A locally owned restaurant that had been open for 22 years has moved to downtown Evanston after its former landlord expressed plans to build an apartment building on the old site.
Kamolporn Weeraprajuk, the owner of Dozika Restaurant, said she closed her site at 601 Dempster Street, near Chicago Avenue, in October 2024, and three days later was already back in business at a new location: 1018 Davis Street, the former site of Cozy Noodles and Rice. Weeraprajuk said Dozika’s menu will continue to have all the classics the original one had, plus rotating monthly specials.
During Weeraprajuk’s run at 601 Dempster Street, she said the restaurant had local support from the neighborhood.
Since relocating, Weeraprajuk said previous customers from the original location quickly found the new one. Along with those customers, Weeraprajuk said new patrons, including downtown workers and Northwestern University students, have also become repeat customers at the new location.
Weeraprajuk said the restaurant also offers 10% discounts to Northwestern University students and Evanston Township High School students. “Sometimes kids don’t have money… I try to support the community,” she said.
Weeraprajuk, originally from Thailand, said she previously worked at a Japanese restaurant, and Dozika is the first restaurant she has owned. The name Dozika, she said, is a play on words in Thai that translates to “take a look.”
It’s possible then, Weeraprajuk said, that the idea of having so many different foods from Asia in once place is what gave Dozika its name.
“If you want Japanese food, you’d have to go a Japanese restaurant. If you want Thai food, you’d have to go to a Thai restaurant — but if you stop at Dozika, you can get Thai, Japanese or Chinese food at the same time,” she said.
