SriPraPhai

Before Elmhurst became the city's Thai town, there was this restaurant on a residential stretch of 39th Avenue, opened by Sripraphai Tipmanee in 1990 to cook for other Thai immigrants. It has since grown into a bigger space with a back garden and a courtyard for summer evenings, a full bar, and a menu of well over a hundred dishes from every corner of Thailand. It no longer insists on cash, and BYOB is still allowed for a corkage fee.

The menu rewards a group. Start with the papaya salad, heavy on dried shrimp and roasted peanuts, and the pork larb bright with lime and slivered chilies; add the crispy watercress salad and the roasted duck green curry with tomatoes and pineapple. From the north, khao soi; from the noodle pages, drunken noodles with beef. Pork leg over rice is the quiet order regulars swear by, and green tea ice cream puts the fire out.