ORLANDO, Fla. – Thai Farm Kitchen’s first Florida location is now open for hungry customers in Orlando’s College Park neighborhood.
The restaurant officially opened Thursday, according to its Facebook page, at 2625 Edgewater Drive, which used to house RusTeak before the restaurant moved to Thornton Park.
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This is the second location for the restaurant. The first is based in New York City and opened in 2018.
The couple behind Thai Farm Kitchen, Jess and Elizabeth Calvo, opened their first restaurant together in 2016 when they were still living in Bangkok, Thailand.
The original restaurants were called Farm Luck Dee, but the name changed to Thai Farm Kitchen when the Calvos moved their business to New York City. The pair found a warm reception in Brooklyn but like many who make the move to Florida, they wanted a warmer climate as well.
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“Living in New York, having the snow is quite challenging for us,” Jess Calvo said. “So after living in New York for about three years, we decided, ‘OK, if we’re going to open a next restaurant, probably it will be a place where we want to live as well.’ So we’ve been looking around and then we decided what Florida has the nearest climate to Bangkok.”
Jess Calvo said his wife is the executive chef, cooking authentic dishes passed down through her family.
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“She cooks Thai food and learned from her grandmother and her mother,” Jess Calvo said. “And her family (are farmers). So it’s a long generation of home-cooking style or farm-cooking style which (there) is not much existing in Thailand anymore and she inherited (it).”
Jess Calvo also made it a point to highlight the restaurant’s vegan options.
“We will be serving one of the most very tasty vegan Thai food. So for any vegans lovers out there we have answers for you here. So. there will be no longer any more boring vegan offerings,” he said.
Thai Farm Kitchen is open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. for lunch service. Sunday through Thursday, it is open from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. for dinner service. Friday and Saturday, dinner service runs from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.