We Have Colorado To Thank For America's First Thai Restaurant

If you're a fan of dishes like Thai curry peanut soup and chicken pad see-ew, imagining takeout night in a world without Thai food is a formidable thought. But pre-1960s, Americans didn't know the joys of the cuisine. That all changed when a woman named Liliad Chittivej opened Chada Thai in Denver, Colorado, a dining spot widely credited as being America's first Thai restaurant.

Chittivej was a native of Thailand who followed her physician husband to the United States. Different accounts also spell her first name as La-Iad, Liad, and more, but she was known to her American friends and customers as "Lily." Accounts also vary as to exactly when Chada Thai debuted — some say it was in 1962 while others hold with 1961, but the majority of sources peg it as occurring in 1959. Whenever precisely Chada Thai opened its doors, it brought the first taste of a new cuisine to Denverites and, if reports have it right, to Americans.

Chada Thai offered a perhaps much-needed novel experience in a time when fast food dining and franchise restaurants had become widespread, and burgers flowed freely throughout the land. Frozen foods, such as TV dinners and budget-friendly meals like fish sticks and fries, were also filling bellies in American households. Thai food, with its diverse ingredients and unfamiliar spices, was something entirely new.

The restaurant served up authenticity in both appearance and cuisine. The decor included vivid decorations like native dancing regalia — founder Lily is said to have sometimes entertained her customers with traditional Thai dances — and the food was of a kind that American-born Denver diners had never tasted before.

Though Lily Chittivej had received gloomy predictions from her Thai friends that a restaurant featuring their spicy native dishes would never succeed, American diners took to the new flavors with alacrity. Chada Thai became a fixture of Denver dining, even hosting former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm as a regular patron for many years. Loyal customers had such a fondness for Chittivej and her restaurant that some even reportedly donated labor, doing work like laying tile and painting, to help her expand the facilities.

An influx of immigrants from Thailand began arriving in the U.S. in the 1960s and '70s, and other Thai restaurants as well as Thai markets slowly began popping up around the country. It's notable that Chada Thai's advent even predated the arrival of Thai cuisine in Los Angeles, that mecca of culinary diversity. Its oldest Thai restaurant didn't open until 1969.

Chada Thai continued to thrive in the Mile High City, with Chittivej and her family working tirelessly to operate it. Chittivej and her daughter also co-authored a cookbook together containing Chada Thai recipes.

After many years of serving her beloved native dishes to diners, Lily Chittivej died in the 1970s. After her passing, the restaurant was reportedly carried on by members of her family, though her son eventually opened his own restaurant under another name.

A restaurant called Chada Thai still exists in Denver as of December 2025, and its website declares it to be "Denver's first Thai restaurant," but it's not the same bistro started by Lily Chittivej. The original Chada Thai was located at 408 E. 20th Ave. in Denver, and the current restaurant is situated at 2005 E. 17th Ave.

Some accounts say the current Chada Thai is operated by one of Chittivej's family members — one report indicates specifically that her daughter-in-law took over as the manager. Other accounts state the existing restaurant is managed by a different family altogether. The restaurant's website describes the business as being "a cherished family-owned and operated establishment" with a legacy dating back to the 1960s, so the assertion that it's still family-run seems likely.

The Chada Thai of today has a robust menu that includes a lineup of Thai street food options, like chicken curry samosas and khow soi; traditional appetizers, salads, and soups; and the kinds of entrees one would expect to find in a Thai restaurant, like pad Thai, fried rice dishes, and curries. An assortment of sweet rice dishes round things out for dessert. In keeping with the modern times, the present restaurant offers smartphone ordering for delivery of its food via Grubhub and DoorDash — something Chittivej likely could never have imagined back in the rotary-dial-phone days of the 1960s.