Since chef Jeeraporn Poksupthong lit up the kitchen at 14th Street’s Baan Thai in 2015, she’s made the restaurant known for serving up Northern Thai delicacies. Now, she and her team have moved to Mt. Vernon Square, with a new identity and a bigger kitchen to match.

Baan Siam opened June 4 in the former home of Alba Osteria, after five months of delays from construction and the coronavirus pandemic that’s devastated the region. The new restaurant was also looted and damaged last week in the early days of the D.C. protests after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis—for now, the restaurant’s front window is boarded up.

Poksupthong and her co-owners, Tom Healy and general manager Vena Doungchang, closed Baan Thai in December, five years after she joined the team from the restaurant’s downstairs neighbor, Thai Tanic. Back then, Poksupthong—who goes by “P’Boom”—saw a need to expand the depth of D.C.’s Thai food scene, and ran with the possibilities.

“Many Thai restaurants here … were cooking food they thought Americans would like” says Poksupthong, who worked in five-star hotel restaurants in the Thailand cities of Bangkok and Pattaya. “I wanted to cook food for Thais and Americans.”

Her menu included lesser-known Northern Thai delights, such as fish ball green curry. The Washington Post called her dishes “exquisite” shortly after Poksupthong took command of the kitchen, and named Baan Thai among the 25 best casual restaurants in the D.C. area last year.

Baan Siam expands the footprint of the restaurant to include inspiration from all over Thailand. It’s “same same but different,” from Baan Thai, Healy says, using the Thai expression that’s become a sort of motto for the restaurant.

Baan Siam is open, modern, and designed to reflect the kitchen skill Poksupthong showcased for five years at Baan Thai. With bright teal and orange accents, the interior is decorated with antique Thai cooking utensils like rice mills and clay steamer pots, and handwoven bamboo baskets hang from the ceilings. Miniature Thai reclining cushions are strewn about.

“Everything we do is to support P’Boom’s kitchen—and delight our customers,” Healy says.

In the kitchen, retrofitted to feature a new high-powered wok station, Poksupthong cooks up some Northern Thai dishes that will be familiar to Baan Thai fans, including the chicken tapioca dumplings and deep-fried pork with tomato chili paste.

In addition to the old favorites, Poksupthong says that the enhanced space is a chance for “us to do a much more regional menu.”

“We’ll have dishes from the kitchens of Issan in the northeast, Chiang Mai in the north, Bangkok in the center, and Phuket in the south,” says Healy.

One new dish Poksupthong is highlighting is steamed mushroom curry. “It is one of those curries that is special to me,” she explains. “It’s made from oyster mushrooms, egg, coconut milk, peppers, basil, kaffir lime leaves, and Central Thai curry paste.” Her kitchen team crafts the curry paste, folds in the vegetables, and wraps it together in a banana leaf to steam. “It’s a very traditional way of making it. It’s how my mother made it, and it’s how I still make it,” she says.

Healy lights up talking about the southern-style beef curry. “It’s an old recipe that you almost never find in the United States,” he says. “It’s slow-cooked, top round beef mixed with lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, and a southern Thai curry paste. It’s a curry base we make just for this one dish, and it’s phenomenal.”

The bar is Healy’s baby. He fashioned 20 tap lines, which will host an extensive international draft list. For now, though, he is settling for bottles and cans to ease into the opening and make the drinks easier to package for to-go orders.

Healy sought out wine options “that pair amazingly with spicy food, which can be a challenge,” he says. Elizabeth Parker—who directed beverage at Crane & Turtle, Le Diplomate, and Centrolina—worked with him to craft a list tailored for delivery.

Baan Thai’s tall, elegant, tropical drink concoctions have made their way to Baan Siam, too. One of Healy’s first and most prominent purchases was a new slushie machine, which will feature two frozen cocktails for now: white lotus and lychee.

Poksupthong has not set her menu in stone. They plan to review popular orders and shift accordingly. “As we go along,” Healy says, “we will learn to work in our new kitchen and we will get faster. We are just learning to walk as a restaurant.” In addition to the dishes and drinks available for carryout and delivery, the restaurant will also sell Poksupthong’s fiery curry paste in 12-ounce containers ($12).

The interior and patio remain closed to diners for now, and Baan Siam will use their own delivery drivers. Healy says the goal is to provide take-out and delivery that’s “comfort food—and food that people aren’t going to make at home, to give them a bit of an adventure.”

Baan Siam is located at 425 I St. NW. Open Tuesday-Sunday, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5 p.m.-8:30 p.m. for delivery and carryout.