Local Thai restaurateur to open Southside Park coffee shop, Elk Grove restaurant

Nan Pangpanga, the restaurateur behind four popular Thai concepts in Sacramento, is planning two new ventures: an Elk Grove restaurant and a Southside Park cafe.

Coconut Elk Grove will be a carbon copy of the homey, affordable Thai dishes customers love at Pangpanga’s other restaurants: Drunken Noodle (midtown Sacramento), The Coconut on T (Southside Park), The Coconut Fulton (Arden Arcade) and The Coconut River Park.

Fans can get their fixes of pad Thai, yellow curry and basil fried rice at 8469 Elk Grove Blvd., Suite 6 starting Dec. 14.

The Coco, Pangpanga’s new concept around the corner from The Coconut on T in Southside Park, will be a deviation from that norm. A cafe with beer and wine, it will replace once-popular soul food restaurant South at 2005 11th St.

Pangpanga described The Coco’s food offerings as “New American,” with an Asian fusion bent and some French pastries. There might be one Thai dessert, she said, but not much else in common with her other restaurants.

South was N’Gina Guyton and Ian Kavookjian’s super-popular place for fried chicken and other Southern food until closing abruptly last June as the two went through a bitter divorce. Guyton has since reopened Jim-Denny’s, a downtown Sacramento fixture from 1934-2020, with her own modernized twist.

This story was originally published December 1, 2023 at 5:00 AM.