If you were looking for an unofficial cafeteria for Music Row, you’ll find it at the new Thai Esane. In its previous location on a quiet stretch of 12thAvenue South just outside of the Gulch, the Thai-Laotian spot drew a steady crowd of music industry execs. Now, with a move to the Element building on Demonbreun Hill, the restaurant has gotten closer to its people.
“Every day, around 11 a.m., I see them coming down the Row,” says Nina Singto, the owner and chef behind Thai Esane. “And then, for that hour they’re all in here, it’s like a clubhouse.”
Thai Esane’s closure in one space and reopening in another signaled not just easier access for a large part of its customer base—it also opened the doors to a whole new audience. Singto’s cult classics—like the golden, peppery chicken noodle soup and Malaysian noodles—are now within blocks of a number of hotels, residential buildings, apartments, and businesses (with construction promising many more to come). What new and old fans are finding is a sleek, polished space that’s warmed up with soft leather seats, warm-toned woods, and a six-foot golden Buddha statue watching over the room.
For Singto, the move to this location has long been a goal—with it, she’s stepped into solo ownership.
“This was my dream, being here,” she says.
Singto, originally from Laos, arrived in the U.S. as a toddler, her family fleeing from communism. She spent her childhood in Fort Smith, Arkansas, where her parents worked two jobs to make ends meet. Singto’s grandmother watched the children, and taught Singto not only how to cook, but about having a passion for food.
“I always helped her in the kitchen and that’s where it came from. Grandma loved food so much. She always taught me that in order for food to taste good, you have to put love and passion into it.”
At a young age, she embraced entrepreneurship. As soon as she could ride a bike at age six, she was selling the produce—onions, peppers, cilantro—pulled from her grandmother’s garden. In high school, it was bowls of her grandmother’s noodles to the after-school crowd.
“My mom was working two jobs—it was the way I could contribute,” she says.
Singto later moved to Nashville and started working at Salon FX in Midtown doing hair. But when her family opened King Market in Antioch, they asked her to put aside her career to help the family business. Once she did, she was immediately drawn in by her love of the food and the people. In 2014, she decided to bring the food of King Market into Nashville, opening Thai Esane with a family member as a partner. Nashville quickly latched on to her food.
What to Order
Steam Dumplings, $8
Tofu Wrap Salad, $16
Kao Soi, $14
Chicken Noodle Soup, $13
Drunken Noodles, $14
In this new location, Singto is the sole owner; she operates the restaurant alongside her husband, Tim Singto. And she’s also updated several of the recipes. You’ll still find a range of dishes from Thailand and Laos, but she’s putting more of herself into the food, especially when it comes to the heat level.
“Now that I’m branched out on my own, I want to do me. Meaning, I want to do food for people that I serve at home. Not just Americanize it,” she says.
One of her best sellers, kao soi, became a labor of love this summer as she tested and retested the recipe to perfect it. The lip-tingling broth of yellow curry is amped up with coconut, ground kefir lime leaf, and lemongrass, and gets loaded with strips of cabbage, egg noodles, carrots and bean sprouts. It’s topped with a tangle of crispy wontons, the entire extra-large bowl fragrant with curry and spice.
Other updates include the addition of extra white pepper to the already soul-filling chicken noodle soup—it cures all that ails. Singto’s drunken noodles are as mouth-numbing as ever with the bok choy and red peppers getting a slight char from a toss in the wok and the chile oil up to 11. Add extra garlic chips for crunch. Singto is known in the Laotian community as “the papaya queen,” and here, her papaya salad gets a potent blend of lime juice, fish sauce, and peanuts for crunch. For vegetarians, she’s doing a solid tofu wrap salad, or larb, which gets a jolt of lime juice.
Singto’s most proud of her new co*cktail menu, with drinks like the Golden Buddah getting her personal touch—that one has a base of tamarind syrup to offset the bourbon and lime. She’s also launched a brunch menu, featuring even more new favorites.
It’s clear Singto has poured her heart into this new place—and the work is paying off. Look for a second location of Thai Esane to open inside The Food Hall opening on Broadway soon.
Thai Esane, 1520 Division St.; 615-454-5373; thaiesane.com.
