HUMBOLDT PARK — A new restaurant and wine bar aiming to showcase another side to Thai cuisine is thriving thanks to neighbors and kitchen staff at the Humboldt Park restaurant.
TAAN — which means “to eat” in Thai and is pronounced with a long A sound — opened earlier this month at 2759 W. Augusta Blvd., after extensive neighborhood buzz. With a rotating food and wine menu that pushes the boundaries of what Chicagoans may know as Thai cuisine, and restaurant decor gifted from neighbors, the spot is already a hit. More than half of its kitchen staff came from Segnatore across the street, which closed in May.
“I wanted for Chicago to have a cool little Thai wine bar that showcases food outside of the traditional menus that we have been seeing,” said owner and chef Chanita Chayaluk. “The first immigration wave of Thai people was in the ’70s, my parents came in the ’70s and not much of [Chicago] menus have changed since then.”
Chanita Chayaluk, owner and chef of Thai restaurant TAAN at 2759 W. Augusta Blvd., smiles for a photo by the window on Sept. 18, 2026 in Humboldt Park. Credit: Ariel Parrella-Aureli/Block Club Chicago
TAAN has already been featured on various “Best of” restaurant lists and local industry podcasts, and it has gotten attention from social media influencers, leading to packed nights that have “taken everything by storm” for Chayaluk, who lives nearby and works with a small team in managing the business and kitchen, she said.
TAAN’s menu, which rotates based on the season and available produce and ingredients, is meant to be shared. Diners won’t find many noodle or curry dishes but will find more fish, meat and vegetable dishes flavored with Thai sauces, Chayaluk said.
The deep fried sea bass at TAAN is a whole fish with fish sauce caramel and herb dressing served with a side of fries. Credit: Jack Li
“Our menu is very shareable, which is how exactly you should enjoy Thai food, especially when you’re in Thailand, because all the flavors are supposed to go together,” she said. “Thai food is all about balance. You need sweet, you need spicy, sour.”
Deep-fried sea bass, a whole fish with fish sauce caramel and herb dressing served with a side of fries, is one of the restaurant’s more popular items.
“I wasn’t even sure how people would take it because the whole face and eyes and everything is on there, but it’s been selling like cupcakes,” Chayaluk said. “People are definitely ready to eat with their hands and for something new.”
Other items that have been popular thus far include the handmade Sai Oua pork sausages and Makwaen fish sauce caramel wings, she said. A fall menu with new dishes is set to release this week that will evoke comfort, spice, heat and autumn.
The restaurant’s mission encourages people to question what they think Thai cuisine is, the owner said. The decor doesn’t feature items from Thai culture by design. Empty wine bottles donated by neighbors, Italian ceramics repurposed as lamp shades and donated plants liven up the dining room.
A picture of the ninth king of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadej, sitting alongside the queen and Elvis Presley, hangs above the TAAN bar, seen Sept. 18, 2026 in Humboldt Park. Credit: Ariel Parrella-Aureli/Block Club Chicago
There is perhaps only one overtly Thai object tied to the culture inside TAAN: a picture of the ninth king of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadej, who held the longest reign in the country.
“It’s not just him and the queen, but it’s also him and Elvis,” Chayaluk said “To me, it’s everything in that photo; the color that informs the space, but it also speaks to that relationship of Thai Americanness, which kind of encapsulates me.”
Born in Chicago to Thai parents, Chayaluk has always loved working with food. After a career as a high school counselor, she was ready for something new and pursued her culinary degree in 2022 from Le Cordon Bleu in Bangkok, where she was formally trained in Thai cuisine.
Part of the dining room at Thai restaurant TAAN, 2759 W. Augusta Blvd., seen Sept. 18, 2026 in Humboldt Park. Credit: Ariel Parrella-Aureli/Block Club Chicago
Bar director Craig Langworthy, a trained sommelier with extensive knowledge of European wines, is in charge of the wine program. He called it a “unique challenge” to work with Midwestern and European wines that enhance the food’s spicy flavors and was inspired by his month-long travels last year that took him to France and Spain.
“It helped show that what’s local is really undervalued, and Michigan is an emerging wine region for us, so we’re trying to have more from there,” Langworthy said.
TAAN’s drink menu, which includes wine by Logan Square’s Middlebrow, is a small selection of reds, whites and bubbly wines that rotate with the food. Big Juicy, a red wine with watermelon notes from California, and a white by a Thai wine maker that has elderflower flavors, also based in California, “have been flying” off the shelves, he said.
Langworthy hopes TAAN’s wine menu will elevate the growing Chicago wine culture, which is still gaining momentum, he said.
David Hoeng, a cook at TAAN, 2759 W. Augusta Blvd., preps meat in the Humboldt Park restaurant Sept. 18, 2026. Credit: Ariel Parrella-Aureli/Block Club Chicago
Chayaluk is grateful to her seven cooks who have shined in carrying forth the menu, which include Chef de Cuisine Mark Cerullo, David Hoeng and Marco Silva — the “backbone” of the kitchen, she said.
She also seeks to enlist a “romantic” cultural shift for the industry in making sure TAAN employees are well rested — so the restaurant isn’t open on Sundays and Mondays.
“I want for people to show up and be their best selves, but they can’t they can’t do that if they feel depleted,” she said. “TAAN is about nourishing others, but it’s also about trying to nourish ourselves, too.”
TAAN is open 5-10 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday.
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