One family, one kitchen, a whole lot of Laos.
Family Kitchen isn't a chain and it isn't fancy. It's one woman's recipes, cooked with the same care every single day — and a husband quietly making her dream possible.
The shop today — same red brick, same kitchen, same cook. If you drove past it, you might not notice. Most of our regulars didn't, at first.
Meet Vilayphone
Vilayphone Xayalath has been cooking since her days in Laos, where her mother ran a food stall by the market. From the time she was tall enough to reach the mortar, Vilayphone was pounding papaya salad and tasting broth off a wooden spoon — and she's loved cooking every day since.
She came to the United States with a suitcase, a handful of recipes kept only in her head, and no plans to open a restaurant. She cooked for her family. Then for friends. Then for friends of friends who kept “happening” to stop by around dinnertime. Through all of it, her husband, Rich Keohavong, kept telling her the same thing: you should do this for real.
Earlier this year, with Rich handling the lease, the paperwork, and every errand that isn't cooking, they took over a little red-brick shop on a side street in Woonsocket — a place regulars knew for years as Mom's Home Cooking. They kept what people loved about it, renamed it Family Kitchen, and Vilayphone fired up the burners to start cooking the food she grew up on.
“I don't cook to impress anybody. I cook the way my mother cooked. If you leave full and happy, that's the whole business.”
Word is already getting around the way good food always does. Every day, Vilayphone runs the kitchen herself, simmering broth before sunrise and pounding every papaya salad to order, while Rich handles the rest so she can keep doing the part she loves. Their two teenagers — a son and a daughter — pitch in after school, running the front counter and bagging orders. Nothing comes out of a bag. Nothing is rushed.
We're still hard to find, still a little shop off the main road. But the people who find us tend to become regulars. We'd love for you to be one of them.
From scratch, always
Broths simmered for hours, herbs pounded fresh, curries built from whole spices. The slow way, because it tastes better.
A family, literally
Vilayphone cooks, her husband Rich keeps the lights on, and their two teenagers help after school. When you order, a real family is making your food — not a factory line.
No pretense
We're not fancy and we're not trying to be. Great food, fair prices, and a warm welcome. That's the deal.
Taste what Vilayphone's been cooking.
Order pickup or delivery, or just find your way to the little shop and say hi.