There wasn’t too much going on in the dining scene of Sherman Oaks, California—a strip-mall-dominated suburb in the San Fernando Valley—when Anajak Thai first opened in 1981. “This was never a hub for restaurants,” says Ian Krupp, now Anajak’s wine director. “I grew up here and there was, like, a Cheesecake Factory, a California Pizza Kitchen, and Anajak with good, comfort food Thai.” 

The restaurant hung on through the decades as a neighborhood favorite until 2019, when the original chef-owner, Rick Pichetrungsi, suffered a stroke. To keep the family restaurant in operation, Rick’s son Justin Pichetrungsi quit his job as an art director at Disney and took the reins. 

In taking over, the younger Pichetrungsi updated the menu, sourcing, and overall tone of the restaurant, including launching what has become one of the most impressive wine programs in Southern California. 

“Chef Justin had a vision for the wine,” Krupp says. “He thought that good wine and Thai food could work in that space too. He was the original sommelier, himself. He bought the first seven cases of wine with his own money and then flipped them. Then once it got out of hand and he had a little bit too much wine and just too much on his plate, he hired some sommeliers to help.”

Around that time, Krupp recalls having his first meal at Anajak in its new era. “I ate there and I knew immediately I wanted to work there. I wanted to work there so badly that I worked at Anajak on my only day off from my other job for six months. And then, yeah, the rest is history.”

That other job Krupp held at the time was as wine director at Scopa Italian Roots, TV personality and chef Antonia Lofaso’s big, bustling restaurant in Venice, CA. Before that, he spent time as a somm and in other roles at Michelin-starred Kali, Providence, and Acquerello. After studying classical guitar in college he found his way into working at restaurants as a day job to pay the bills only to fall in love with the world of hospitality along the way.

“Before I got to Anajak, when John Cerasulo was the wine director, he was building on Burgundy, Champagne, a lot of Riesling, some great Italian stuff. And I saw nothing wrong with that. So when I took over, I just wanted to build it out more, get a little more focused, and kind of make the program run a little smoother logistically.”

When it comes to choosing what to offer, Krupp craves authenticity. “Obviously I would love very allocated, rare wines that are super sought-after and people want to take pictures of. And I have a lot of those, actually. But the wines I think are the coolest are the storyteller wines. Wine is a story to me. It's everything. It's history, geology, geography, farming ... It's so cool.” 

These days Anajak has so many interesting and rapidly-rotating wines on hand that the paper wine list can look like a blurry wall of tiny-font text that customers squint to read by the light of LED lamps perched on the sidewalk and alleyway tables that make up the most prized of Anajak’s seating. Krupp’s advice for navigating it, however, is simple. “The number one thing there is the food. It's incredible. The flavors are so diverse. Each dish on the menu, I say, has its own pairing. So it's like, you can't just pick one bottle for your whole meal. But all the wines should go with at least half the menu. You kind of have to figure out what you want and then just listen to your heart.” 

Anajak has stuffed its trophy case in recent years, including being named Restaurant of the Year by the Los Angeles Times (2022), Best New Chef (2022) by Food & Wine, and picking up a James Beard Award for Best Chef: California (2023). In 2024, Krupp received Michelin’s Best California Sommelier award.      

Those awards have come with a backdrop of pandemic, entertainment industry strikes that hit the local economy hard, and this year’s devastating fires during which the staff prepped hundreds of meals for local emergency crews by day while still offering dinner service by night. Now, the Anajak team is doing something new: taking a short break from daily operations. Anajak will go dark for a month to put the finishing touches on an extensive expansion and remodel. When done, the kitchen and dining spaces will nearly double, among other upgrades.

“They're going to build us a wine cellar. Finally. Nice little temperature controlled room for some special bottles and stuff, and we'll up our capacity, which is really good.” That marks a big upgrade for the beverage team. “When I first started, it was just boxes in the dining room; just scattered towers of wine boxes. So if you needed something, you'd have to take off the top box to get to the bottom box.”

What should you send Krupp to grab from his newly-expanded digs when Anajak reopens in August? He loves all the bottles mentioned below—but what he loves most of all is diners who come in with an open mind. 

“Honestly, when someone is coming in to cherry-pick from your list—you know, they just want that because they can't find it anywhere else—they're kind of also bypassing the ceremony of going into a restaurant, asking the sommelier what he recommends, seeing what maybe I have off the list that's really special, that I might be able to show them something new,” Krupp says. “I mean, it's cool! I'm glad to be able to curate a list where people can find something that makes them immediately say, ‘oh, I want that.’ But it takes away a certain bit of magic from the experience.”  

Below are a few of Krupp’s current favorites:

Chanterêves “Mainbey” Aligoté, 2022 ($155)

For whites, I go to a really good Bourgogne Aligoté. People are not just asking for it. You kind of have to sell it at the table. And it can vary between producers, but the one that I think of that is my favorite, is Chanterêves. You know, old vine, perfectly farmed. Great acidity, great vegetal notes. It's transparent to the terroir it's grown in —the limestone and clay come right through. Refreshing and beautiful and complex.

Amorotti “Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo” Montepulciano, 2020. ($120) 

I think one of the best wines, not the best wine, for Thai food, is a rosé. But it needs to be a darker rosé because light rosé sometimes just feels kind of watery compared with the Thai flavors. Go for dark rosé like a Tavel or a Cerasuolo. Those are really splendid wines. If I can pick one, it would be the Amorotti. It’s just fabulous. He's neighbors with Valentini. His wines are natural. They are not divisive with flavors or anything; they're just pure and great. Dark cherry and salt, with that body and acidity and freshness. Really great. One hundred percent would drink right now, actually. 

Wasenhaus “Bellen” Spätburgunder, 2022. ($285)

Everyone wants Pinot Noir and they want to go to Burgundy, but Germany has had so many great vintages back-to-back-to-back, because of, sadly, global warming. It affects other places differently, but in Germany they're able to achieve ripeness now so that they can really rival Burgundy, and a lot of producers are making top notch wine—even, I think, better than a lot of Burgundies. And if I’m thinking of Spätburgunder, I’m thinking of Wasenhaus because they are killing it. Their wines are so limited and hard to get. I'm told by the importer that we get the most Wasenhaus of anybody in California—which is like three bottles of each of their cuvées. Their Chardonnays and Weissburgunders are incredible too.  

Stein “Himmelreich Kabinett Feinherb” Riesling, 2023 ($110)

If I am going to go off-dry Riesling, I go with Dr. Ulli Stein. I think the Feinherb was the first bottle I drank the first time I ever ate at Anajak, back before I worked here. 100-year-old vines, ungrafted, own-rooted Riesling on steep terraces in the Mosel. And it's just pure liquid nectar of the gods. It's so beautiful, fresh mineral, super balanced. It's amazing. 

Keller “Von der Fels” Riesling, 2023 ($140)

You know, this is too obvious, but for a dry Riesling, it's got to be Keller. It is hyped up for a reason. I think Klaus Peters is one of the best winemakers in the world, not just Germany. He has affordable options, but he also has some very, very high end GGs. The Von der Fels Riesling is a ‘baby GG’—it's young vines from one of these Grand Cru vineyards—and it's a huge steal. It's complex, and it's mineral, limestone. That's one of my absolute favorites, for sure.

Cedric Bouchard Roses de Jeanne “Les Ursules Blanc de Noir” Champagne, 2019 ($450)

We have a lot of Champagne. I think it's one of the biggest Champagne selections in the whole city—and we're such a small restaurant. But I'm obsessed. I have always been obsessed with Champagne, especially grower Champagne. These producers, they're really sought-after and hyped. Cedric Bouchard, he could be, you know, one of the superstars of wine in my eyes. He has single vineyard, single varietal, single vintage bottlings that are really transparent of his terroir. I think his wines are incredible. They're not that inexpensive anymore. They used to kind of be affordable before Covid and all that. But that happens — someone gets famous, and then you can't afford their wine anymore, but you save up and every now and then you get one bottle, two bottles a year.