about us
At Pomelo, Thai food is cooked the way it’s meant to be: balanced, vibrant and full of life. Every dish is an invitation to slow down, trust the kitchen and experience Thai cooking as it’s enjoyed daily in Thailand.
Pomelo, led by Executive Chef and Owner Aom Srisuk, is a boutique Thai restaurant with a big heart and even stronger sense of purpose: to introduce our neighbors and community to Thai food the way it’s cooked at home, and to provide a space where friends can excite their palates with dishes that are unique, flavorful and fresh. Pomelo’s menu centers on vibrant, made-from-scratch items including award-winning smooth curries, zippy Thai salads, aromatic herbal soups and beloved street-style noodle dishes including pok-pok noodles and mii kiew (dishes rarely found on menus outside of Thailand). These plates reflect both the comfort of Thai home cooking and the rhythms of Thailand’s vibrant street markets, layering fresh herbs and aromatic spices sourced from trusted local Asian markets that supply these essential ingredients of Thai cuisine.
Opened in October 2021 on Uptown New Orleans' historic Magazine Street, Pomelo is Chef Aom's first restaurant in the United States after moving from Thailand in 2018. Chef Aom brings more than two decades of experience as a restaurateur and chef. She is from Ayutthaya, Thailand's ancient capital, and spent much of her adult life in Bangkok, the country's vibrant modern center. For over 15 years, she owned and operated restaurants in these two cities before moving to the U.S. At Pomelo, she brings forward the food she knows best: the comforting, everyday dishes Thai families grow up eating—food rooted in balance, freshness and care.
Pomelo is intentionally intimate and proudly neighborhood-driven. As a BYOB restaurant, it invites guests to bring what they love, settle in, and enjoy a slower, more personal dining experience. Trust here lives between the kitchen and the table—guests are encouraged to explore unfamiliar dishes, ask questions and lean on the team for guidance. A brief conversation with our friendly staff is often all it takes to discover a new favorite.
In its earliest days, Pomelo was truly a labor of love, built dish by dish, day by day, with a short menu, a tiny team (many days just Aom!) and an unwavering commitment to doing things the right way. It's a commitment that we stand by to this day. When introducing our New Orleans community to Pomelo, local journalist and author Beth D'Addono described it as “a welcoming haven of love and light,” and we think that just about perfectly sums up what we're all about.
In January 2024, Chef Aom and her husband and business partner, Frankie Weinberg, opened their second restaurant, Good Catch | Thai Urban Bistro, in downtown New Orleans. With a larger space, broader menu, and room to welcome bigger groups, Good Catch allows the story that began at Pomelo to expand, reaching new audiences while Pomelo remains the bright foundation where that voice was first established.
(Guests curious to see how our story grows can visit our downtown sibling, Good Catch | Thai Urban Bistro at 828 Gravier St.)
Chef Aom Srisuk
Owner & Executive Chef
Chef Aom Srisuk brings more than two decades of experience as a restaurant owner and chef. She moved to the United States in 2018 after owning and operating several restaurants in Thailand, but her first exposure to cooking was as a young girl in her grandmother's kitchen in her hometown of Ayutthaya, where Aom assisted her grandmother in the daily preparation of large family meals. Grandma taught her every step of the process, training Aom to complete all the small tasks from picking and de-stemming chilis and Thai basil to pounding the curry paste by hand and shaving fresh coconut to extract its rich milk for those curries.
At age 15, Aom moved to Bangkok to help her mother with her Japanese izakaya restaurant in the city's vibrant central business district, where she learned the foundations of hospitality and business. Working with her mom gave her the opportunity to start from the ground up-everything from the humble act of organizing guests' shoes before welcoming them onto the tatami mat to serving, managing, accounting, and learning the language of the industry.
Upon graduating from university, Aom opened four successful restaurants of her own in Bangkok and Ayutthaya. After more than 15 years running these restaurants, she rekindled a long-lost love when her now-husband and business partner, Frankie Weinberg (an author and professor) returned to Southeast Asia on sabbatical. Following a year-long courtship, Aom agreed to join him in New Orleans. They married in December 2018, and after gaining her work authorization, she immediately joined the city's hospitality industry, where she fell in love with both the culture of New Orleans and the excitement of adding Thai flavors into the melting pot that shapes what New Orleans cuisine is today.
Frankie J. Weinberg, Ph.D.
Co-Owner & Managing Partner
Frankie J. Weinberg, Ph.D., is the co-owner of Good Catch | Thai Urban Bistro and Pomelo Thai Boutique Restaurant, where, alongside his wife and culinary visionary, Executive Chef Aom Srisuk, he creates warm, welcoming spaces rooted in Thai hospitality and cultural authenticity, and community.
Outside the restaurant world, Frankie is an award-winning professor of leadership and organizational behavior at Loyola University New Orleans, a globally-recognized speaker, and advisor to high-impact organizations. His research on mentoring, teams, and leadership is published in top academic journals and recognized for both scholarly impact and practical relevance.
Frankie has taught and led graduate, undergraduate, and executive programs on four continents and recently served as Visiting Scholar at the University of Sydney Business School—home to one of the world's top Executive MBA programs—in a department ranked among the top 35 globally for business research.
He is co-author of Management Today (Sage, 2nd ed.) and author of the forthcoming book Mentorship: Empowering Mentees to Take the Lead and Co-Create their Development (University of Toronto Press, published under the prestigious Rotman School of Management imprint). In every endeavor, Frankie brings a commitment to fostering connection, cultivating community, and empowering others to thrive.