I’ve enjoyed my fair share of meals at Little Saigon over the years — the bún bò huế in particular — but come Dec. 28, the venerable Vietnamese restaurant will serve its final bowl of soup.
Siblings Vu Nguyen and Mai Huynh are hanging up their aprons after nearly 40 years of serving the Mills 50 community, a community they’re ever so grateful for.
“We thank you for the love,” says Huynh. “As one of the original Vietnamese restaurants of Orlando, we are proud to have shared our culture, and a little piece of home, for four decades.”
Credit: Little Saigon Vietnamese Restaurant
The restaurant has seen Mills 50 flourish into a culinary, cultural and historical hub for food lovers, a rise spawned by Vietnamese refugees who turned the neighborhood into the destination it is today. In fact, Hung Kim, widely considered to be Orlando’s first Vietnamese restaurant, occupied the Little Saigon space in 1983 before Nguyen and Huynh moved in a few years later in 1987.
“When we first took over, it was just a small, 1,000-square-foot empty space with a double-door fridge,” says Huynh. “Over the years, we grew through four expansions, all the while keeping it a family operation.”
Their parents, who passed away a few years ago, would often help out in the restaurant, adding their touches to the menu to make sure everything was as it should be. “The restaurant has always been more than just a business,” Huynh says. “It gave our parents a sense of purpose. We just have so many shared memories as a family here.”
The lease on the Little Saigon space is set to expire come year’s end and, seeing how both Nguyen and Huynh were looking to retire anyway, the timing seemed right.
No word yet on what the property owners plan to do with the space.
In the meantime, Little Saigon is inviting everyone to join them in celebrating the restaurant’s final weeks.
Follow them @littlesaigonorlando or at little-saigon.com.
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