On a recent Thursday night in the back of Neighborhood Kitchen, on the north side of Milwaukee, the kitchen is heating up. The wok is crackling and the staff of SapSap is stressed — they’re running behind on orders.
Lao chef Alex Hanesakda multi-tasks, shaking the wok and dashing over to the grill to turn slices of smoked brisket. He moved to Milwaukee last summer, after closing his restaurant of two years in Mt. Pleasant.
“I felt like I lost my passion for cooking just because of the daily grind of the restaurant,” Hanesakda says. “Dealing with customers, staff, I legit got burned out.”
SapSap will offer private dinners, events and pop-ups like tonight’s, in a return to how the operation got its start more than a decade ago. There’s smoked brisket fried rice for take-out, as well as fried chicken banh mi sandwiches, lemongrass-marinated wings and house-made Lao sausage, stuffed with fragrant dill, galangal and makrut lime leaves.
“We’re revisiting that old pop-up model that always worked for us,” Hanesakda says. “It was always fun. And I feel like this spreads our brand a little more.”
The pop-ups are a celebration of Southeast Asian barbecue, the kinds of meals Hanesakda’s parents always threw together in their backyard, when he was growing up in Burlington, Wisconsin. Think smoked meats, funky chili sauces and sticky rice.
This chapter of SapSap is called Ubon, named for the refugee camp in Thailand where Hanesakda was born, after his parents escaped Laos in the fallout of what’s called the secret war. And that story — of the CIA-led civil war that would eventually force Lao families like his to the U.S. — is what he’s always wanted to share.
“Ubon was the refugee camp that most of the Lao people stayed in,” Hanesakda explains. “This is kind of an homage to the upbringing, to my mom’s story and the story of Lao refugees.”
Growing up in white, small-town Wisconsin, Hanesakda always got ignorant questions: “Where’s Laos, are you Hmong, are you this, are you that?”
Food is his way of setting the story straight. And spotlighting the resilience and burdens of refugees.
“There’s a storyline that goes behind that,” he says. “What America does is they go into other countries and create these civil wars and pull out. Viet refugees, Lao refugees, are kind of there to fend for themselves. It’s the ultimate betrayal.”
Supporting veterans, like Hanesakda’s father, and those touched by war has long been a part of SapSap’s story. A new venture will sell compostable plates made of palm leaves harvested in Laos. Named Bai Jai, meaning “heart leaf,” the business will send a portion of proceeds to the Wausau-based nonprofit We Help War Victims, which works in Laos and Cambodia.
SapSap Ubon just released a schedule for upcoming events in April. Online preorders are encouraged.
- April 4, Little Port Brewing, Racine
- April 13, Amorphic Beer, Milwaukee
- April 18, Low Daily, Burlington
- April 25, Giant Jones Brewing, Madison
