Freret Street is about to get its first dedicated Thai restaurant. Thai'd Up, the Thai spot that built a following near the Fair Grounds Race Course, is planning to open a second location at 4520 Freret St. in October, bringing dishes like nam jim jaew chili dipping sauce, moo yang grilled pork, and fried roti-based Thai beignets to a corridor that has never had a brick-and-mortar Thai kitchen of its own.
The expansion was first reported by NOLA.com, which detailed how owners Saowanit “Kate” Welch and Ryan Walsh built Thai'd Up into a mom-and-pop favorite after opening their original tiny storefront at 1839 Gentilly Blvd. in 2022. That location still serves lunch and dinner Thursday through Monday, and the couple plans to gauge the response while juggling both locations. “We're planning this as our second location, and we'll see what the response is like and how we can juggle both,” Walsh told the outlet.
The menu heading to Freret Street includes dishes such as nam jim jaew, moo yang, papaya salad, Thai beef jerky, fried tofu, mango sticky rice, and a rotation of noodle dishes and soups, according to the same NOLA.com report. Thai'd Up plans to bring that menu to Freret Street.
A Site With Its Own Post-Katrina History
A Site With Its Own Post-Katrina History The 4520 Freret St. address carries some neighborhood weight of its own. Sara Fernandez and her family opened Sarita's Grill, a Cuban and Mexican mom-and-pop spot, at the location in 2009, making it one of the first restaurants to help revive Freret Street after Hurricane Katrina, per NOLA.com's reporting. Tulane University News has documented how that early wave of post-storm pioneers helped transform the eight-block stretch into a dense corridor of shops and eateries. More recently, La Catrina Mexican Cuisine had a short run at the same address before Thai'd Up's arrival, according to the NOLA.com report. A City Planning Commission document dated October 10, 2017, described larger commercial development along South Claiborne Avenue and smaller commercial development along Freret Street between Napoleon Avenue and Louisiana Avenue. The City of New Orleans Master Plan says the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina had a differential impact on neighborhood commercial areas.
Freret Street's commercial rebound has only accelerated since those early days. The corridor now supports more than 30 restaurants, bars, and retail shops, a density that has drawn a wave of new operators in 2026 alone. Dolfy's, a late-night Spanish small-plates concept, debuted on the street in March, while vegan bakery Cinnaholic has a Freret Street location and the corridor continues to attract new operators.
Big Investments Keep Landing Nearby
Legacy operators are doubling down on the corridor too. Dat Dog, which started as a 475-square-foot hot dog stand on Freret Street in 2011, kicked off a $508,000 full-gut renovation of its original flagship this summer, a project Hoodline covered in detail when it reported on the Freret hot dog hub's revamp. That investment is paired with a major new anchor a short walk away: New Orleans' second Trader Joe's, recently added at the former Our Lady of Lourdes school site near Napoleon Avenue, a retail boost for the area.
Thai'd Up is aiming for a mid-to-late October opening at the new location, with the ownership team eyeing the Freret Street Fall Festival on October 31 as an official debut moment. The restaurant is still working toward securing a liquor license for the Freret Street site, a detail that remains unresolved ahead of the planned opening. For now, the mom-and-pop feel and affordable menu that helped Thai'd Up build a following will be put to the test on a stretch of Freret Street that has seen restaurants come and go, including Origami Sushi's recent relocation to Maple Street, even as the corridor keeps attracting new names willing to bet on it.
