Ms. Redding and Mr. Danzer tried poaching, but early diners didn’t care for it, so they put whole chickens on the rotisserie instead. The result is fine enough, but it throws off the balance of the dish, whose true focus is the rice, steamed in chicken stock until it preens.
The cramped space was briefly home to Mr. Donahue’s, a diner-esque ode to Mr. Danzer’s late grandfather, a World War II veteran, New York City police detective and “meat-and-potatoes guy.” Now it honors Ms. Redding’s mother and five aunts, who grew up on a farm in Nakhon Sawan in central Thailand. (Her real-life Uncle Boon, “a great eater, great drinker, great karaoke man,” died earlier this year.)
There’s barely room for a handful of tables, which diners must bus themselves, under lampshades like upturned baskets. Orders are placed at the counter and identified by playing cards with pictures of female Muay Thai martial-arts fighters showing off moves like rakrae hak khaen: “the armpit breaks the arm.” On the wall hangs a poster of the nine kings in the Chakri dynasty, which has ruled Thailand since 1782.
For dessert, a cone of coconut gelato comes lacquered with a “magic shell” of coconut oil and white chocolate, dipped into broken peanuts, coconut shreds and salt, and wrapped in plastic like a bouquet. I preferred the milk toast: a slab of brioche, crisped just so the edges darken, then soaked with condensed milk until swollen, beaded with sugar and torched. Somewhere along the way it turns into cake.
Ms. Redding’s mother, who lives in Maryland, used to point out “For Rent” signs when she visited, warning her daughter and son-in-law that she might open her own, superior Thai restaurant and knock them off their perch. Uncle Boons Sister is at once a homage to her and a pre-emptive strike. Before it opened, she came to stay with the couple, to help care for their newborn son. Every morning she’d ask what recipe they were testing; every night they’d return to find her making the same dish.
“She’s competitive,” Ms. Redding said. Then, with a surrendering laugh: “We picked up a few tips.”
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