By Nina Huang
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Vietnamese restaurateur Quyen Phan opened the largest upscale Vietnamese restaurant in the United States to address a pain point for the Vietnamese community.
Named after the two key ingredients of fish sauce, Anchovies and Salt is Phan’s seventh restaurant since 2012.
His other fast casual Vietnamese spot, Vinason Pho Kitchen, was opened in 2016.
Anchovies and Salt has unofficially been open for over a month now, but the grand opening is slated for Jan. 1, 2024. Phan encourages folks to visit the restaurant during the week to avoid long waits on the weekends.
Humble beginnings
Born and raised in a southern Vietnamese town called Sông Bé, Phan’s family immigrated to Washington state in 1991 when he was 10. They first moved to Spokane, but two years later, they settled in Seattle in 1993.
“My mom and family members were always working in the restaurant industry and I wanted to do something for ourselves,” Phan said.
Prior to entering the restaurant business, Phan worked in construction. He actually still works in construction and credits his background in that area to helping build out his restaurants.
“Construction can sometimes be harder than the restaurant, so it’s a blessing to be able to navigate that aspect of the pre-opening,” he added.
Enjoying Vietnamese fine dining, no matter the party size
Phan is the lead partner of Anchovies and Salt, but he also has six of his good friends on board as silent investors.
As one of the largest, if not the largest, Vietnamese restaurants outside of Vietnam, Anchovies and Salt can host up to 441 people with its 9,000 square feet of interior space and 2,000 square feet of outdoor space.
Phan hopes to encourage large families to enjoy Vietnamese cuisine at his restaurant. He said that the older generation of Vietnamese people would never go out to eat because either the food isn’t authentic enough or the restaurant lacks enough space for large families.
Anchovies and Salt will also feature unique brunch-type foods such as Vietnamese steak and eggs.
Photo by Ruth Bayang
“I really wanted a place where my mom and my friends’ parents would be proud, a restaurant worth going out to enjoy,” he added.
Combating stinky food stigma
Another reason why he opened the restaurant is to combat the stigma that Vietnamese food has to be cheap, plentiful, and dirty to be authentic. He dislikes the narrative around Vietnamese food where you have to go to a dirty restaurant where it’s dead inside with bad service for the food to be good. His goal is to change the narrative around what’s commonly associated with Vietnamese cuisine.
Some of the more unique dishes that you won’t find at other Vietnamese restaurants are their side dishes (similar to Korean banchan) like pickled eggplant with shrimp paste, pork belly with shrimp paste, and dried caramelized golden anchovies.
Pickled eggplant with shrimp paste
Phan shared that these dishes were frowned upon because they were the poorest of the poorest dishes that one would never bring to the table because they stink. But he proudly features them on the menu for customers to enjoy.
Food and family
The restaurant also features a sauce bar that has 10 different types of fish sauces.
Fish sauce is the staple ingredient and the foundation and backbone of many Vietnamese dishes, Phan added.
“When you go to a mainstream restaurant, they usually have a one-size-fits-all fish sauce and they ask you to season your own fish sauce, but it doesn’t work that way. Every single dish needs its own particular fish sauce,” Phan said.
The restaurant’s culinary director is a good friend of Phan’s who curates recipes from the north, Phan’s mother’s recipes from the south, and the executive chef includes flavors from central Vietnam.
“We try to bring recipes from all three regions of Vietnam and they undergo research and development until we find the right nostalgia,” he shared.
“Our model is to add something everyday as a special, such as the soup of the day,” Phan said.
He said that they have 40 to 50 soups they plan on featuring to showcase the different soups that Vietnamese families typically enjoy in a home cooked meal.
Vietnamese family style dinner
“In our culture, we wash down our meals with soup, we always eat soup last,” he said.
When asked if he had any favorite dishes, Phan responded, “The dinner meal is the death bed meal, those are the dishes that I want to eat before I die.”
Phan singled out the Wagyu Hanoi pho, which is stir fried Wagyu steak inside a Hanoi pho broth. They eat it with pure green onions and a side of pickled garlic.
Northern sautéed Wagyu pho
“Every single detail is personal, more cultural than it is personal, it’s part of our culture that we believe in zodiacs and we highlight tradition,” he said.
The whole restaurant is about family. His family members, including his three children, are embedded in the design and decor of the restaurant. There’s also a giant Buddha that honors his mother’s faith.
The restaurant also features eight different private rooms that are uniquely themed and dedicated to a particular region in Vietnam including Ha Long Bay, Hoi An, and others.
Scaling for the future
As for next year, Phan plans to scale the catering side of the restaurant to do off-site banquets.
He also has a food incubator to empower restaurant newcomers to start restaurants at zero cost. He has some land in the Federal Way area and hopes to create an all inclusive experience similar to a farmers’ market or outdoor festival for aspiring restaurant owners to launch their food business.
“I put my heart and soul into the restaurant. The criticism is going to come, the love is going to come, but we just want people to know that we’re here and we’re open,” Phan said.
Nina can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.
So pretty good food nice day