Laotian restaurant is set to be a centerpiece of new Cary park. Here’s when it opens.
A new restaurant by the former chef behind two of the Triangle’s most popular spots will open next month as part of Cary’s much-anticipated new downtown park.
Former Bida Manda and Brewery Bhavana chef Lon Bounsanga will open his first restaurant, a Laotian street food concept named SAAP. The restaurant will open on the ground floor of the new apartment complex The Walker, looking out on the town’s $68 million park.
Bounsanga is decades into a restaurant career that’s included Italian, French and Laotian restaurants. He said SAAP represents a different kind of challenge overseeing all aspects of the dining experience.
“It’s definitely different; this is my baby, my first restaurant on my own,” Bounsanga said. “(At Bida Manda and Brewery Bhavana) others took care of the front of the house while I was in charge of the menu. Here I have to do it all.”
‘Yummy’ in Laotian
SAAP, which means delicious or “yummy” in Laotian, Bounsanga said, plans a dining room with 70 seats, 10 stools at the bar and a 20 person patio. Bounsanga said he crafted the menu to embrace the kind of foot traffic expected at the park.
“With this luscious park behind us, I wanted to gear the menu towards street food,” Bounsanga said. “That’s what we’re known for in Laos. We’ve always been looking for a place that fits the street food concept.”
That means grilled skewers of Tiger shrimp, barbecue pork and chicken satay, bowls of green curry and plans for an aromatic pho, deepened with oxtail and a version of pork belly soup, made locally famous at Bida Manda.
Bounsanga came to the United States as a young boy, moving from Laos in 1978. He said food was a constant source of joy in his family growing up. Once in America, he turned that love into a career.
“I was the oldest son, I had to help out the family,” Bousanga said. “I helped the family with finances and bills, since I was able to cook right out of high school. ... Food was everything to us. Growing up you didn’t know when your next meal was coming, we made sure to enjoy it.”
‘Food is everything’
In his restaurant career, which has included stops in Philadelphia and 16 years in North Carolina, Bounsanga said his menus aimed to reflect a larger role of food in people’s lives.
“Food is everything, I don’t think you can overstate it,” Bounsanga said. “It’s more than filling your belly. I’ve always thought it was the start of a conversation.”
As executive chef, Bounsanga helped open Bida Manda as one of the country’s very few Laotian restaurants. Then he helped open Brewery Bhavana, which saw immediate acclaim and earned a spot on Bon Appetit’s 10 best new restaurants list in 2017.
Persevering after shocking news
For years, the pair of restaurants remained two of Raleigh’s most beloved spots, but suffered a hit to their reputation in 2020 amid allegations of sexual misconduct involving top level managers. Those managers are no longer part of the restaurants. Bounsanga said he stayed with the restaurants to support his back of the house staff.
“I was as shocked as anybody, I was actually at home when the news hit,” Bounsanga said. “Unfortunately we were also dealing with COVID. We had a lot of ups and downs that year. The main thing that brought me back was the staff that still wanted to be a part of the restaurants in the back of the house. ... What happened wasn’t who we are.”
After months of closed dining rooms and operating as curbside restaurants, Bounsanga said he felt customers eventually start to return.
“We pulled ourselves together, and we came out crawling,” Bounsanga said. “The community started supporting us again.”
Bounsanga said he has been out of the Brewery Bhavana kitchen for four months, but continues to advise the Bida Manda kitchen until SAAP opens.
A third restaurant from Vansana and Vanvisa Nolintha had been in the works for The Dillon building — a large Laotian street food concept called Luang Prabang.
Once it was canceled, Bounsanga said some of the dishes, particuarly the grilled skewers, will be revived at SAAP.
The grand opening for SAAP is planned for Nov. 15, three days before Cary is set to unveil its sprawling downtown park.
This story was originally published October 19, 2023 at 4:06 PM with the headline "Laotian restaurant is set to be a centerpiece of new Cary park. Here’s when it opens.."
