SouLao'd Kitchen, the family-run Springfield restaurant known for its Lao comfort food, is packing up its Page Boulevard storefront and heading downtown to the food court inside Tower Square. The move comes after about seven years in business, with an anticipated opening in mid-November 2026.
The relocation was first reported by MassLive, which noted the restaurant promises comfort food from Laos and that its menu includes khao piak, a chicken soup, and peeng lein, grilled beef tongue served with chili dipping sauce over a bed of lettuce. The outlet reported that SouLao'd Kitchen's owners are asking customers for patience while they wait for the restaurant to reopen in its new location.
A Family Business Built on Decades-Old Recipes
SouLao'd Kitchen has operated out of 606 Page Blvd. in Springfield, where it has long offered Lao food daily and soul food on Sundays, according to earlier reporting from the same outlet. The restaurant was founded by Vanna Phommatham, Elizabeth Phommatham, Lena Redd and Shawndell “Dellie” Redd, and diners there have been able to order spring rolls, papaya salad, sticky rice, mac and cheese, greens, beef jerky and a Lao take on pho, per that same account. The Phommatham family previously ran a Thai restaurant in Framingham before relocating to Springfield to open SouLao'd Kitchen.
Co-owner Lena Redd has credited the community with helping the business survive one of its toughest stretches. “Our community who loves and supports us so much making sure that we survived and that we made it through COVID,” Redd told WWLP. Redd has also said the recipes cooked in the family's kitchen are more than 50 years old, according to the station's report.
Heritage Woven Into Every Dish
On its own website, SouLao'd Kitchen describes its owners as first-generation Lao-Americans “committed to preserving and sharing our culinary heritage,” and says its recipes are three generations old. The site also frames the restaurant's story as one of resilience, pointing to the challenge of opening just months before the pandemic began.
SouLao'd Kitchen won't be the first newcomer to set up shop in Tower Square's food court in recent years. Iona's Kitchen opened a second location there in April 2024, serving American food with a Southern twist, including shrimp and grits, biscuits and gravy, and chicken and waffles, per the outlet's reporting. That location runs weekdays from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. for breakfast and lunch, and at the time of its opening it was one of three operating businesses in the food court alongside Fantastico Wraps and Salads and longtime fixture Le Greque, which had been serving customers there for 42 years as of that report.
What Comes Next
For now, SouLao'd Kitchen's owners are asking customers for patience while they await the restaurant's return, with the mid-November opening in Tower Square marking the next chapter for a business that has spent roughly seven years building a following on Page Boulevard. Exactly what the new food-court space will look like, and how its hours or offerings might shift from the Page Boulevard original, remains to be seen once the doors open.
