Pok Pok Empire Expands, First To Brooklyn Then Los Angeles

This week, Andy Ricker, Parts Unknown: Thailand guest and the James Beard Foundation's Best Chef Northwest 2011, closed Pok Pok Phat Thai in Manhattan on Rivington Street in preparation for the move to a bigger space in Brooklyn.

Phat Thai is headed for the former Pok Pok Ny space at 127 Columbia Street in Brooklyn's Waterfront District.

In its new location, Phat Thai joins the same block as Ricker's other New York restaurants, Pok Pok Ny and Whiskey Soda Lounge, but that's not the only move the chef is working on right now.

Ricker will expand the Pok Pok empire, which began in Portland, with two more restaurants in Los Angeles, and rumors point to yet another future outpost in Hawaii. So far, Ricker confirmed to The Los Angeles Times that LA's Chinatown would become home to Pok Pok LA and another Pok Pok Phat Thai.

"If all goes well," Phat Thai LA could open as soon as late November in the same shopping center where Roy Choi's Chego is located, while Pok Pok LA is slated to open in spring 2015.

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Karen Lo is an associate editor at The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter @appleplexy.