Southeast Asian Food Truck’s Opening a Laotian Restaurant in Far East Austin

Austin food truck Sekse Fud Ko is going open a new Laotian restaurant this year out in far east Austin. Lao’d Bar will open at 9909 Farm to Market Road 969, Building 4 starting sometime in the spring.

Owner and chef Bob Somsith tells Eater that the the restaurant will be a full-service one. The food menu will be contemporary Laotian that is more like Laotian American. There will be similar cocktails, lagers, and rice lagers. Further details will be released later.

This also means that the food truck is closing ahead of the restaurant opening. Somsith’s truck — whose name is styled Sek-sē•Füd•Kō, pronounced “sexy food co.,” and formerly known as SXSE — focuses on Southern American and Southeast Asian cuisines with an emphasis on Laotian food, with both a la carte and tasting menu meals. The food truck had its last day of service at Vacancy Brewing in the East Congress neighborhood on March 17.

Somsith started cooking on his own via SXSE in 2014 for pickup/delivery orders, catering gigs, and events, and he sold packaged jerky. He opened the food truck in 2018 at Celis Brewery. Then it had moved around before landing at North Austin brewery 4th Tap Co-op since November 2020, but had to leave when the brewery closed in the summer of 2022. After that, the truck changed its name and then temporarily roamed around the city and then landed a permanent home at South Austin brewery Vacancy Brewing in September 2022.

Lao’d Bar’s neighbors include Sign Bar, which has a bunch of food trucks, including Spicy Boys; Mexican restaurant Mi Casita; and barbecue restaurant Donn’s BBQ.

Update, March 18: This article, originally published on January 3, has been updated to include the food truck’s last day of service.