At Thai E-San, a server brings a bubbling bowl of coconut soup to a table as a cloud of steam – fragrant with coconut milk, lemon grass, ginger, curry, mushrooms and fish sauce – wafts behind her, causing heads to turn at nearby tables. A burner under the metal bowl keeps the soup piping hot as diners dip in.
That aroma just adds to the sensory symphony that is Thai E-San. Opening the front door, the air is perfumed with aromatics that form the basis of the cuisine, including lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, Thai basil, galangal, ginger, cilantro and curry.
Owner Pui Pongtratic is at a table nearby, chatting with customers who are digging into a plate of pad Thai – a beautifully balanced dish of chewy rice noodles tossed with tamarind, Thai soy sauce, scallions, mung bean sprouts, fish sauce and crunchy peanuts.
Moving to another table, Pui urges the guests to try the chicken satay, juicy skewers flavored with coconut milk and those aromatics, and served with peanut sauce and cucumber sauce. During her interview for this article, she continually springs up to welcome new arrivals, greeting most of them as old friends.
Pui and Rodger Pongtratic opened Thai E-San in 2011, naming it for Isan, a region of northeast Thailand. Rodger retired a couple of years ago and today, their daughter, Jan Pongtratic, helps to manage the marketing, sales and other business aspects of the restaurant.
Rodger and Pui were immigrants in Los Angeles, when they met and married. Rodger worked in insurance and Pui worked at a bank.
“My dad had a conference at the Biltmore and loved the area, and they moved here,” Jan said. They bought several businesses in the Valley, including the Bali-Hi Motor Hotel, a 60-room hotel with a 24-hour restaurant, owning it from 1980 to 1988.
They had other jobs as well, Pui as an interpreter for the state and Rodger pursuing his love of the West, especially vintage Levis. Western culture and clothing are popular in Thailand, and Rodger started a business exporting Western duds to Thailand and bringing back Thai art, another of his special interests.
“When my sisters and I were younger, we were either working at food festivals because Mom wanted to be with us, or were sourcing vintage Levis,” Jan said. “We thought it was so terrible at the time but now it’s cool.”
They eventually sold the Bali-Hi and retired, but that didn’t last long. Pui was at lunch with a friend when she discovered the Thai restaurant where they were dining was for sale.
“I was bored,” she said, so she bought it. Rodger did the interior design for Thai E-San, selecting traditional Thai art as well as more modern paintings.
From the first, forming close ties to their customers was a priority, Jan said.
“It’s not that we just know the customers, but we know their kids, their whole family, if they went on vacation. We want to have a high-return clientele.”
That personal touch is the garnish on the main attraction at Thai E-San: a menu so extensive that it would take weeks of steady dining to work through it. The coconut soup is a can’t-miss selection.
Coconut soup (photo by Darryl Webb for North Central News) 
Spicy green beans (photo by Darryl Webb for North Central News) 
Larb (photo by Darryl Webb for North Central News) 
Pad Thai (photo by Darryl Webb for North Central News) 
Papaya salad (photo by Darryl Webb for North Central News) 
Chicken satay with dipping sauces (photo by Darryl Webb for North Central News)
“This is one of the most popular foods in Thailand,” Jan said. “Thai food makes your taste buds dance, and I think coconut soup is one of the best representations of that because it has all the flavors – sweet, spicy, salty, sour and umami.”
Other favorites include that satay and pad Thai; green papaya salad; larb (ground chicken, pork or beef with rice powder, lime juice and mint); spicy green beans with phrik-khing curry paste made with lemongrass, galangal, shrimp paste and kaffir lime leaves); yellow curry; and a deliciously refreshing Thai iced tea.
Tuesday and Thursday, rice soup, a sort of porridge, is served with the lunch special, and some customers come just for that soup, Pui said.
The selections highlight fresh ingredients – a result of Pui’s meticulous shopping. As often as three times a week, she’s picking the freshest produce. On trips back to L.A., she’ll pick up several bags of fresh Thai chilis, kaffir lime leaves and lemon grass grown by friends, along with her favorite brand of coconut milk.
“Thai people are really big about relationships, and some of the vendors treat her like a mom,” Jan said. “They’ll say ‘this is the best bag of Thai basil I saved for you.’ Every mango is hand-picked. Every dish is made to order. Chicken broth is made from scratch – it’s all the little things.”
When Jan came back to Arizona from California 10 years ago, she began to modernize some of the restaurant’s operations, for example, transitioning from old-style credit card payment systems to computerized operations and online ordering.
She also suggested that Pui do some ordering in bulk, but that didn’t make it off the ground. Pui’s old-school passion for freshness and authenticity is definitely remaining on Thai E-San’s menu.
Thai E-San, 616 W. Indian School Road, is open 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., Monday through Friday; 12 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday. For information, call 602-297-8888 or visit www.thaiesanphx.com.
