Restaurant to expand
Franchising plans for homegrown eatery
A YEAR on from when they first opened their doors, the husband and wife team behind Original Saigon are eyeing off plans for an expansion.
It’s a major moment for Hieu Pham and Tram Nguyen, made all the more remarkable by the fact that neither of them had experience in hospitality when they started in November 2018.
Mr Pham grew up in a small country town, 25 minutes drive from Vietnam’s capital, Ho Chi Minh City.
He said everyone who he grew up with was looking for new challenges and better opportunities.
Some moved to the city, while others set off overseas.
“Our home town was really poor and you needed to (study) to find a better job,” he said.
So he decided to go to university in Australia, and ended up being accepted to study agriculture at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba.
“If I studied I have more opportunity and in the future when I can go back into Vietnam again I can apply that knowledge to our developing country,” he said.
But along the way he met his wife Tram and they decided to do something together.
“We found Toowoomba didn’t have any Vietnamese restaurants, where we can find a place to enjoy the atmosphere and the environment and the flavour that we used to have in Vietnam,” he said.
Rather than travel down to the multicultural melting pots of Inala or Darra for a dose of their home country’s cuisine, they decided to open their own establishment.
When the couple opened Original Saigon on Ruthven St across from The Mills Precinct a year ago, neither of them had worked in a restaurant before.
Month by month they perfected their recipes, locking down suppliers and experimenting with flavours until their meals were just like the ones they ate back home.
“It’s in our blood,” Mr Pham said.
“We eat, we can taste – this is like what we eat in Vietnam.”
But they couldn't have done it without the support of their customers, he said.
Now, Mr Pham said their goal was to expand the idea of Original Saigon into a franchise – Tram Vietnam.
Their first restaurant will remain known as Original Saigon, but future franchises will take on the Tram Vietnam branding.