Two new restaurants with Asian cuisine — Thai and Szechuan Chinese — have joined the Evanston restaurant scene.

NaKorn Kitchen, 1622 Orrington Ave., is set to open late April or early May, while Peppercorns Kitchen, 620 Davis St., opened last month. The two restaurants add to more than a dozen Asian cuisine restaurants already in the city.

Paul Zalmezak, an economic development official for the city, said one reason Asian restaurants are attracted to Evanston is because Northwestern’s student body responds positively to restaurants of that fare. He pointed to popular eateries such as Joy Yee Noodle, 519 Davis St., and Table To Stix Ramen, 1007 Davis St., which opened in October, as examples.

“One reason they do well or why they’re attracted to Evanston, is because we have international students, faculty and staff,” Zalmezak said. “Evanston has for some time been a center for the Asian international culture.”

Sam Rattanopas, NaKorn’s managing partner along with Mina Sudsaard, said the women were attracted to Evanston because of the growing diversity of the city’s dining scene.

“I like the neighborhood, I like the city,” Rattanopas said. “It’s up and coming and I think Evanston’s food scene has changed in the past couple years. There’s room to grow, people are more open to something new.”

Evanston’s Peppercorns, which opened Jan. 19, is the second location in a growing chain, Judy Luo, the CEO, told The Daily in Mandarin Chinese. She said the chain was in the process of opening a third Peppercorns location near Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Luo said she came to the United States to open Chinese restaurants with authentic dishes. She said so far the new business has served both NU students and the Evanston community at large.

“It has been less than a month since we opened; the business has been great,” she said. “On our opening day on January 19, we invited leaders from various student groups from Northwestern University to taste our food, so they could help us promote and advertise among the Northwestern University student body.”

Zalmezak said it can be challenging for new restaurants to find quick success in Evanston, particularly in a competitive, saturated market such as Asian cuisine.

“Evanston’s food scene continues to evolve,” he said. “There are longtime players that are high quality and some that are more average. Elevating newcomers have to do really well in the marketplace.”

Though several Thai restaurants already exist within the city, Rattanopas said her restaurant will offer dishes from different regions in Thailand, such as the southern, northern and northeastern parts of the country, that she felt were not represented in Evanston’s dining scene. Rattanopas added that the business has received a liquor license from the city.

“We want to create contemporary-type cuisine and offer something delicious, a new world of regional, authentic Thai dishes,” she said. “We want to serve something beyond pad Thai.”

Also stressing the importance of authenticity in their cuisine, Luo said Peppercorns uses ingredients sourced from Chengdu, China — the capital of the Szechuan Province. She said it was important to her for the restaurant to serve “truly original Szechuan food.”

“I came to America to open Chinese restaurants not mainly for the money,” Luo said. “Our goal is to promote Chinese culture through Chinese food.”

Tori Latham, Alice Yin and Daniel Tian contributed reporting.

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