Popular Bushwick Thai Restaurant Klom Klorm Expands to Bed Stuy With Ler Lers on Tompkins

The owners behind the busy Thai restaurant Klom Klorm on Bushwick’s Wyckoff Avenue are branching out to Bed Stuy with new restaurant Ler Lers on Tompkins Avenue.

Signage for the Thai eatery is already up on the ground floor of 417 Tompkins Avenue, and city records show an application for a liquor license is being reviewed. In a phone call to Klom Klorm Thursday, a member of the team confirmed the restaurant is under way, but said they are waiting on approvals from the Department of Buildings ahead of opening.

The team intends to convert the brick garage on Hancock Street, directly behind the building at 417 Tompkins Avenue, into part of the restaurant, an application for a Department of Buildings permit shows. The garage is currently surrounded by a green construction fence, and permits have been granted for its structural repair and rewiring.

In a presentation to Community Board 3 in June, Ler Lers ownership team member Hanle Phetsongkhram said the space can hold 50 people with a five-seat bar, and it is ADA accessible. He said the menu will be authentic Thai cuisine, and items on the lunch menu are priced between $10.95 and $14.95 and those on the dinner menu range from $14.95 to $19.

Classics pad thai and tom yum are among the most recommended dishes at the Bushwick venue. As well as Klom Klorm and its adjacent cafe, owner Thawatchai Thadchan also has a restaurant in Jackson Heights and one in Midtown, according to Bushwick Daily.

Ler Lers will not be the first Thai restaurant in Bed Stuy, but only a handful are scattered across the large neighborhood. The new spot will add to the range of restaurants, bars, and small businesses along the buzzing stretch of Tompkins Avenue, which also now has one of the city’s most successful (and sometimes controversial) open streets in the summer months.

Next door to Ler Lers is longstanding watering hole Lovers Rock, and across the street is a new Met Fresh supermarket. The block has seen dramatic change in recent years, with large mid-rise rental apartment buildings replacing neglected small 19th and 20th century storefront buildings.

The storefront of 417 Tompkins Avenue (also 312 Hancock Street) appears to have been boarded up since at least 2012, PropertyShark photos show. In 2019, 417 Tompkins Units LLC (with signatory Moshe Marzuk) bought the property from longtime owner Patricia Wilcox for $500,000.

Since then, a new exhaust vent for the restaurant has been added to the side of the 19th century red brick building, and the front has gotten a major spiff-up. Crumbling lintels have been repaired, and the facade appears to have been straightened.

The apartments over the restaurant were recently available for rent. The building’s 20th century storefront has been demolished and replaced with a more open glassy modern one for Ler Lers, along with a ramp and steps.

[Photos by Anna Bradley-Smith unless noted otherwise]

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