Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants’ latest operation is a Southeast Asian concept developed in collaboration with chef Thai Dang of HaiSous Vietnamese Kitchen in Chicago.
Crying Tiger opened Tuesday in the city’s River North neighborhood, serving Southeast Asian-inspired cuisine based on flavors Dang and managing partner Amarit Dulyapaibul grew up with.
Dulyapaibul, an industry veteran and longtime Lettuce Entertain You partner, grew up working in his family’s Thai restaurants.
“Crying tiger” is the name of a spicy meat dish from Northern Thailand, but the food reflects the gamut of the region based on the team’s travels together through Bangkok, London, Sydney, Vietnam and Hong Kong to source inspiration.
Shareable dishes, priced $19-$24, include prawn toast youtiao — Chinese savory fried dough — grilled sugarcane beef wrapped in betel leaves, and crispy Hong Kong-style pork belly. There also are rice and noodle dishes, $15-$36, such as clay pot lobster pad Thai and rolled rice noodles with roasted maitake mushrooms.
There also are curries, $22-$28, and signature items including a $55 roasted black cod in charred scallion tom yam broth. A crying-tiger style 45-day dry aged rib eye with grilled sticky rice, intended for two to four people, is $115.
Dessert, $9-$14, is being handled by pastry chef Juan Gutierrez, who won the Netflix series “School of Chocolate,” and includes a toasted coconut sundae with salted peanuts and pandan caramel and a cheesecake with vanilla and palm sugar caramel.
Dang actually got his start at another Lettuce Entertain You restaurant, L2O, where he was a cook.
“I could have never imagined that 16 years later, I would be collaborating with Lettuce as a chef and partner for Crying Tiger,” he said in a statement. “This restaurant means so much to me because the menu pays homage to my immigrant family and our culinary traditions. As we explored Southeast Asia, every culture seemed to borrow flavors and ingredients from one another, and we are excited to share the diversity in this type of cuisine.”
Another Lettuce veteran, Kevin Beary of Three Dots and a Dash, The Bamboo Room, and Gus’ Sip & Dip, created the beverage menu, which offers an equal number of cocktails and zero-proof beverages. Among the former are a Thai tea milk punch clarified with cognac, and a coconut water cocktail with Johnnie Walker Black scotch and pandan.
Spirit-free drinks include a salted mango limeade over shaved ice and spiced Vietnamese iced coffee with condensed coconut milk.
The restaurant’s wine director is Richard Hanauer, who selected more than 75 wines meant to go with the food and focuses largely on unique or rare wines from Germany, Austria, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa.
The restaurant was designed by London-based David Collins Studio, and is meant to evoke the energy of Southeast Asian night markets as well as Chicago’s industrial and architectural heritage.
An open kitchen looks onto the 140-seat main dining room, with chairs made by Dang’s family’s business in Dong Nai, Vietnam, and Pullman-style booths with leather and blackened wood chairs.
Other design elements include handmade chandeliers from Bangkok-based metalwork artist Saruta “Pin” Kiatparkpoom, and more than 3,000 pieces of handmade glazed ceramic tile and serving bowls from Chicago-based ceramicist David Kim.
While researching how to reproduce the scissors-style security gates that are common in Thailand and Vietnam, the Crying Tiger team learned that Chicago-based Acorn Wire and Iron Works is their original inventor, continues to make them, and has been commissioned to make custom versions for the new Chicago restaurant.
There’s also a front bar, winter garden for year-round indoor-outdoor dining, a sidewalk patio, and a 10-seat private dining room.
A yet-to-be-named cocktail bar is slated to open later this year in the building’s lower level as a standalone concept.
Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]
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