The Dogpatch offshoot of Michelin-starred Thai restaurant Kin Khao, which opened last summer in the middle of the pandemic as a replacement for the still temporarily shuttered original Kin Khao in Union Square's Parc 55 hotel, is closed for good.

Chef-owner Pim Techamuanvivit tells the Chronicle that the Dogpatch location only had a one-year lease, and she always imagined it might be just a temporary location. But, with the help of federal relief funds under the Restaurant Revitalization Fund that Congress approved in December, Techamuanvivit had hoped to keep the place open. The fund was initially supposed to prioritize minority- and women-owned businesses, however the initially approved group of those businesses had their funds halted and canceled by lawsuits that argued discrimination against white-owned businesses.

Techamuanvivit says that the funds dried up in June and Kin Khao never received their grant, so now it is time to close. Employees at this location will move over to her other restaurant Nari in Japantown, and she hopes to then be able to open that restaurant seven days a week.

The original Kin Khao remains in limbo as the Parc 55 has yet to reopen since its pandemic closure last year. Still, Techamuanvivit hopes it will reopen soon.

Kin Khao originally opened in 2014, earning immediate raves and plenty of buzz, before becoming SF's first Michelin-starred Thai restaurant in 2016. The much larger Nari opened in August 2019, and then in August 2020, the Dogpatch location of Kin Khao appeared as a delightful mid-pandemic surprise.

Techamuanvivit, who lives in Dogpatch, tells the Chronicle she's sad not to have the restaurant there anymore — but perhaps it is for the best, because the space, originally Noon All Day coffeeshop at 690 Indiana Street, was not equipped to be a full-service restaurant. "It was something we needed during the really, really bleak time last year," she said.

Photo: Matthew S./Yelp