By Cindy Klinger

Herbs, Spice and Everything Rice
Taste the difference of homegrown herbs and vegetables at Rice Thai Cuisine

Rice Thai Cuisine’s exterior

Kris Boonruang wasn’t supposed to become the chef in his family. Growing up in a rural town in Thailand, Boonruang, like most men in the area, was expected to marry a woman who would do all the cooking for him. His mother taught his two sisters how to prepare traditional Thai food, and he learned “without wanting to learn,” he says. Inevitably, as he was climbing trees to pick fresh coconuts, digging in the soil for ginger root and gathering some 16 ingredients for his mother to make homemade curry, he learned the art of cooking. After perfecting a full-time career as an artist, he brought that made-from-scratch, fiercely individual style to his quaint Canton Street restaurant in historic Roswell.

Boonruang uses fresh ingredients, including red bell peppers and gourds, daily

Everything about Rice Thai Cuisine feels authentic, with a final stamp of approval sealed with Boonruang’s personality. And you’ll notice it before you even step inside. Many diners choose to eat alfresco on the artful, Southern-meets-vintage-chic porch. When the eatery gets packed, guests often spill out onto the gravel past the porch, making it feel almost like a residential sidewalk café.

Walking into the charming converted house, a burst of cheery primary colors greets you and immediately envelopes you in warmth, making you feel as welcome as you would in a friend’s home. No sleek black hostess stand separates you from the dining area; the staff are all equally on the lookout for walk-in diners to seat.

Minced Pork Salad

To the left is a bright blue dining room, its walls adorned with some of Boonruang’s art students’ work. A totally different, subdued gray dining area is to the immediate right, filled with Boonruang’s own black and white paintings so true to life I thought a few of them were blown-up photographs. The handsome pieces range from a rhino and elephant to portraits and dogs. “This is like a little gallery for me,” Boonruang says. He’s paid close attention to the colors, scales and proportion of the entire restaurant.

The venue is unique in other ways, too. Instead of flowers on each table, a small wooden vestibule made from palm trees holds a single, colorful vegetable: a red onion, a Thai pumpkin or something similar atop raw, white rice. The vegetables on your table might very well be in your dish the next day, or even later that evening. “It brings the relationship from the kitchen to the table,” Boonruang says. Instead of typical tablecloths, you’ll be eating on recycled brown paper–just like the kind you used to wrap your elementary school textbooks in. The paper is recycled after its use, too, “so we don’t feel like we add the burden to the future,” Boonruang explains.

Atlantic Salmon in Roasted Chili Sauce

That philosophy also contributes to his emphasis on quality ingredients. Despite the adorable décor, the restaurant’s simple, casual style allows its focus to be on the food. In an age when your entrée is often flown in from halfway around the world, you can appreciate that your herbs and some vegetables might have been plucked from Boonruang’s garden, just six miles away from the restaurant, earlier that day. He tends to the one-acre plot himself, and finds weeding and fertilizing a valuable form of relaxation (which he needs now more than ever; in addition to frequently teaching cooking classes, he also owns Rice Thai Café in Sandy Springs).

The resulting grass-roots flavor of the food gushes with energy and vibrancy on your tongue; you can clearly taste the locally grown freshness. Much of what doesn’t come directly from his own garden is purchased at Korean markets or is shipped in from Homestead, Fla., where he partners with a farm that grows Thai pumpkin, lotus root, gourd and Chinese cabbage. The fine New Zealand lamb is virtually the only staple that he sends for overseas. His dream is to one day feature only organic food, which he already grows in his own garden.

Boonruang relaxes on the porch with a glass of wine and some Thai comfort food

The high-quality food ensures that you’re going to have a fresh, light meal unlike any other Thai restaurant around. My top choices? For an appetizer, the Lemon Grass Shrimp ($10), full of color, flavor and spice–including freshly grated ginger that gives a little extra kick. Of the entrées, I would choose the Atlantic Salmon in Roasted-Chili Sauce ($12), the Red Curry ($9) and the Pad Thai ($9). Besides the reasonable prices and comfortable surroundings, the hook that lures diners back meal after meal are simply homemade dishes that are each carefully created, their spices masterfully blended and steeped in lots of passion.