Rod Dee Leaves Coolidge Corner, But Vows to Return

Rod Dee's growing culinary empire is making a quiet retreat – but not for long.

The popular Thai restaurant will close its shoebox-sized Coolidge Corner location tonight after losing its lease, according to Chef Sittithep Krajangsart. But the restaurant's Washington Square location – called New Rod Dee – will remain open and Krajangsart said he's already scouting new locations in Coolidge Corner and planning for a new opening in Cambridge in the coming months.

"We're still looking for another place close to Coolidge Corner to serve our neighborhood," he said.

The closure comes less than two years after the restaurant lost its second location, Rod Dee II, in a January 2009 blaze that destroyed a row of popular dining spots along Peterborough Street in Bostons's Fenway neighborhood. New Rod Dee, intended to be the restaurant's third location, opened in Washington Square shortly after.

Rod Dee had been in its tiny Coolidge Corner store front, which offered few seats and mostly dealt in take-out, for 15 years. Krajangsart said the entire kitchen staff from the original Rod Dee will move up the street to the new location, which offers a full dining room.

"Absolutely, that one is going to stay open," he said.

Krajangsart said he's also on track to open a new restaurant in Porter Square within the next two months.