TAAN, chef Chanita Chayaluk’s Thai wine bar, settles in on Augusta Boulevard in Humboldt Park

TAAN, the Thai restaurant and wine bar from chef Chanita Chayaluk at 2759 W Augusta Blvd in Humboldt Park, opened September 1, 2026, in the former Gaoku space, according to WTTW. A month later the restaurant is open five nights a week and drew a first look from The Infatuation, which published a review on September 11, 2026.

The review, along with a September 22 roundup from Hoodline, gives diners a clearer picture of what TAAN serves now that the opening rush is over. The restaurant sits on a stretch of Augusta Boulevard in Humboldt Park where the storefront has changed hands several times, city license records show, and the kitchen is built around seasonal Midwestern produce cooked with Thai recipes.

How the opening date shifted from August to September

The timeline moved over the summer. In a June 26, 2026, report, What Now Chicago said TAAN planned a friends and family soft opening on August 17 and an official opening on August 20, 2026. Chayaluk told the outlet that the project had been “brewing for sometime now.”

By late August the date had changed. WTTW reported on August 28, 2026, that the restaurant would officially open September 1 and noted that the liquor license was still being finalized at the time. Hoodline, citing Block Club Chicago, wrote on September 22 that TAAN had opened earlier that month.

City records fill in the paperwork side. The Chicago business license database shows these filings for the address under the company Wild Pepper LLC, doing business as TAAN:

• A retail food establishment license was issued on June 9, 2026.
• A license for consumption on premises, incidental activity, which covers alcohol served alongside food, was issued on August 31, 2026.
• An outdoor patio license was also issued on August 31, 2026.

The same database lists the previous tenant as Gaoku Izakaya & Craft Drinks, which held a food license at the address starting in October 2023. The building is in the 36th Ward, represented by Ald. Gilbert Villegas, according to the city’s ward page.

Chef Chanita Chayaluk’s path from counseling to the kitchen

Chayaluk was born in Chicago to Thai parents, and her mother cooked at Thai restaurants around the city, according to Hoodline. The restaurant’s website describes her as “a native Thai-Chicagoan with a big appetite for Thai cuisine” and says she left a career in education and mental health to cook.

WTTW reported that she holds degrees in psychology and counseling and spent years as an academic advisor before turning to cooking after the COVID-19 pandemic. What Now Chicago reported that she had wanted to be a chef since childhood but put that plan aside during the 2008 recession. She earned a Thai cuisine diploma from Le Cordon Bleu in Bangkok, according to the restaurant’s website, and Hoodline dated that program to 2022.

Before TAAN, Chayaluk cooked uncommon Thai dishes at pop-ups and supper clubs, the restaurant’s website says, and she continues to travel to Thailand to study. Speaking with WTTW, she explained her reason for opening a sit-down restaurant: “Chicago deserved a place where Thai cuisine could be celebrated in a different way.”

Dishes on the seasonal menu

The restaurant’s website calls the menu ever rotating and built to follow the seasons. Hoodline noted that the kitchen deliberately skips pad thai, the dish many Chicagoans expect from a neighborhood Thai restaurant. A sample menu posted on the restaurant’s website, which does not list prices, includes these dishes:

• Miang of trout with candied tamarind sauce is listed among the small bites.
• Gai yang comes with a tamarind chili dipping sauce.
• Green curry of mussels and a grilled pork loin panang curry appear among the mains.
• A whole deep fried fish arrives with fish sauce caramel and a kohlrabi salad.
• Bone marrow beef cheek fried rice is offered, with a vegan option available.

Other dishes have been reported as the menu changed. WTTW described clay pot glass noodles with local shiitake mushrooms and Chinese celery, chu chee curry with tiger prawns, steak with jaew dipping sauce, a watermelon and blackberry salad dressed like papaya salad, dry red curry with pork belly and sai oua sausage made in house with lemongrass, shallot and garlic. Hoodline added fish sauce caramel chicken wings to that list. Sides of jasmine rice and sticky rice round out the sample menu.

Prices for individual dishes are not posted on the restaurant’s website. The Infatuation places TAAN in the outlet’s moderate price tier.

The wine list and bar program

Bar director Craig Langworthy, a trained sommelier, built the list around Midwestern and European bottles and sees Michigan as a wine region worth watching, according to Hoodline. The list also includes local selections from Logan Square alongside reds, whites and sparkling wines, Hoodline reported.

The restaurant’s sample menu says only that the full wine list is available in the restaurant, so specific bottles and glass prices are not published online. The Infatuation singled out a fruity Gewürztraminer as a match for the miang of trout and suggested the bar works for a quick glass of chilled red.

What The Infatuation’s review said

The Infatuation review, written by John Ringor, left TAAN unrated for now, with the outlet saying they plan to return before assigning a score. The reviewer pointed to several specifics:

• The sai oua was called one of the best versions of the northern Thai sausage in Chicago.
• The crispy sea bass with fish sauce caramel was among the dishes the reviewer highlighted.
• The peppery glass noodles with shiitake take the place of the pad thai or pad see ew found on many Thai menus.
• The floor-to-ceiling windows and a long bar make the room comfortable for couples and casual diners.

The review described TAAN as a good choice for a date or a catch-up, and framed the room as suited to “a nice-but-not-stuffy dinner.”

Hours, reservations and the team

TAAN is open Tuesday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and is closed Sunday and Monday, according to the restaurant’s website. The phone number listed on the website is (773) 360-1292.

Reservations can be made through the restaurant’s website, and The Infatuation notes that tables are also bookable on OpenTable. Parties larger than six are asked to email the restaurant at hello@taanchicago.com, and the restaurant’s website says the team can also host private parties.

The kitchen has seven cooks, according to Hoodline, and more than half of them previously worked at Segnatore, the Italian restaurant directly across the street that closed in May 2026 after a five-year run.

The block also has a wine and beer bar, a bakery and soda fountain and an ice cream shop, What Now Chicago noted in its June report.

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