Why We’re Rah-Rah for Buellton’s Na Na Thai
Ashley and Nik Ramirez’s Globe-Trotting Journey
from Advantageous Eating to Southeast Asian Road Meals
By Matt Kettmann | August 24, 2023
In a land the place the culinary pulse went from mere murmurs to seen thumping within the span of a decade, Santa Barbara County’s raciest restaurant proper now’s positioned in what would often be described as a strip-mall hole-in-the-wall simply off 101. By turning that gap right into a vividly embellished hotbed of heartfelt meals and even friendlier cheer, the couple behind Na Na Thai is bringing genuine Bangkok to Buellton, and making the sleepy Santa Ynez Valley city a must-stop for Southeast Asian street-food fanatics.
Only a yr in the past, nobody may have predicted this final result. That’s when Ashley and Nik Ramirez began their Na Na pop-up apart Bar Le Côte on Tuesday nights when the Los Olivos seafood tavern — owned by the Michelin-star-snagging Bell’s in Los Alamos — was in any other case closed. However how these Thousand Oaks– and Maui-raised fine-dining veterans turned moo dad dang and som tum specialists is a narrative that begins lengthy earlier than in a faraway place — on a soccer pitch in Romania, to be precise.
That’s the place Nik, who grew up in Makawao and got here to Santa Barbara Metropolis Faculty for soccer, was enjoying professionally for FC Petrolul Ploiești, which served the crew the identical rotating lineup of weekly dishes. “I used to be so bored with consuming the identical factor daily,” he recalled. “I purchased a burner and a sauté pan and tried to cook dinner for myself.”
He give up professional soccer, returned to Santa Barbara, enrolled in SBCC’s culinary program, and, simply earlier than graduating in 2008, was employed as a line cook dinner at Wine Cask. He labored his means by different kitchen jobs earlier than returning to Wine Cask, which is the place he met Ashley in 2014.
She began working in Conejo Valley eating places as a teen and clocked greater than eight years at Brophy Brothers throughout faculty. She shortly bored with her imaginative and prescient to be a trainer, so she went again to SBCC for the culinary program, the place she caught the wine bug. That led her to the Wine Cask, the place she’d been working lower than a yr when her brand-new boyfriend acquired a name from Thailand.
By an El Encanto connection — each of their work histories are too complicated to completely element — Nik was invited to arrange a 12-course menu to win a prestigious govt chef job at a Bangkok resort. He solely had every week to develop and supply the menu from afar, however he acquired the gig. Ashley known as her mother, questioning whether or not to ditch all the things and transfer internationally with this man she barely knew, and her mother requested how she would really feel if he didn’t invite her. “I’d be devastated,” Ashley replied. The reply was apparent.
Two months later, they had been residing within the fast-paced, chaotic capital of Thailand, and these two small-towners acquired hooked. “I’m virtually scared of massive cities, however we’d come again to California and I couldn’t wait to get again to Bangkok,” stated Nik. “You reside like a king there.”
Residing in an condominium on a road nicknamed Na Na, the couple turned fascinated with the town’s street-food scene, led to secret stalls by their Thai colleagues. “We might have by no means discovered them in any other case,” stated Ashley. “Typically it was terrifying attempting to get there — you’d need to go down darkish alleys.”
However then they’d uncover entire fried fish plucked proper out of tanks earlier than your eyes (on the Na Na menu as pla tod), or gai tod (fried rooster in nam jim jaew), or that addictive moo dad dang, that are pork niblets dried within the solar and served with chili sauce. “They put their lives into the one dish they usually simply make that,” stated Nik of those sidewalk cooks, who rolled out their carts to arrange their specialty daily. “There’s one thing very completely different about that.”
Again from Bangkok
4 years later — we’ll skip over a few strikes and job adjustments, besides the one about Nik staging at a Noma (one of many world’s most acclaimed eating places) idea in Copenhagen however turning down the hardly paid work provide — that they had two youngsters and had been nonetheless residing the expat dream, getting paid excessive salaries in an inexpensive financial system. “We might have most likely stayed there, however the air pollution in Bangkok is absolutely unhealthy,” stated Ashley, who had air purifiers in each room and made the children put on masks. Plus, personal faculty, which is the one actual choice for expats, is extraordinarily costly, and the children had been reaching that age.
They lastly married in September 2019 and returned to Santa Barbara that December, each working for Acme Hospitality; she managed the transition of Paradise Café to La Paloma, and he labored at Tyger Tyger after which Loquita. However they had been commuting from a rental they purchased in Buellton, and restauranting by the pandemic sucked.
Their job-jumping will get difficult once more at this level. “There have been so many job adjustments, it was exhausting,” admitted Ashley. The crucial components are that winemaker Drake Whitcraft launched them to Bells/Bar Le Côte/Companion Hospitality owner-operators Greg and Daisy Ryan, who turned their mentors/guardian angels, and that they began a work-equity deal to take over Succulent Café, the place Nik needed to serve high-end, new Nordic delicacies à la Noma to Solvang. “We needed extra pores and skin within the sport,” he defined.
Months later, that dream was lifeless, leaving them devastated, a lot that Ashley almost took a job in Napa. However the Ryans didn’t need them to depart, so that they created a concierge-like job for her at Bell’s. Then one other one in all Nik’s jobs fell by, leaving Ashley in tears throughout a piece assembly, at which period Greg Ryan took her by the arm and stated, “Squeeze my hand. It’s gonna be wonderful. I don’t know what’s going to occur, however we care in regards to the 4 of you and also you’re going to remain.”
Nik did a short tour as a stay-at-home dad — “I beloved it,” he stated, to which Ashley stated, “You probably did it like two weeks” — till the Ryans advised they do a pop-up at Bar Le Côte on Tuesdays. “I believed açaí bowls was the perfect concept,” laughed Ashley. “I used to be so silly.” Greg knew higher, telling them, “It’s important to do Thai.”
The pop-ups began in June 2022 and ran for 9 months, often promoting out in 90 minutes. In the meantime, Greg was Mr. Miyagi–ing them into being restaurateurs and discovering them a everlasting location. He despatched Ashley an image of the keys to what’s now Na Na Thai in February — she didn’t know what they had been at first — and Companion Hospitality turned a associate within the undertaking.
“We give them the assist and web that plenty of first-time restaurant house owners want — it’s a beast,” Greg texted me after my first go to in early July. “You want a lot infrastructure. It’s arduous on a small scale, however we imagine of their arduous work and the meals and hospitality. If we will help eradicate the ‘slog’ stuff and be capable to give people among the instruments, it’s cool to see what folks can do while you provide a possibility.”
Road Meals Type
Na Na Thai’s menu is stacked with Thai phrases which are new for many Californians, even these of us who get your hands on distinctive Asian dishes like we’re amassing baseball playing cards: moo pad grapao (minced pork, chile, egg on rice), sau ua (Chaing Mai–fashion sausage), gai pad med mamuang himmapan (cashew rooster), and so forth.
“The restaurant is actually a set of all of our favourite road meals distributors,” stated Ashley, which created its personal logistical points. “They’re not posting these recipes on the web.”
Nik needed to observe his palate. “I do know what they’re imagined to style like, however how do I get from A to B?” he puzzled, after which reached out to his Thai associates for perception. He additionally leaned into method, doing all the things by hand with a clay mortar and pestle in an historic course of known as tam, which implies “to pound.”
“I made a promise to not Westernize it,” stated Nik, who understood from his Bangkok days that a lot of American Thai delicacies had the spicy spices, searing acid, and fish-sauce funk dumbed right down to appease unfamiliar palates. “If I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna make the dishes as respectful to the traditions as I can. We are going to take it the arduous means.” The curry pastes are pounded by hand, and even the pad thai, a dish each proud noodle fanatic is aware of properly, is made to order.
In a refreshingly direct method, substitutions usually are not allowed — regardless of the vegetarian stereotype, most genuine Bangkok meals is cooked in lard and makes use of fish or oyster sauce — however you may request it hotter. “You possibly can amp it up,” stated Ashley, “however we received’t take it out.” They’re not simply being purists: To take nuts or fish out of a dish would require a complete rewash of that mortar and all the related instruments, which is simply not sensible in a small, fast-moving kitchen. (It’s most likely not occurring at your common eatery both, by the best way.)
As such, the dishes, a few third of which change weekly relying on sources, are aggressively pronounced and pungent. However there’s a lot for all to get pleasure from, together with youngsters, who can select from butter noodles, rooster tenders, or sticky rice with cucumber.
Road meals is a departure from the couple’s fine-dining methods, and that makes Ashley proud. “We need to create a spot the place you may go not less than as soon as every week,” she defined, noting that’s already occurring with locals, whereas the Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo crowds proceed to come back as properly, lured by colourful social media posts. “We didn’t need a special-occasion restaurant.”
Nik, nevertheless, nonetheless has that itch to scratch, so the bar might evolve right into a tasting menu expertise down the street. However he’s not complaining.
“I wouldn’t be wherever with out her,” he stated in a candy second, referring to their youngsters, house, and profession. Ashley respects the reward, however sees him main that scorching kitchen daily, confirming that road meals is simply as difficult as any tweezer-requiring delicacies: “He stated that that is the toughest station he’s ever labored.”
225 McMurray Rd., Ste. E, Buellton; nanathaisyv.com
