idea of a wing space in Manhattan, it's just a matter of finding a space with a kitchen big enough to accommodate the demand.

As for PPPT, there will be four types of the noodle dish, with the option of rice or glass noodle: pork, prawn, prawns and pork, and vegan.  Everything (vegan dish aside) will be stir-fried in rendered pork fat.