The founder of a popular eatery discusses authenticity, his passion, and balancing small business with a young family.
FANS of Barrack Street restaurant Le Vietnam have had a front row seat in the lives and milestones of its owners.
The store’s Instagram has showcased wedding snaps, travel photos and the various aspects of raising a young son, interspersed with innovations in the Vietnamese baguette-based cuisine called banh mi.
That approach is fitting for a business that says it treats its so-called ‘banh mi gang’ of followers as family. DJ Lee, who runs the shop with wife, Emily Pham, told Business News he wanted the restaurant to have a genuine presence on social media.
That meant being open about ups and downs, and having humility, he said. “The first couple of years I was very generic,” Mr Lee told Business News.
“I switched up the game a bit. “I want to turn things personal; people will read it and know it’s me behind it.
“People who have grown with us get to see our transition.”
There’s also a lighthearted side with the use of memes, amusing captioned images that are particularly popular among gen Y and Z.
That approach certainly contrasts with the more mainstream approach of many other restaurants, which largely rely on photos of food. Mr Lee also said he tried to reply to comments and messages as soon as possible after they were posted.
The effort to make customers feel part of the family has been key to Le Vietnam’s longevity, and their loyalty helped the business survive COVID-19, Mr Lee said.
Banh mi passion
Before his rise to be Perth’s banh mi king, Mr Lee thought his life was set when he got his first job in marketing after university.
Quickly, however, he found he wanted a different path. He became a deejay, promoting his work by handing out free CDs to friends and their networks.
It paid off. Starting out with performances in front of 2,000 people in Sydney, he was next in Melbourne, then Brisbane, Tokyo, Seoul and Barcelona.
During this journey, Mr Lee made a point to try the best banh mi in every city, talking to chefs about the specifics of their recipes along the way.
“It didn’t click how obsessed I became with banh mi,” Mr Lee said.
But Mr Lee found the life of a touring deejay lonely, so he returned to Perth and put his savings into a restaurant, inspired by the best culinary ideas he picked up on the way.
His pitch won him a deal for the shop space next to Bon Marche Arcade, where he has been for eight years.
“Our following started with the great Vietnamese community,” Mr Lee said.
“The word spread like wildfire, that a place in the city had opened specialising in only banh mi and doing it properly.
“Because it was good, they told their friends, which spread and spread, and soon the local and office workers around the CBD caught on.”
That was followed by TV appearances and a wave of media publicity.
Mr Lee said he still wakes up every day enthusiastic about going to work and was grateful the business was growing. But there were challenges, too.
Le Vietnam opened a second shop, in Yagan Square, and despite the failure of the market hall, remained one of the final tenants when DevelopmentWA opted to refurbish and restructure the project.
Mr Lee said he had been approached about franchising arrangements and to open restaurants in other Australian cities.
His priority was to maintain the quality, however.
Family, business
Mr Lee said one of the most difficult challenges was being away from his young son.
“Let’s say I continued the way I was before he was born; I would just continuously work and work,” he said, adding that running a small business in the industry could be a 24-7 job.
“I know that I would have missed those years of him growing up.”
Mr Lee said he had learned from the experiences of friends with their own restaurants who struggled to balance family time.
That was particularly hard in eateries that opened for both lunch and dinner.
“They don’t even get to spend time with their kids for the first six years or whatever, and they tell me they regret that, not seeing the kids grow up properly,” Mr Lee said.
“I’m thankful we restrict our times to be daytime only, because I’ve still got that window to spend time with him as well.”
When his son was a newborn, finding the time was even more challenging because the baby would be asleep for 12 hours or more a day.
“If I miss that window [of his son being awake], working a little bit harder here … he’s already in bed, I missed seeing him,” Mr Lee said.
“The next day I’d leave the house before he wakes up. “It was one of the hardest things.”
Mr Lee said he tried to get home in time to spend a couple of hours with his son before he gets back into administrative tasks.
“I put my phone away, I play with him,” he said. “Regardless of how tired I am, as a parent you try to get that last bit of energy.
“For me, it’s quite challenging, I get three hours at most with him. “I try to take my weekends to spend as much valuable time with him as much as possible.” Mr Lee said his son provided his ultimate motivation to push so hard in the business.
