Pop-up restaurants are becoming increasingly popular. One particular version of this trend is the restaurant within a restaurant. It provides extra income for the main restaurant owner, and allows pop-up restaurant chefs to open in a custom, state-of-the-art dining facility that has all of the needed permits and licenses already in place.

Most notably, it allows chefs to use their creativity to test out concepts, experiment with new menu items and create intimate, one-of-a-kind dining experiences. That’s exactly what Chef Sayvepen ‘Sav’ Sengsavang is doing in Hampton, Virginia. Six days a week, 2270 Executive Drive is occupied by Gah Bua Kham Thai Restaurant but on Sunday, it becomes Lé Mu Eats.

Sav, a graduate of ECPI University’s College of Culinary Arts, Culinary Institute of Virginia, is drawing on his family’s roots to create dishes that may be hard to find anywhere else in Coastal Virginia. Sav was born in New York City after his parents emigrated from Laos during the Vietnam War. Shortly after, his family moved to Hampton. With a first-rate culinary education under his belt, Sav is now creating innovative dishes that fuse Laotian with American cuisine.

The Lé Mu Eats menu changes week to week but here’s a sampling of what you can expect:

Appetizers

• Tomato tartare with basil gelato, fried wonton chips and roasted rice
• Fried green tomato with red curry rice, tom yum braised greens and goat cheese
• Tuna tare tare with roasted rice, cilantro oil, pickled jalapenos and beet chips

Entrees

• Lemongrass and lime grilled pork ribs with roasted potatoes, asparagus, and cilantro lime sauce
• Sweet chili pan-seared salmon with forbidden rice risotto, and bok choy
• Red curry grits with grilled eggplant, roasted golden tomatoes, and goat cheese.

Desserts

• Thai Tea cheese cake with vanilla whip and chocolate cookie crust
• Grilled corn custard pie with ginger snap crust and toasted coconut whip
• Mango, raspberry, peach cobbler with lavender gelato

In a recent review for Coastal Virginia Magazine, Anne Leonard wrote of Lé Mu Eats, “Each dish was genuinely a work of art, a rainbow color palette that spoke of fresh, handpicked ingredients and a well-attended plate. I’m excited to see Lé Mu Eats flourish and hopefully open up their own permanent location in the near future.”

Find Lé Mu Eats on Facebook, or follow them on Instagram to stay up-to-date.

Inspired by Sav's story? Maybe it's time to consider culinary school!

Contact the Culinary Institutue of Virginia TODAY for more information on how you can earn an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Culinary Arts in as little as 15 months! It could be the Best Decision You Ever Make!

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