816: The Pad Thai–Free Zone with Bangkok Supper Club’s Jenn Saesue

**Jenn Saesue** (0:08)
I just think that there's like a wide range in Thai cooking because we love all flavors, right? Like, it's like every dish is balanced with like five different flavors at all time. And there's such a big variation because in Thailand itself, like it's a melting pot.

**Matt Rodbard** (0:24)
This is TASTE. I'm your host, Matt Rodbard.
Jenn Saesue didn't want to open another Thai restaurant that served the same watered down menu as everyone else's. She's the co-founder of 55 Hospitality, the group behind Fish Cheeks, the Michelin listed Bangkok Supper Club, and Bub's Bakery, New York's first completely allergen free bakery. On this episode, Jenn and I talk about Pad Thai managing an impossible reservation list and how a birthday cake from her husband turned into a two and a half year R&D project. I hope you enjoy this episode. Jenn Saesue, welcome to This Is TASTE, so great to meet you.

**Jenn Saesue** (1:14)
Nice to meet you too, Matt.

**Matt Rodbard** (1:16)
Big fan of your restaurants.
I mean, just from the jump, Fish Cheeks, it's truly like a Mount Rushmore name for a restaurant. Like, we get a lot of restaurant names coming through our world. It's like the best name. What's the story behind it?

**Jenn Saesue** (1:32)
We knew that we wanted to do a seafood restaurant, right? And me and Chad basically were like, oh my God, let's look at the, I don't know, like a fishing dictionary. We Googled a bunch of names and we're like, what do we call it? We don't know, do we want it to be Thai? Do we not want it to be Thai? And I think we landed on Fish Cheeks because Chad was like, oh, I read this story by Amy Tan. It's like a short story when he was in CIA.
And he was like, what do you think about this? And I was like, actually, I don't hate it. I kind of love it. But again, is it off-putting? I don't know for people, so I think we kind of, you know, like ask around for our friends' opinions and stuff like that. And I think Igor from Employees Only, he was like, Jenn, incredible name. People remember it. I was like, are you sure? And he was like, yeah, like, I love this name. And that was kind of like, okay, great, let's do it. Because I think it's so weird. Like, it's weird, right?

**Matt Rodbard** (2:36)
I mean, getting a cosign from Igor, too, that's a blast in the past. It was Employees Only. I think it's weird. It asks a question.

**Jenn Saesue** (2:43)
But it's also like, you like memorize it. You remember it, you know? In the beginning, I remember putting the sign up and people just walking down, like passing the restaurant while we're doing construction. And they're like, fish cheeks, huh. It makes people kind of like, not knowing what's inside. They even say it themselves out loud. And it happened so much, like, you know, in the beginning that I was like, this is amazing, this is great.

**Matt Rodbard** (3:09)
It's like such a cool example of like, landing on a name and then getting buzzed. And then it's like, everyone wants to go to Fish Cheeks. And it's like, oh my god, I just said that word out loud. And like, obviously some people didn't even know that fish have cheeks. That this is like a coveted part of fish oilful.
And I think it also extends to your ethic at a seafood restaurant. It was really all about like, no pad thai, right? Like, how did you frame that when you launched and continue to talk about that iconic dish and fish cheeks?

**Jenn Saesue** (3:39)
I think for us, we were super intentional about our menu because we saw, like I worked in a bunch of Thai restaurant growing up, right? And I see that like the menu, the menus were very similar to each other. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's like those are money makers. We know people love it. We know people enjoy it.
But I think for me as well, like growing up in Thailand, we, I know that like there's more to that one page menu.

**Matt Rodbard** (4:07)
Yeah.

**Jenn Saesue** (4:08)
So I kind of want to bring that to life. We also want to show that there's variations to Thai food and not just this one page menu.

**Matt Rodbard** (4:18)
Of course. And it was such a strong point of view from the jump. And I think that's why many in like food writing love what you're doing. What do you do now when you're not working? I have to ask. Oh my God. You know, you're popping between restaurants.