A new wine bar in Silver Lake offers pairings with Thai street food

Most wine bars boast a selection of fine or rare cheeses, or charcuterie to pair with all those varietals. At Same Same, a new wine bar in Silver Lake, the preferred pairing for a sweet Riesling is a bowl of super spicy laab.

Katy Noochloar and Annie Daniel have teamed up with Last Word Hospitality (Holly Zack, Adam Weisblatt and Angus McShane) to turn their shopping center Thai restaurant Rambutan Thai into a sleek new wine bar that serves Thai street food.

On the menu, you’ll find mu yang (grilled pork skewers) with spicy Thai jaew and chile dipping sauce; pa pia sod (spring rolls) full of prawns, pork, tofu, bean sprouts, chives and cucumber, served with a tamarind sauce; hoy tod (mussel pancakes) with a house Sriracha; bowls of kuaytiaw mu daeng (BBQ pork noodles); and laab (ground chicken) with long beans, cabbage and fresh herbs.

The growing wine list is a work in progress, but early selections include a 2015 Antxiola Txakolina from Gertalako, Spain (poured from a distance to aerate the wine); 2014 Weingut Binz Nackenheimer Rothenberg Riesling Spatlese from Rheinhessen, Germany; 2014 Georg Albrecht Schneider Trocken Riesling from also Rheinhessen; a 2011 Pere Mata Cupada Rose Cava from Catalonia, Spain; and a 2013 Vylyan Portugieser from Villany, Hungary.

The dining room has been completely redone to include bar seating that runs the length of the entire restaurant. A pink neon sign near the entrance simply reads: “but different.”

And whether you’re sitting at a table or at the bar, the staff is more than happy to offer wine pairing suggestions. Just ask which Riesling pairs better with the laab, and which you should order with the hoy tod.

I like my laab spicy. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @Jenn_Harris_

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