A different kind of Vietnamese restaurant, Pho Towda, has taken above the previous Pomodoro Pizza at 12151 Fairfax Towne Heart.
Co-entrepreneurs and brothers-in-regulation Nhan Nguyen and Chi Phan moved into the buying middle soon after promoting their original cafe Pho Bytes (11211 Lee Hwy), which was just a number of miles absent. The duo sought a contemporary commence soon after suffering from issues with their prior third spouse and the restaurant’s setup.
“The kitchen area [at Pho Bytes] was operate down so undesirable, and we could not pay for to renovate the kitchen area, so we sold that, and we make a new 1 in this article,” Phan explained.
Just after a challenging, extended renovation system, Pho Towda finally welcomed clients for a tender opening from July 10 to July 13.
Nguyen, who also owns a cybersecurity firm, suggests Pho Towda staff members have been “overwhelmed” by the customers that arrived after a friend advertised the comfortable opening in Northern Virginia Foodies, a Fb team with around 100,000 associates.
“We did not expect to have that many people demonstrate up for two, three times,” Nguyen said. “…We [sold] out all the food stuff on the 1st day, and we had to close an hour early, and then the next day, the very same issue.”
Unprepared for so a lot of customers, the cafe descended into chaos. Prospects complained about extensive wait around periods, as young, inexperienced servers struggled to handle the rush, and the kitchen, led by Phan, became backed up with constant orders, Nguyen suggests.
Following 3 days, the pair knew they experienced to regroup and adjust their approach, so they shut down and delayed their grand opening to Monday, July 17. They labored to carry out the responses they been given from friends, spouse and children and consumers — particularly, bettering wait situations.
“We had to glance at how to enhance our procedure,” Nguyen mentioned. “…We did a style examination, and we [re-trained] all the servers to make guaranteed that they knew all the meals inside and out.”
Because reopening, Nguyen says operations have been “a large amount smoother,” even though they had to forgo some beloved practices, these as presenting hand-slash noodles, to shorten wait situations.
Pho Towda cooks “authentic Vietnamese food” with a contemporary American “twist,” specializing in banh mi and pho, in accordance to Nguyen. Its title comes from the signature dish, pho tho da, a noodle soup served in a incredibly hot stone bowl.
“A whole lot of buyer ask for very hot soup…so I saved imagining and occur up with the incredibly hot stone bowl,” Phan, the head chef and innovator behind Pho Towda’s menu, claimed. “It takes at least 10, 15 minutes to warmth the stone bowl and make it scorching, and it keeps the soup incredibly hot for extended.”
Contrary to most pho ordinarily served at a Vietnamese cafe, the broth and raw toppings, this kind of as New York strip steak, come individually for pho tho da. The customer is meant to progressively increase the toppings as they eat, since the bowl is scorching adequate that the broth rapidly cooks the toppings, staying warm for the overall food.
“You never usually see New York strip steak in pho,” Nguyen mentioned. “But when you insert that seasoning and fatness of the New York strip into the pho, it provides even more flavor to the broth.”
Pho Towda also provides bamboo charcoal banh mi, a recipe that Phan discovered from a buddy who examined in Japan. The bamboo charcoal powder additional to the sandwich presents the baguettes a blackened seem and is thought to have wellbeing positive aspects, Phan suggests.
Another specialty dish is the TD signature roll, which combines Vietnamese crunchy egg rolls (cha gio) and spring rolls (goi cuon). Nevertheless goi cuon is historically served with shrimp, this roll can be custom made with hen, pork or New York strip steak.
“It’s been a purchaser beloved above in this article since you get the crispy inside and the tender outside,” Nguyen recalled.
Prospects also rave about the egg espresso, a Northern Vietnamese delicacy rarely served at restaurants in the U.S., in accordance to Nguyen. Coming in salted, ube and pandan variants, the coffee is produced by turning “egg yolks into a thick egg meringue layer to substitute milk,” he says.
Phan hopes to carry on devising new creations for his consumers, but in advance of he can start off crafting, Nguyen claims the restaurant is in dire need of new chefs and personnel. The current group generally is made up of substantial-school and faculty pupils who will before long head back again to university.
“I want Chi to be ready to…be resourceful and ground breaking and come up with the new stuff that he usually does,” Nguyen explained. “But proper now he’s in the weeds, cooking and perspiring and overwhelmed. He can not arrive up with new, innovative foodstuff nevertheless.”
But for Phan, who was encouraged by Nguyen to move to Northern Virginia from Ga and hop into the restaurant business enterprise, the “fantastic” buyer feed-back has designed every fall of sweat worthwhile, primarily when consumers check with to talk to the chef to give their glowing testimonials of the foodstuff.
“Everyone’s saying the food items is mouth watering, and they love the foods and can’t hold out to come back again,” Nguyen reported. “So, that gives Chi the push and inspiration to wake up each individual working day. He arrives in at 6 a.m. and doesn’t go household till midnight often.”
“Me and my spouse, we like to prepare dinner,” Phan additional. “We just want to produce extra large excellent food stuff for consumers.”