A long-awaited Thai restaurant and bar quietly threw open its doors in Glover Park on Thursday evening, with Kiin Laow holding its soft opening at 5 p.m. at 2340 Wisconsin Avenue NW. The new spot marked the occasion by promising free Thai tea for an entire year to its first 100 guests, inviting neighbors to come celebrate and experience authentic Thai flavors right in the District.
The announcement, first shared by PoPville, described Kiin Laow as offering bold Thai flavors, drinks and good vibes, with terms and conditions applying to the first-100-guest promotion. The outlet had also reported in August that the restaurant was hiring ahead of its debut, under the banner Kiin Laow Asian Bar & Restaurant, which was identified at the time as the sister restaurant of Sampannee Thai in Dupont Circle.
A Sister Restaurant With Deep Roots in Dupont
Kiin Laow is being run by Kesorn Aswalap, who opened Sampannee in Dupont Circle in 2023, according to Glover Park DC. The neighborhood blog reported that Aswalap is joined at the new venture by her daughter Nonna and her sister, who are running the show together at the Wisconsin Avenue location. The name itself carries meaning: per the same outlet, “kiin laow” loosely translates to “let's eat and drink.”
Early plans described in that report called for more of an Asian-fusion menu, with a particular focus on wowing customers through pan-Asian cocktail creations — a slightly different pitch than the Thai-centric branding that greeted guests at Thursday's soft opening. The report also noted that Aswalap intended to use the upstairs portion of the building for a Thai bakery called Kanom Pan Bakery.
A Space With a Complicated Recent Past
The Wisconsin Avenue address has a history that predates Kiin Laow by years. Glover Park DC reported that the restaurant would occupy the space vacated by Social Beast, though accounts of exactly how long that space sat empty differ: one Glover Park DC post put the gap at 2.5 years, while another post from the same outlet described Social Beast as having vacated the location four years earlier.
Getting the space ready wasn't simple, either. Glover Park DC reported that the building had faced a complicated permitting issue for roughly a year, tied to a substandard electrical system that had failed inspection. Separately, DC's Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration listed a liquor license tied to the address — ABRA-130680 — in “Safekeeping” status as of an April 2026 weekly issuance document, with an expiration date of March 31, 2028. An earlier ABC board records filing from October 2024 had listed the address under Kiin Laow, formerly Social Beast, in Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3B, noting no outstanding fines, citations or pending enforcement matters at that time.
From Hiring Push to Opening Night
The restaurant's path to Thursday's soft opening played out gradually and publicly. PoPville's August report on the hiring push referred to the site informally as the old Town Hall and Social Beast location, now transitioning to Kiin Laow, as the team staffed up for the eventual debut.
For neighbors who've watched the Wisconsin Avenue storefront sit dormant through various false starts, Thursday's soft opening represents the most concrete sign yet that the space is finally back in business. Whether the free Thai tea promotion, the Asian-fusion cocktail program, or the long-planned upstairs bakery proves to be the bigger draw remains to be seen as Kiin Laow settles into its new home in Glover Park.
