ANN ARBOR, MI — Downtown Ann Arbor is saying goodbye to two Asian-inspired restaurants and welcoming two new Vietnamese joints.
Saigon Social House and Block & Brew Cafe on East Liberty Street have taken over the spots of the now-closed Taste Kitchen and Red Lotus, new owner Sonca Luu confirmed Friday, Sept. 26.
“We will have modern Vietnamese food,” Luu, 45, said. “I want to introduce the best Vietnamese food to Ann Arbor.”
Luu, who identifies as a Vietnamese immigrant, will be the owner of both new businesses.
Saigon Social House has been in its soft opening phase since last week and is awaiting a liquor license for its grand opening. Luu is recipe testing drinks for the forthcoming Block & Brew Cafe and hopes to open it in one to two weeks.
Taste Kitchen, which opened in 2014, ended operations in July, while Red Lotus closed at the start of August, Luu said.
MLive/The Ann Arbor News reached out to the Taste Kitchen team but did not receive a response.
Luu wanted to open Saigon Social House and Block & Brew Cafe in order to expand Vietnamese cuisine in Ann Arbor.
“I say with my pride,” Luu said. “I say it represents my country, I have to make it look good.”
Luu has lived in Ann Arbor for 20 years and said she wants to give back to her community through her food businesses.
“I love Ann Arbor and Ann Arbor gives me so much,” Luu said.
Luu is also the owner of Kang’s Korean Restaurant, 1327 S. University Ave., two BeeQ beauty salons in Ann Arbor and the eyelash salon M1 Lash Skin & Brows on East Liberty Street in Ann Arbor.
Saigon Social House will serve elevated Vietnamese dishes, according to Danny Van, 54, a consultant chef for the new Vietnamese establishments. Similar to Luu, he wishes for the new restaurant to modernize Vietnamese food.
“To bring here to Ann Arbor and let all of us see some of the dishes that a lot of people never taste, like banh xeo or bun cha, all stuff that’s very famous in Vietnam but there are not that many restaurants that (do) it here,” Van said.
Banh xeo is a crispy and savory crepe, and bun cha is a vermicelli rice and pork dish.
Block & Brew Cafe will also be unique because it will specialize in Vietnamese coffee and matcha, unlike other coffee shops in Ann Arbor, Van said. Further, the cafe will allow customers to make purchases with cryptocurrency, Van said.
“We integrate crypto as a payment to bring awareness to people that bitcoin now becomes mainstream that eventually people are going to start to use it for transactions,” Van said. “There’s so many coffee shops in town already so we want to do something unique and different by bringing the Vietnamese coffee to Ann Arbor.”
Van, who also identifies as Vietnamese, was a chef at the former Taste Kitchen.
He shared Saigon Social House will push plant-based menu items, similarly to the former Red Lotus. A major reason was because of Vietnam’s large vegan population.
Luu wants her Vietnamese food to be the best in the Midwest, and if it is not the best, then she does not want to sell her food.
She does it with passion. “Not just making a drink (or) just to sell to make money, but do something that’s passionate,” Van said.
Luu sources her ingredients locally or from her own garden and wants to give her patrons healthy food options at her new businesses.
“If my kid don’t bring or eat it here, then I don’t sell for a client,” Luu said.
Van said Saigon Social House, on top of being open for lunch and dinner, will open for late nights during the weekends. He also shared Saigon Social House will offer chef tasting menus, with prices dependent on the number of courses.
Luu said she plans to offer discounted matcha drinks in her first week of opening at Block & Brew Cafe. She intends to offer too a monthly subscription of Vietnamese drinks for interested customers.
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