A mom-and-pop Thai restaurant in north Fort Worth comes with a unique twist: Called Bangkok Thai Street Food & Market, it’s a restaurant serving traditional Thai food but also a market selling all sorts of goods, from cooking ingredients to clothing to household gear.

Bangkok Thai, which opened in December 2023 at 5801 Golden Triangle Blvd. #121, is owned by married couple Sirikanya and John Brown. John is a retired vet who worked in IT. Sirikanya moved to the U.S. from Thailand 11 years ago and previously worked in Thai restaurants across Fort Worth.

The concept sprung out a business that Sirikanya started out of their home, John says.

"About five years ago, she started an online market selling Thai products while working in Thai restaurants on the weekends," he says.

At the same time, Sirikanya missed the authentic flavors of the Thai food she grew up with, so she pitched the idea of opening a restaurant. Most of the recipes are inspired by the cooking of Sirikanya’s mother and ingredients from Thailand.

To capture those flavors, that means using traditional ingredients like tamarind instead of vinegar, and palm sugar in place of cane sugar.

“She's from Bangkok, and she worked in her mom’s restaurant, which is where she learned how to cook,” John says.

The menu features Thai classics like pad Thai, tom yum soup, green and red curry, and chicken satay with housemade peanut sauce. There are soups: boat noodle soup with beef broth, tofu soup with minced pork & Chinese cabbage, and a spicy Tom Kha.

There are also other Asian essentials like edamame and dumplings, plus their twist on chicken wings served with a Thai sweet chili sauce. They do not serve alcohol but there are teas, boba teas, and limeade.

Prices are affordable and average $6 for appetizers and $12 for curry and noodle dishes.

The market is inside the restaurant, next to the dining area, featuring shelves stocked with international items, such as clothing, rice baskets, refrigerated drinks, sauces, and noodles.

"A lot of it is imported from Thailand and some of it is sourced locally," John says. "Pretty much everything that you need, we have the ingredients for. Sirikanya also sells her own chili paste, and we often have other house-made dishes depending on the day."

They also host cooking classes, usually twice a month, such as a recent Thai curry cooking class where everyone learned how to make curry paste from scratch, cooked their own curry dishes. The classes are $60 a month and they’ll be taking a break during December but the classes will resume in January 2025.