The Spot: Vietnam Restaurant

We always hear about the shiny, new food companies. The Spot is a series about the Philadelphia area's more established establishments and the people behind them.

In 1975, when the communist government of North Vietnam took control of his family's sandal factory in South Vietnam, Thuan "Benny" Lai was not yet 10 years old. Along with his seven siblings and his parents - who had fled communist rule in China some 20 years prior - he was sent to a "re-education camp" in the forest. The family fled to a refugee camp in Malaysia, and used connections with a relative who had fought alongside U.S. troops in the Vietnam War to obtain passage to America.

The Lai family landed in Philadelphia in October 1979. The Nationalities Service Center, the nonprofit that had helped orchestrate the emigration, set them up with a small apartment on Second and Girard, and helped them sign up for welfare.

At the time, most of the local Vietnamese community was centered in West Philly, and the Lais soon moved there. In 1982, they scraped together $10,000 and opened a small grocery store called Fu-Wah on 47th Street near Baltimore Avenue.

The market was relatively successful - there were very few places to buy Asian ingredients in Philly, and Benny's father made near-daily trips to NYC to make sure his shelves were stocked. When the opportunity was presented to buy a turnkey restaurant in Chinatown for another $10,000, he jumped at the chance.

After three days of scrubbing and cleaning the 28-seat space at 221 N. 11th St. (between Race and Vine), the Lais opened the doors to Vietnam Restaurant in 1984. It quickly became the go-to eatery for Vietnamese ex-pats, and often had lines out the door.

What the BYOB did not have was any licensing or permits - the Lais said they had no idea these things were required. Luckily, the Health Department inspector who stumbled upon the operation was kind, and Benny, who had become the family's de facto translator, worked with him to file the proper paperwork. According to official city records, Vietnam Restaurant's first year of business was not 1984, but three years later.

In 1989, his parents retired, and Benny, age 22, took over running the two family businesses. The next year, he initiated the first of several expansions for his Chinatown restaurant, which eventually took over all three floors of its building plus the storefront next door. (A liquor license was added in 1993.)

Over in West Philly, the neighborhood around Fu-Wah was beginning to change. The Vietnamese community had dwindled with an exodus to the suburbs, but the University of Pennsylvania was making improvements, and the area became a hotbed of veganism. Benny seized on this and shifted his market's focus away from Asian retail goods and more toward prepared food. He began selling tofu Vietnamese hoagies - banh mi - which quickly developed a rabid fan base.

In 2008, Lai took a chance on a small, 34-seat space just down the block from Fu-Wah and opened Vietnam Cafe. It was popular from the start, and soon outgrew its original location. The next year, Benny moved it into a larger, liquor-licensed spot at 816 S. 47th St., where it still flourishes today.

In fact, the sister restaurant in what he now always refers to as "University City" does even better than the original, something Lai attributes to the Center City parking crunch. He's currently working with a group of young Chinatown business owners to organize valet parking for the neighborhood.

Over a plate of crisp, rice-paper spring rolls dipped in nuoc cham, he described this effort and reminisced about others, all the while returning to what's been the underlying theme of his adult life: that he and his family were blessed to have been helped by so many along the way, and that America truly is a land of opportunity.

How did you learn English after arriving in Philadelphia in 1979?

I knew just two words when we got here: "yes" and "no." When we moved to West Philly, I learned from a worker at the church on 47th and Springfield [St. Francis de Sales], and also picked up a lot from radio and TV. My siblings and I went to junior high at Albert Greenfield school, and they brought in a Vietnamese ESL teacher just for us.

How did your parents, as poor immigrants, manage to open their own store?

They arrived in this country with literally $30 in their pockets. We were on welfare, but we spent very wisely - we ate nothing but chicken legs, rice and broccoli for 2½ years. Then my dad got a job as a janitor at the transit police station. We saved a little and borrowed a little from my uncle and friends and that let us gather the $10,000 we needed to open Fu-Wah. It was only the second Asian market in all of Philadelphia.

So it was popular?

We had people from all over coming to buy our products. People from Lancaster, from Reading. Weekends were very busy. They would buy things like fish sauce, soy sauce, rice - Vietnamese people are very specific about what brands they like.

Where did you get those brands?

My father would drive to New York City to buy everything. At the beginning he was going every single day, because he didn't have any capital - he'd use the money from the previous day's sales to stock up for the next day. But the guy he was buying from found out, and was nice enough to extend him some credit.

How did the Chinatown restaurant come about?

The guy who owned Lee How Fook was moving next door, so he came to my father and said, "I have a restaurant, do you want it? Give me $10,000 and I'll sign the lease over to you; the rent is $800 a month." My dad said OK, I'll take it. My mom was happy to be the cook - she said, "Well, I have to feed eight kids, I'm going to be cooking either way."

Did the space need renovations?

No, it was all ready, with tables and chairs and everything. We spent 3 days scrubbing off the grease that had built up and then we just opened. We had no licenses, no insurance. We thought it was like back home: you just let people know that you're open, and off you go. Our customers were all from the Vietnamese community.

Did you get in trouble for not having proper licenses?

One day a man from the Health Department walked in. He said, "Um, when did you open?" We told him 3 years ago. He probably could have put us in jail, but instead he was so nice. He said, "I'll tell you what. Go down and get your licenses, and then I'll come back and do the inspection." He gave me a checklist to follow and said, "Call me when you're done." As far as official city records go, Vietnam Restaurant opened in 1987.

Has the clientele changed since then?

Vietnamese people are probably just 2 or 3 percent of our Chinatown customers now. Our first non-Asian customer was Bob Aretz [now owner of ad agency Paragraph, Inc.]. He walked in one day and the whole room stopped to stare at the non-Asian customer. But he just sat down and said, "Tell me what to order." He started telling all of his friends about us. And Bob's brother, Wayne, who runs Fork restaurant with Ellen Yin, also started spreading the word.

Did business go up and down?

We had a scare in 1987, when a former employee opened Vietnam Palace across the street. Her spot was much bigger and more comfortable, and our sales dropped from like $1,000 a day to $200. We almost closed, but instead we decided to expand. In 1990 we added the second floor dining room, then in 1996 expanded next door and in 2000 built a room for private parties on the third floor. We started getting a lot of business from the Inquirer and Daily News - it was like a cafeteria for them; they would take over the whole first floor during lunchtime. (That disappeared when the headquarters moved.)

When and why did you add a liquor license?

Non-Asian customers started asking for beer or wine with their meal, and I was always running out to buy six-packs for them. In 1993, I decided to buy a liquor license. It cost $19,000, and I didn't have the money, so I went to the loan shark and got it. I ended up paying them $4,000 in interest for that. But loan rates were generally high in the '80s, anyway.

When you started serving Vietnamese hoagies at Fu-Wah, almost no one here had ever heard of banh mi; right?

Yes, it was before banh mi got popular (which was thanks to Anthony Bourdain, I think). In West Philly, the Vietnamese community started moving out - to Upper Darby, to the suburbs - so I was selling fewer Asian products at the market. At the same time, Penn professors and young professionals were moving in. I noticed there was a big vegan community forming, so I put together a banh mi with tofu. At first we went through one bucket of tofu every 2 days; now we go through 12 times that much. The people who make the tofu for me, in Chinatown, always ask, "What are you doing, giving it away?"

Why did you decide to open a second restaurant in West Philly?

Because West Philly is where I grew up, and it's where I live today. We opened Vietnam Cafe in 2008 in a small space down the block, but a year later, the guy who owned an Italian restaurant called Abbraccio around the corner wanted to retire, and offered me his much larger space, liquor license included. So we moved.

For a few years that original space operated as Grill Fish Cafe?

Yes, the idea was it served fish only. But it got confusing, because people knew we owned both restaurants, so they would ask to order off both menus, and that didn't work too well. So we closed that down and now offer both menus at Vietnam Cafe. We use the smaller space for private events, but I'm looking for someone to lease it. I think the area could really use an Italian restaurant again. It's a very vibrant restaurant area now. We do better business here than in Chinatown.

Has Chinatown changed a lot since you first opened there?

It became boxed in, because they built the Vine Street Expressway, which cut off the north, and the Convention Center, which cut off the west. Then there's the Gallery to the south and the Police Roundhouse to the east.

Right now, there are a lot of new restaurants opening up, but it seems like nobody wants to come here. I think it's because of parking. It used to be after 6 o'clock you didn't have to feed the meter, but ever since they changed those rules, Chinatown business is down.

I'm organizing with some other businesses to try to get valet parking for Chinatown. I went and saw it on East Passyunk and said, "This is a great idea!" I'm trying to form a new group of the younger restaurant owners to make it happen - the older mom-and-pop shops don't want to spend a dime.

Lê, owner of Chinatown's Hop Sing Laundromat, is also from Vietnam - is he part of that group or do you know him?

I don't know him, but I've heard he's a great guy. Although I don't know if he would let me in - I'm always wearing sneakers! I've seen him at the liquor warehouse, but never introduced myself. There's a funny story - my sister went in one night with her husband, [Eagles owner] Jeffrey Lurie. Jeffrey told me, "He kept my driver's license for half an hour! I don't know what he was doing with it." I said, "Oh, I know why - he was probably trying to sell it on eBay. But nobody wanted to buy it, so he just gave it back."

Vietnam Restaurant

221 N. 11th St., 215-592-1163

Hours: 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday