Photo by Jessie Jacobson. Licensed under Editorial use. Archive photo from the original Carroll Gardens Ugly Baby, 2017; via Eater NY reopen coverage. Resized for web.
Sirichai Sreparplarn Brings Ugly Baby Back to Williamsburg on August 27
The cult Brooklyn Thai kitchen returns at 364 Grand Street in a larger former Emmy Squared space, with a wider menu, a full bar, and Hungry Thirsty still holding the old Carroll Gardens address.
August 10, 2026
Ugly Baby is coming back. Chef Sirichai Sreparplarn’s fiercely spicy Brooklyn Thai restaurant reopens Thursday, August 27, at 364 Grand Street in Williamsburg, between Havemeyer and Marcy. Business partner Som Kharazmi confirmed the date to Eater NY and talked about a larger room with more range than the storefront that made the chef’s name.
The original Ugly Baby opened in 2017 on Smith Street in Carroll Gardens and closed in late 2024. At the time, Kharazmi said Sreparplarn needed a break from the grind. The address did not stay empty. Former Ugly Baby servers opened Hungry Thirsty there in January 2025, a southern Thai kitchen that now carries a Michelin Plate of its own. Ugly Baby’s return sits a few neighborhoods north, under the same chef, while Hungry Thirsty keeps cooking on Smith.
Williamsburg finally gives the kitchen room to stretch. Coverage puts the new space at roughly double the old capacity, about seventy seats across two floors, with a bar and a waiting area where guests can drink. Emmy Squared Pizza held the address until it closed in 2025; the footprint is around 2,500 square feet. Ugly Baby now has a full liquor license, so cocktails join the wine and beer longtime diners remember from Smith Street.
The menu will not be a carbon copy. Kharazmi told Eater the kitchen wants a wider range of dishes and styles, and that people who knew the first Ugly Baby are going to be surprised. Infatuation has quoted the house on a riskier approach: more play with umami, Thai aromatics such as lemongrass, galangal, chile, and makrut lime, plus Chinese and Indian dried spices. Exact opening dishes are not public yet. What diners will recognize is the heat that made the old room famous: spicy duck salad, kua kling (the dry curried beef people still call brutally spicy), and a drinks list that never apologized for the fire.
Through Kharazmi, Sreparplarn has said the break made clear how much he missed restaurant life, and that the new room can finally hold what seven years on Smith Street never quite allowed. Follow @uglybabynyc for logistics as August 27 approaches. For now the map is simple: Hungry Thirsty still holds Carroll Gardens; Ugly Baby’s second life starts on Grand Street in Williamsburg.