Today we’d like to introduce you to Traci Hoang and Minh Nguyen.
Traci and Minh, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
From two far and different cities in Vietnam, fate had brought us together here in USA. We arrived as refugees; Minh spent over 36 days at sea on a 36 ft. fishing boat, while I spent over 6 days at sea on a 56 ft. fishing boat. We both faced many hardships that come as a price for strangers in a new land, such as: culture shock, language barriers, and financial stability. However, as Victor Hugo once said, “Perseverance [is the] secret of all triumphs.” We both were able to overcome a multitude of trials and tribulations by entering an institute of higher learning; we met each other and fell in love at the University of Texas Arlington. Minh later on transferred to and graduated from Texas Tech University with an electrical engineering major, and I graduated from University of Texas at Arlington with programming major. Minh was an electrical design engineer at St. Jude Medical prior to become a restaurant owner. He never had any type of formal culinary training, however cooking has always been one of his hobbies. He always has been very creative with food. He cooked for his family daily and would cook many dishes for small parties or extended family gatherings.
Sometimes I wish that some of his skill and talent would transfer to me, but there is a reason why he still cooks for our family to this day. To me, cooking is a series of techniques and steps. I personally always viewed cooking as adding this ingredient after that one, or stirring for precisely 15 seconds instead of 10. To these thought processes, including my own, Minh solely laughs. He asserts that this mechanical and soulless approach will never yield amazing food. Are honed techniques and meticulous timing important? Yes, however, one needs to be able to pour their heart and soul into their food as well. In his words, it not only takes an extraordinary brain to make good food, but also an extraordinary heart. We have been blessed with a sole son who is currently pursuing a biochemistry major and music and Spanish in health professions minor at Texas Christian University, whom would call me weekly and tell me how much he misses home cooked food. Considering how critical my son is of food in general, perhaps Minh is on to something with his food…
On one Friday evening in September of 2013, we sat down for dinner while eating a delivering pizza we were talking about food, “healthy and portable, yet delicious food” to be exact. That was when the idea for a restaurant sprouted in our minds. The name of “Pho in the Box” refers to the concept of providing a healthy, authentic tasty Vietnamese food “in a box” where you can enjoy the food in the office at your own desk, at any gathering, or even at home. We know that Vietnamese food is already pretty healthy when compared to other types of cuisines, and we wanted to finely tweak this cooking style in order to provide guilt free comfort food.
Besides warm and appreciated online reviews (Yelp), we have received a lot of love and support during our time in Grapevine community (we’re into word of mouth). We strive to maintain food quality while keep customer services as high as possible. We believe in not only building connections with our food, but also from person to person. We have been serving our food for almost two years now in Grapevine, and the amazing feedback has prompted us to announce that we will be soon opening a new Pho in the Box location in Keller, Texas! The grand opening will happen soon, sometime in early mid-October! We hope to open more Pho in the Box locations thereafter in nearby city in DFW area in order to spread our delicious food with more people.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been rough road for our family in terms of sacrificing family time and the burden of long hours of physical labor. We work almost 11-12 hour days with only Tuesday as a break. Coming from a corporate world with no food or hospitality experience, the aspect of running a restaurant was a little daunting. Our first restaurant was actually Bun Dong Ba- Vietnamese Noodle House in Haltom City. It stayed open for three years, and we were able to serve great food and meet lovely people during that time. However, we decided to move to a smaller model like Pho in the Box in order to keep delivering on our promise to serve healthy guilt free food while ensuring portability and reducing the whole scale model of the restaurant. From here on out, we will be tested by running two restaurants at once, but we are confident that we will be able to accomplish any task before us with unyielding perseverance and passion.
Please tell us about Pho in the Box.
We specialize Pho and Vietnamese styled BBQ. With our model, we take pride in the fact that we have given our customers healthy cuisine in a unique style. Besides healthy lean options and delicious flavors, our most distinguishing factor is the portability and versatility of our dishware.
Healthy eating entails personal digression and with our model, we leave portion control in the customer’s hand: our food is served in generous amount in disposable, yet dish-washer and microwave safe container, so that customers can eat as much or take as much home for later consumption as they please. For grilled meat entrées, customer have a choice of base vermicelli noodles, steamed rice, flavored rice (inspired by Cajun dirty rice) or even salad with a selection of protein choice. For Pho, customers can enjoy the healthy yet healthy soup with many alternative options: a traditional pho with beef broth with fresh rice noodles and some kind of meat topping, or no carb low sugar noodles or no noodles with steamed vegetables as a substitute. Thus, depending on one’s mood, craving, health preferences, there is always an option at Pho in the Box.
Our authentic grilled meat is very tender, slightly sweet savor, and jam packed with flavor. We cut our meat by hand, skim some fat, remove bones, and season with fresh lemon grass and other various flavors. Our pho broth is made fresh daily; many customers compliment the aromatic smells that diffuse throughout the restaurant as they enter in the mornings. To cook Pho, we boil a lot of meat and meat bones for several hours, skim the fat, then drain the mixture to get a pure broth. Then simmer the broth some more and start adding ingredients (such as star anise, ginger, cinnamon) one at a time in order to achieve a distinct and unique flavor.
Our specialty drinks are limited on sugar and starch. Some drinks feature chia seeds high in omega, chopped fruits like mango and strawberry packed with vitamin c, fresh ginger with digestive power, and honey and fruit syrup in our brewed Assam black tea. Fresh coconut juice along with coconut meat, mixed in with chia seeds is high in potassium and omega is a very refreshing yet healthy drink after a meal.
We, husband-and-wife, have been working together and managing our restaurant with the help of our son along with our wonderful and reliable staff. We are very proud of our products and services at Pho in the Box.
Pho is such an amazing comfort dish to everyone young to old at any time during the year. We are already able to see mass amounts of non-Asian people who are slowly becoming hooked on the flavors and warm embrace of Pho. In the future, we predict that this trend will only continue to expand and grow. We predict that Pho and other Vietnamese dishes will soon be very popular and in demand in mainstream culture.
Pricing:
- Entrees $7-$11
- Sides $2.5-$5.5
- Drinks $2-$4
Contact Info:
- Address: 437 E. Northwest Hwy.,
Grapevine, TX 76051 - Website: www.phointhebox.com
- Phone: (682) 223-1479
- Email: contact@phointhebox.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/phointhebox1/?rf=897423760384438
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/pho-in-the-box-grapevine
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