Thi and Nguyen Tran, Starry Kitchen
By Leslee Komaiko
For dineLA.com
A typical first time restaurateur story goes something like this: work for months and months, possibly years, to secure financing. Spend just as long finding a location. Then add another year, maybe more, for construction and permits.
Nguyen Tran (his first name sounds like ‘win’) and his wife Thi Tran (her first name sounds like ‘tea’) did it a little differently. For several months in 2009, they operated an underground restaurant out of their North Hollywood apartment. Then in the fall, a restaurant opportunity in Downtown Los Angeles fell into their laps. In February of this year, the two restaurant newbies—he was in television syndication, she advertising—opened Starry Kitchen in California Plaza. She’s the chef, a.k.a. “kitchen ninja.” He’s the front of the house guy: the charismatic, endearing, funny and sometimes foul mouthed face of the restaurant whose typical Facebook post goes something like: O' BRAISED COCONUT JACKFRUIT - only 2 more days of your mysteriously "meaty" & yet VEGAN ways... how strange you are (but also tasty w/ a lil Ginger Sesame SAKE Sauce on top ^_^)
We spoke with Nguyen about how he and his wife came to have a jumping little restaurant smack in the middle of the civic center.
Were either of your parents in the food business?
No. But they are cooks. As a kid I used to eat just hamburgers and hot dogs. I didn’t even appreciate my own food.
Which is what?
Vietnamese food. I think in college my palate started to open up. My wife helped in opening my palate up more.
Tell me how it ended up you were running an underground restaurant out of your home.
We were never in the food business. My wife was working in advertising. I was working in film. My wife is a self taught cook. She loves Asian flavors. Earlier last year, she started cooking all these original recipes and posting pictures on Facebook. There was no rhyme or reason. It was her personal website. Every day she would post a new dish she would come up with, like steamed taro wrapped in pork belly: strange dishes like this. For four months she would do this with every dish never to be repeated. In April, she got laid off from her job. Like any good Facebook user, you update your status. People suggested, why don’t you open a Vietnamese taco truck? She knows a lot of original pan Asian dishes. We experimented for three weeks, us and friends, taste testing. It seemed to be pretty successful. After three weeks, I was tired of talking about it. It was a Thursday night and we were talking and I said, “We are going to serve out of the back of our apartment Sunday afternoon.” She was like, “Are you crazy?”
So Sunday rolls around. I roped in a lot of neighbors and friends to come by. We made too much food, for like 200 people. That was a good lesson for us to learn. We broke even.
When we started this, I was like, we need to be very consistent. I already told people we are going to do it a on a weekly basis.
How long did this go on for?
It started in mid May last year. We got found out by the health department in November.
How many people were showing up at its most popular?
130 people came in the span of three hours.
And then some guy with a clipboard showed up one day?
Two guys showed up on our doorstep when one was going on. The health department is a lot more savvy now because of the taco trucks. I was posting on Twitter. In October, while we’re looking at taco trucks, I got approached by a friend of mine who owned the sushi restaurant that preceded us at the same location. He was like, “We’re on the decline. You’re on the incline.” I became partners with them.
It seems like this all happened crazy fast. People look for years for restaurant spaces.
I told my wife when it was presented to us: “This is the best opportunity ever. We can assume all the permits. We don’t have to do any of the stuff people normally have to do.” It’s because of the economy that this presented itself.
Was it scary at all, jumping in?
Not really. For my wife it was a little scarier. Most people, my wife included, are risk averse. Me? I don’t give a sh*t. It sounds reckless. But I do research things out very thoroughly. I figure that running the stuff out of our apartment for that many months, we were getting paid to learn.
I assume the name, Starry Kitchen, is a reference to the courtyard dinners you used to host.
No. My wife’s life and interests are driven by Asian television; I’ll give you two examples. I had to play “Can’t Help Falling in Love” on piano at our wedding because she saw it in a Korean drama. And we went to Barcelona on our honeymoon because she saw it in a Taiwanese drama. Starry Kitchen is the name of her favorite cooking show from Hong Kong.
How do you describe the cuisine?
I like to tell people it’s pan Asian comfort food.
I know you rotate dishes so the menu is always changing. This is a novel way to run a restaurant.
It’s very similar to what we did in our apartment. We never served the same dish back to back. Everyone says: well that’s absurd because I go to that one place for that one dish. We like to change up the routine to where you trust us.
And when a dish goes you give it a proper send off, yes?
We always make sure people know that something is going away. We warn them through Facebook, Twitter, the blog and website. We give it a cute moniker: the bye bye dish. Also, we always write a message on the message board [in the restaurant] so no one can scream bloody murder that something is going to go away. And we tell them too. If someone orders that dish, I say, “You know this is the last week.”
Have people screamed bloody murder?
A couple people have but not as much as: oh, they’re kind of disappointed. It’s kind of jarring that we rotate. Some people don’t quite get it.
And I know you do some special things each week like “New Wave Wednesdays.” Why?
It rolls off my tongue really well. And I just love new wave. I put new wave on the radio.
Whenever I feel like it, kind of on a whim—a lot of things I do on whims—I do things like “freebie Friday” when we have something to give free. A lot of times we do that to introduce something. Someone told me about “thirsty Thursday.” I’m probably going to try that.
You just like alliteration.
I love anything that rolls off your tongue really well. When people walk away, they remember it.
I heard you let your customers decide on one of the fountain drinks.
A lot of things we do and change, I put the question out to our fans and customers. It’s not like the soup Nazi. Are you familiar with open source computing? Basically someone will make a program and open it to the community to make it better. It’s like open source restauranting. We can’t come up with everything.
Are you having fun?
Yes we’re having fun. But it’s incredibly exhausting. I find myself having less energy every day. Once the lunch rush happens, that wakes everyone up. Also when I’m like in ringmaster mode, I talk a lot and curse a little bit.
Is Thi, your wife, ever like, “What have you gotten us into?”
It goes without saying. It’s really tough. We only serve four hours a day. But we left at 9 pm today. We have to prep. I tell people this fresh food fast is no joke. We make everything except the bread and tortillas.
What do you with tortillas?
Wraps.
Do you post to Facebook and Tweet daily?
I have to because it’s how I built my fan base. I get people every day who say, “I follow you on Twittter” or “I follow you on Facebook.” I like to say we do R & D for different menu items. I posted that we were thinking about what to drizzle sweet potato chips with. I got eleven comments. It keeps people interested in what we are doing. I’m a social media whore so I just enjoy it anyway. And if I don’t do it every day people won’t read it. They’ll fall out of routine.
What would your advice be to the restaurateur who wants to do the social media thing but has no idea where to start?
Social media is not a form of advertising. That’s the wrong way to think of it. If you think of it like that, they’ll drop you at the drop of a hat. You have to have a specific voice or message.
So good food and good service is no longer enough?
I don’t agree with that entirely. Good food and good service keeps people on my Facebook page. I’ve had people de-fan us on Facebook or Twitter because it didn’t meet their expectations. I think good food and good service IS the combination. I promise if the food or service is mediocre, they’re not going to follow me anymore.
You run what seems like a very youthful, edgy, fun business. But you’re in a very corporate location.
Being in the middle of corporate America is a fun challenge. There’s nothing like us in the entire complex, nothing like it in a three to five square mile radius. We have a captive audience. Most people there they don’t drive to go eat anywhere. I always tell people we may be in the middle of corporate America, but that doesn’t mean these people are corporate themselves. A lot of these people are foodies, but not necessarily foodies at lunch. But they get to be now.
I know there has been talk about introducing breakfast and dinner.
We already have menu items in place for breakfast. We’ve started dinner on Thursday and Friday nights. We’ll determine our stress level and see how finances work.
Tell me a few of your favorite places to eat.
Fisherman’s Outlet [Downtown.] It’s counter service but they have the freshest fish. It’s totally blue collar. Everyone wears hair nets. Everyone gets the fried stuff. But the grilled stuff is excellent. You get a huge piece of sea bass smothered in garlic butter. There’s a place called Café Columbia in Burbank.
Any spots near home in North Hollywood?
Pitfire Pizza. We go there a lot. And I like the Hy Mart Deli at Camarillo and Lankershim, and Porto’s.
Starry Kitchen, 350 South Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90071, 213.617.3474, www.starrykitchen.com
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