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New Momentum
Category: General Published on Tuesday, 19 April 2011 15:10 Written by B. Alex Frank. Photos by Aaron Joel Santos Hits: 576
Hanoi's downtown restaurant scene has added three new spots over the last few weeks, each with a different cuisine, yet common veins running between them. Their focus is casual atmosphere with excellent food.
"I like to create an environment to have fun," says Jason, co-owner of the newly established Southgate (28 Tong Duy Tan) when asked what made him open a restaurant. “There is nothing better than hearing the sounds of silverware hitting plates, loud conversation, people enjoying wine and just having a good time."
Looking around it is easy to see the inspiration; Southgate’s ethos of simple but good becomes immediately apparent. A mix of modern design and old-world style — the heavy carbon-black tables arranged in an understated but decidedly classy space add to the simple decoration, yet somehow help maintain the stately old and elegant French mansion etiquette.
How Jason came to be a restaurant owner in Hanoi is a longer story. He spent a number of years working in restaurants and marketing for a restaurant group in Boston. When his partner moved to Hanoi a couple years ago, he moved with her and decided to strike out on his own.
He is, however, not alone. "The idea that a foreigner can just operate anything here by themselves is pretty misguided," he explains. Had his partner Tung not come into the picture, he continues, "I think this whole process would have been one-hundred times more difficult".
Tung describes Southgate as a "coupe d'etat". After spending seven years in France, working his way up from potwasher to chef, and completing an MA in finance, he returned to his native Hanoi with no intention of working in a bank. "He loves the business in the same way I do," Tung gushes.
They searched for nearly two years for the perfect location and secured the dynamic 'food street' location for Southgate. "We want to open a place that is good, but relaxed," Tung says of a business direction shared with another new Hanoian restaurateur, Don of Arriba — a Mexican joint 48 Hang Buom, near the top of Ta Hien.
Kitchen on Display
"During seven years in Asia, [I’ve found] one thing you couldn't get…good Mexican or guacamole," says Don while sitting at one of his sidewalk tables, bathing in the cacophony of the Old Quarter and munching on pork quesadillas.
"We have all had that conversation over the years about 'man I feel like eating a burrito or a taco,' and it's not only something that people want, but is something people are pissed they can't get!"
Arriba, or "Arriba!", which opened about a month ago is inspired by a previous experience Don had while in graduate school for sociology in New Orleans. As he explains, he was one of the first customers of a trendsetting restaurant called Corona Taqueria. It was a simple place with a focus on great Mexican food. The inspiration remained in the back of his mind through a variety of lives that included a stint as a writer in Hollywood, a race relation’s consultant in New Orleans and as an English teacher and travel writer in Asia.
Don decided to open Arriba in July of last year, but the story of how it actually came to be is a complicated one. He was seriously injured in a motorbike accident, breaking a bone in his groin and a couple of ribs, and "laid up" for a couple of weeks. He hired a Vietnamese assistant, Tuyen, to help him.
"She has been completely, really, fantastically, good," he says with his eyes showing the gratitude of someone who has been rescued from a living nightmare. Originally hired as a personal assistant, Don's vision of her long-term job description had always included a management position in the restaurant. She seems to be in charge of most of the day-to-day operations, allowing Don to keep his focus on Arriba’s food and atmosphere.
One unique feature of Arriba is its open kitchen. Originally planned for the second floor, Don has placed it front and center, near the glassed front entrance, which gives the immediate understanding that Arriba’s motif is food.
“When they [the staff and engineers] finally understood that I was actually putting the kitchen where the customers were; they were horrified," says Don. "I had to put my foot down and say 'we are going to do this', and from that moment on, until we opened, they were all pretty sure I was crazy."
You can smell your order and see it being prepared. The front and center nature makes the point clear, adding to the emerging trend that restaurants are starting to get: it's about the food.
A Sandwich, No Pretention
Around the corner a new venture by Daniel and Lai of My Burger My has also just opened with a similar theme. Provecho (5 Hang Bac), introducing a new eating category called "global grill," is intended to be "casual, but smart; a place to hang out with friends, where you can eat and drink... a combination of international diner and somewhat upscale".
Daniel explains that one of his favourite foods is street food, but sometimes "I don't want to sit on a plastic stool on the street; I want to be comfortable; I'd like to get a glass of wine".
Provecho’s global grill, whose menu really does include food from all over the world covers American burgers, fried mozzarella sticks, Thai laab salad, freshly baked pizza, a Mexican steak topped with mushrooms and roasted chilies, a Balinese style BBQ chicken, nem and Vietnamese stir fry. "It's not fine dining, but I want to have a food quality level of fine dining," Daniel says as we sit upstairs in the multi-level location that includes a small "cuddle corner" over-looking an imported Italian marble and dark-wood bar on the ground floor. The levels are connected by multiple narrow steel staircases to a more clubby upstairs and balcony.
Possibly one of the early gladiators of the battle for casual, good food, Daniel questions the idea that food needs to be served in a pretentious, formal and overly expensive environment for it to be good. And this seems to be the momentum at moment. Food quality is finally gripping Hanoi’s awareness, and it seems that restaurants like these are helping to lead the way.