How to have a perfect Philly day according to Kalaya’s Chutatip ‘Nok’ Suntaranon
It involves staying at home, playing with Pomeranians, and maybe sneaking in a pilates class.
Food may be what Kalaya’s Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon is best known for, but her real love is spending time with her Pomeranians, Titi and Gingi, who she lovingly calls “the boys.”
That, and spending time at her Queen Village home. For former flight attendant Suntaranon, who travels to Thailand (where she was born) two or three times a year, her home is her “happy place.” When she is not traveling, this is where she spends most of her time — cooking, eating, taking meetings, gathering friends, and, of course, playing with the boys and their friend, Wolfie.
She lets her routines be flexible and often goes with the flow, keeping two things constant: time with the boys and a daily visit to her Fishtown restaurant named after her mother.
Those are the two things that define her perfect Philly day, and her everyday.
7:30 a.m.
I wake up whenever I want to. If I stay up late, I stay in bed until 10:30 a.m. But usually, I wake up at 7:30. The first thing I do is read [Kalaya’s] Resy reviews from the night before. After that, I wake up the boys and play with them on the deck a little bit. Then I either run back to bed and read my emails with them by my side, or go downstairs.
9 a.m.
I go down to the kitchen and feed the boys. Pomeranians are very picky eaters so I make scrambled eggs for them and me. Then, I’ll either make green tea or coffee with beans from McNulty’s Tea & Coffee Co. in New York’s West Village. Some days, it’s espresso. Others, Americano, or flat white.
I often invite my next door neighbor, Yas, to have coffee with me. We just sit on the couch and chat for an hour. Sometimes more than one neighbor stops by. We have our group of women, we live in the same neighborhood, and we hang out all the time. We get coffee, talk, and sometimes we plan lunch together, and then we spread out and do whatever we need to do for our jobs.
10:30 a.m.
If I don’t drink coffee at home, I love going to Machine Shop with Mike and Lizzy, my good friends who also have a Pomeranian, Wolfie. We co-parent our dogs. At Machine Shop, we get coffee and wait for canelé to come out of the oven.
11:30 a.m.
On our way back, the boys and I will take a walk in the neighborhood. We have a community garden that we might stop by. Then I come home and take my morning meetings after I give the boys get a turkey tendon treat.
12:30 p.m.
If I can find some time, I go to the gym. I sneak in a Pilates class once a week at Movement Source Pilates Studio in Passyunk or the Sporting Club at The Bellevue. If I need a haircut, I go to Whirligig salon in Queen Village. If I’m not doing any of those things, I will go to Kalaya to check on whatever is going on. I mostly take the boys with me. I leave by 3 p.m. because that’s when they have the staff meal. I come home and fix myself some quick lunch.
2:30 p.m.
I prefer to eat at home during the day. Sometimes all my friends who dropped in the morning will come back and we all eat lunch together. I love congee. Usually we will eat that with a simple, healthy vegetable or protein. I also eat lunch at Fiore sometimes because pasta for lunch is a good idea. Then, depending on how busy my calendar is, I will try and sneak a bath in. I love having a bath. Then skincare and getting ready takes about an hour.
4:30 p.m.
I get changed and go back to the restaurant for service. For clothes, I mostly shop online. I rent from Real Real, Rent the Runway, Nuuly. And I have my buyer in Thailand who buys Issey Miyake pieces for me. I get a lot of stuff from Thailand where I have a designer who does custom-made stuff for me. My friend Yas often gets me stuff to wear or my other friend, Michelle, works at Urban Outfitters. It’s a community that is very sweet, because they are always gifting me with very cute stuff to wear.
7 p.m.
On Tuesdays, I usually eat dinner at Royal Sushi and Izakaya. I love his Royal Chirashi, the miso soup. His fried chicken is good, and I love all of his rolls.
Once or twice a week, I order half the menu at Kalaya. I invite friends and we eat, talk about food and our lives. That’s how I inspect the food in the restaurant, and give the team feedback immediately.
On Sundays, I try to cook dinner and have friends over. I buy my produce and organic protein from Headhouse Farmers’ Market and Riverwards Produce.
Sometimes, my friends and I do Sunday Gravy. Someone makes dessert, I make gravy. I buy the meatballs because you don’t need to make meatballs yourself as long as your gravy tastes good. Someone makes the pasta, and we all eat together. Michelle may make a salad, and Mike brings a bottle of champagne. So we hang out and chat.
8:30 p.m.
If I don’t go to the restaurant, I normally get to bed by 8:30 p.m. I groom the boys, hang out with them, watch Netflix or read as they play next to me. I like to be quiet at home. I am a homebody. I would say, 70% of my time is me staying home. That’s kind of pretty much my day.