Vietnamese sandwiches in America and the saying "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."

Drive-thru (also known asdrive-through, driving throughThis is a business model where cars line up and drive past a window, with store employees communicating with customers via microphone. All product transactions, such as ordering, receiving goods, and payment, are completed while the customer remains in their car. This is a familiar and characteristic model in North American countries, especially the United States.

The drive-thru model began to emerge in the mid-20th century and flourished in the 1970s, primarily selling fast food.fast food) such as hamburgers and french fries. Mexican-American food chains—like Taco Bell and Taco Cabana—also widely adopt this model.

A fusion of “two worlds”

During the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, drive-thru shopping boomed across the United States, as most restaurants implemented contact restrictions and temporarily suspended in-person service. This led many Vietnamese Americans to adapt the idea of ​​combining Vietnamese cuisine with this unique sales model.

Hughie's restaurant, located on West 18th Street, is one of the Vietnamese-American-owned restaurants in Houston, Texas. Originally a Dairy Queen fast-food outlet, Hughie's menu still features Dairy Queen's famous salted chicken with apricot dressing.

Paul Pham, owner of two Hughie locations in Houston, shared that he plans to open a third drive-thru branch selling Vietnamese food next year. He also plans to expand this business throughout the state of Texas, and will gradually expand further.

In Paul Pham's view, drive-thru is an innovative concept that combines the fast-food business with American "car culture"; and now it's a potential vehicle for Vietnamese cuisine to join that success story.

At the same time, modeling Hughie after American fast-food chains wasn't just about attracting more customers, but also a way to recount memories of his childhood in Houston.

“Drive-thru and Vietnamese food—this fusion of two worlds truly reflects who I am. If I did it differently, in any way, I would lose that authentic feeling,” Paul said.

A new way to promote Vietnamese cuisine.

"We are developing along the path of Chick-fil-A."(an American fast-food chain brand, whose specialty is the chicken sandwich)“They are veterans of this business model,” Paul Pham shared. This means he wants to focus on using technology to effectively manage customer service, opening branches in densely populated residential areas, and closing on Sundays – a rare occurrence for long-established Vietnamese restaurants in Houston. “Such a model wouldn’t survive in a traditional Asian environment,” he added.

Paul Pham was born and raised in Houston, Texas. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, there are approximately 2.1 million Vietnamese Americans living in the country, with 150,000 of them in Texas. This makes it one of the largest Vietnamese communities in the United States.

Perhaps that's why, in recent years, a number of Vietnamese restaurants with similar concepts have sprung up in Houston, such as Oui Banh Mi, Saigon Hustle, and Kim's Pho & Grill. Outside of Texas, there's Simply Vietnam in Santa Rosa (California) and Mi-Sant Banh Mi in Brooklyn Park (Minnesota) – all of these brands offer drive-thru outlets. Simultaneously, more and more Vietnamese restaurants are opening in North American cities, such as Philadelphia (Washington) and San Jose (California). Through this unique convenient food model, they aim to expand their customer base and introduce Vietnamese cuisine to even more people.

Like Paul Pham, Cassie Ghaffar also intends to expand her business. In late February 2021, she and her business partner Sandy Nguyen opened the Saigon Hustle restaurant in Houston's Oak Forest neighborhood.

Cassie shared: “For many non-Vietnamese diners, traveling all the way to Chinatown to find a Vietnamese restaurant is inconvenient, as many places don't have menus in English. And upscale Vietnamese restaurants are very expensive. Combining this with a drive-thru model will make it easier and give more people the opportunity to enjoy Vietnamese cuisine.”

Her restaurant primarily serves basic Vietnamese dishes such as banh mi, vermicelli, and rice. From the outside, Saigon Hustle looks very much like a drive-in restaurant from the 1950s, with a large awning decorated with dragon fruit motifs and ample parking space. This single branch of Saigon Hustle is on track to reach $1.8 million in revenue this year. Building on this success, Cassie Ghaffar and Sandy Nguyen plan to expand their restaurant chain across the United States within the next two to three years.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Canada, the story of Vietnamese banh mi in the drive-thru style is a little different. The journey of Kenny To and Hien Nguyen, owners of To Me Vietnamese Sub in Calgary, in bringing Vietnamese cuisine into the fast-food industry didn't begin because of the pandemic. They were inspired by Tim Hortons – a Canadian icon.

Kenny, now 60 years old, shared: “Every morning I have to drink coffee at the Tim Hortons drive-thru. It’s so convenient, it’s an indispensable part of my daily life. And so I thought, why not apply this method to selling Vietnamese food?”

To Me Vietnamese Sub, which opened in October 2022, primarily sells sandwiches and spring rolls. Kenny said that these items are easy to pack and take away, making them ideal for a drive-thru. However, his shop only makes sandwiches to order and prepares them after a customer places an order, so they can't be as quick as hamburgers and french fries.

"First we bake the pastry shell, and then the meat filling has to be carefully prepared to get the right flavor," he said. "Sometimes, customers have to wait up to 30 minutes."

Is it possible to develop a bread business using a drive-thru model?

Despite numerous challenges regarding sourcing ingredients, one Vietnamese restaurant chain has successfully expanded across the United States: Lee's Sandwiches. The restaurant first opened in 1983, owned by Ba Le and Hanh Nguyen. Today, Lee's Sandwiches has 62 locations across eight states, including major states like California, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Texas. Some of these locations have also begun offering drive-thru options.

Jimmy was pleased to see the new Vietnamese drive-thru outlets open, but he had no intention of pursuing this model further. “We’re not going to change too much, ideally nothing at all,” he said. “I don’t want to turn my brand into a typical American fast-food chain.”

Not very enthusiastic about the idea of ​​selling Vietnamese food via drive-thru, Mai Nguyen, a veteran Vietnamese-American restaurant owner, commented: "I see that the current generation builds very beautiful and modern restaurants, but the cuisine itself isn't authentic."

In reality, everyone has a different definition of "authentic." At Mi-Sant Banh Mi, a Vietnamese restaurant located in the suburbs of Minneapolis, "authenticity" encompasses not only traditional Vietnamese banh mi but also the owner's signature croissant, Quoc Le. Having been trained in pastry making by his father in France, Quoc Le decided to renovate a former KFC drive-thru to create the new Mi-Sant location.

Linh Nguyen, co-owner of Mi-Sant, shared: “This is part of our identity. Having grown up here for many years and being familiar with this form of sales, we don’t find it strange at all.”

Linh Nguyen wants to open another Mi-Sant Banh Mi branch in the area, but she also acknowledges that reaching a wider customer base in this way might alienate Vietnamese customers.

“Not all the staff speak Vietnamese, the menu isn’t in Vietnamese, and our prices are a bit higher than traditional, long-established restaurants. Furthermore, many people are still unfamiliar with buying sandwiches at the drive-thru. Once, they ordered hamburgers and tacos, and I had to tell them that we only serve Vietnamese food,” Linh Nguyen recounted.

Whether this drive-thru model will thrive and truly become a tool for promoting Vietnamese cuisine remains an open question. The convenient and fast sales method certainly offers a different experience compared to traditional restaurants, but currently, it's clear that not everyone welcomes this idea.- The New York Times commented.

An (According to The New York Times)