Owner Andy Pham has made his favourite food from his home country the focal point of his new Quinpool Road restaurant.
Andy Pham might’ve came to Canada in search of a new life more than half a decade ago, but there’s one thing he won’t ever leave behind in Vietnam.
Born in the Mekong Delta region a few hours south of Ho Chi Minh City, Pham left his home country seven years ago on the former Canada Express Study program. He spent a couple of years studying at George Brown College’s culinary school in Toronto before coming to Halifax in 2019 — but it wasn’t without a hint of homesickness. “When I came here, I missed Vietnamese food a lot, especially bánh mì,” the former petroleum engineer, now restaurater said. “So when I was back home, I had about three bánh mìs a day … and I said, ‘Why don’t we have this kind of stuff here?’”
While the Vietnamese sandwich would’ve been more accessible in larger cities like Toronto and Vancouver back then, Pham was disappointed there were no proper, authentic options for his favourite food in Halifax.
He came to the Maritimes out of a love for the ocean and to start working in the service industry, jumping between various Halifax establishments such as Birch & Anchor, Atlantica Hotel Halifax, Gio and Daryâ. But this past July, Pham decided to chase his dreams and open his own shop: a cozy restaurant on Quinpool Road named Bánh Mì A&B.
Focusing on the savoury, submarine-like sandwich and a few other Vietnamese dishes, Pham’s new restaurant can only seat a few people. But its bright yellow walls and earthy green plants leave a happy and calming presence upon entering.
“I want to introduce Vietnamese food here, something besides pho,” he said, noting that most people outside of Vietnam are already familiar with the popular soup. “We’re doing bánh mì because that is my favourite. Something quick, affordable, reliable and tastes good — that’s my idea.”
Those elements are always present when you get bánh mì in Vietnam, Pham said, where it’s sold nearly everywhere as street food. Moreover, there’s an “authentic flavour” to the Vietnamese sandwiches that Pham tries his best to implement in his recipes at Bánh Mì A&B.
“I know some people, they come here and adjust the flavour so they can [help] adapt more people, but we don’t want to do it,” he said. “We want to keep it exactly like we do it back home.”
For starters, Pham said the bread is one of the most important aspects of the sandwich, where it must be “super crispy on the outside, and fluffy and airy inside.” That’s then stuffed with a Vietnamese mayonnaise, which is a bit sweeter than a typical Western spread, along with picked carrots, daikon, cilantro and cucumbers.
At Bánh Mì A&B, there are currently seven options for the main filling included in the sandwich: grilled chicken, lemongrass pork, meatballs, cold cuts with pâté, sate shrimp with kimchi, roasted pork belly and a plant- based option with teriyaki tofu mushrooms.
Not all those filling options are traditionally found in Vietnam, however. The mushroom and shrimp options likely wouldn’t be found back home, Pham said, but he added them to the menu to cater to customers’ needs in Canada. Otherwise, the menu at Bánh Mì A&B strives for that “authentic flavour” — even beyond the bánh mì.
“I want to introduce people to more Vietnamese food than the classic menu you see at a lot of Vietnamese restaurants around here,” he said. “So we have something like chicken curry Vietnamese style with noodles, and bánh mì skillet. Those are some things that are not new in my country but they’re barely on the menu outside of the country.“
Upon opening his restaurant’s doors this past summer, Pham said there was major success, and his staff often felt overwhelmed with the demand. Even though the cost of living drastically rises across Canada and the cold winter months has dropped clientele by around 30 per cent, he said, there’s still support from the community and loyal customers.
As he looks ahead at the rest of his first year in business, Pham said he plans to continue improving the quality of his dishes, training his staff further and upgrading his menu. He also has ideas of possibly opening a second location in a food truck on the Halifax Common or a kiosk on the waterfront. But what’s driving him forward most is the supportive friendliness he’s seen in Halifax.
“I really appreciate the locals here because they are so nice,” Pham said. “Before I opened, I didn’t expect anything that good. But I’ve seen really, really good support from locals.”
