Back in 2013, the owners of Naked Lunch (504 Broadway) began inviting local chefs to run their own weekly pop-up restaurants in the space, in order to attract more customers on slow days. 

While several chefs took the plunge at the time, only one has kept it up for nearly three years: Sarn Saechao, whose pop-up, Chao Mien, serves dinner from 5–9pm every Sunday and lunch from 11:30am –2pm each Monday.

Photo: Geri Koeppel/Hoodline

Saechao said he chose the name Chao Mien as a play on his last name and his roots in the Mien culture, a minority tribal community from the mountains of Laos. Though he works full-time for Naked Lunch as a sous chef, he was eager to take advantage of the opportunity to have “more creative freedom in the kitchen, and to be able to cook the food that I grew up eating with my family.”

Saechao's food is a bit of a departure from the upscale pub food (such as a foie gras torchon sandwich and a Manchego cheeseburger) that Naked Lunch sells. As far as he knows, he's the only person in San Francisco cooking Mien-style food, though he told us that the flavors are reminiscent of Laotian cuisine, which can be readily found in the city. 

Sarn Saechao holding a Mien sausage. (Photo: Chao Mien/Facebook)

Saechao's parents met in their home village in Laos. Many Mien are practicing Christians, and at the time, the group was not looked upon favorably by the one-party socialist government. In the late 1970s, the couple decided to flee war-torn Laos for Thailand, where they were accepted as refugees. They joined countless others seeking safety in the years leading up to and after the Vietnam War.

After being accepted as refugees and gaining asylum, Saechao's mother and father were sponsored by a family in Seattle and emigrated to the United States. Shortly after their arrival in 1981, Sarn was born. 

Curry chicken pot pie. (Photo: Chao Mien/Facebook)

Before coming to Naked Lunch, Saechao worked at a variety of restaurants, from Thai and Vietnamese to seafood and fine-dining establishments. He applies all of these experiences to the menu that he creates for Chao Mien, updating it regularly based on product availability.

Sharing his kitchen with Naked Lunch is both a limitation and a source of creativity for Saechao. He's sometimes limited to the ingredients that the restaurant has in stock on a given week, but the limited options are often his biggest inspiration when it comes to creating his menu, he told us. He sometimes supplements them with items he picks up in nearby Chinatown, such as the fresh bamboo shoots that he uses in his grilled Kobe skirt steak rice plate. 

Elk dumplings being prepared for service. (Photo: Nathan Falstreau/Hoodine)

Thanks to his longstanding presence, he's acquired a crowd of regulars that come for favorite items like wild elk dumplings and curry chicken pot pie, a “familiar dish to most [Americans], but with a twist of Mien flavorings,” he said.

Because his menu is always changing, he regularly posts updates on his Facebook page so customers know what to expect. He's even concocted a special menu for Super Bowl 50, with BBQ ribs, duck wings, spicy rice sticks, grilled Mien sausage and spicy egg noodles. It was served last night, and will also be available for lunch today.

While he'll continue to work at Naked Lunch for the time being, “the ultimate goal is to have my own restaurant someday,” Saechao said. “But that takes time and money. For now, I’m appreciative that they let me do my pop-up here.”