Lenexa’s Sweet Siam Thai Bistro is moving to Westport

Michael Brillhart spent two decades working in his uncle’s Thai restaurants before branching out on his own.

He grew up in Mission and returned to the area to open the 2,400-square-foot Sweet Siam Thai Bistro in Lenexa Plaza, 7809 Quivira Road, in early 2012. He has worked with his four Thai chefs for more than 20 years.

Now Brillhart has leased the former Thai Place at 4130 Pennsylvania Ave. and plans to relocate Sweet Siam to the 7,000-square-foot building about mid-September.

Thai Place shut down a year ago.

Brillhart said he needs a larger space and the Westport location also offers more foot traffic.

Menu items include spicy coconut soup, pad thai, pineapple fried rice, curries, spicy eggplant stir fry, pan-fried catfish, Thai three-flavor snapper, roasted garlic shrimp with scallops, and soft-shell crab.

With an expanded kitchen, Brillhart said he can bring back his popular barbecued chicken. The new Sweet Siam will have a sushi bar when it opens, but Brillhart plans to expand it in early 2017.

Food truck becomes a restaurant

In Gee Black’s admittedly unofficial poll, only about three out of every 100 people find the name of his new restaurant distasteful.

“I know it’s a little risqué, but I want to stand out from the crowd,” he said.

Black first opened a bright purple Sandwich Pimp food truck in fall 2013 and a year later opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant on Leavenworth Road, signing a six-month lease.

But when he found a more affordable building a couple of miles west at 7355 Leavenworth Road in Kansas City, Kan., he relocated and opened there in May. The building is bright yellow, orange and red.

Breakfast is served from 6 to 11 a.m. daily and includes breakfast wraps, chicken and waffles, pancakes and French toast.

Lunch and dinner items include the Magic Don Juan (with steak or chicken and green peppers topped with cheese sauce on a hoagie bun), the Heidi Fleiss (sliced turkey breast, provolone cheese, tomato, spinach and house-made sauce on a ciabatta bun), the Ike Turner or Pimpin’ Ken hamburgers, the Happy Hooker (pulled pork with house-made sauce) and the Mayflower Madam (pulled chicken with house-made sauce).

This story was originally published July 5, 2016 at 4:13 PM with the headline "Lenexa’s Sweet Siam Thai Bistro is moving to Westport."