A new Vietnamese sandwich shop, also offering coffee drinks and iced teas, has begun its soft-opening on Balboa Street near Fifth Avenue. Ghien Banh Mi & Cafe was started by Tuan Luu and Uyen Vu, who also own Luxury Spa.
“I planned this like eight years ago,” Luu said. “Me and my wife – we wanted to do the bánh mì sandwich shop for a long time.”
When Luu was growing up in San Francisco, his mother thought about opening a restaurant, but it never happened. Luu said that he and his wife inherited the idea and also felt that there weren’t enough Vietnamese restaurants in this part of San Francisco, so they thought about opening one. The process was more complicated than they anticipated, so they opened Luxury Spa, a nail salon, instead.
The space next to it used to be a computer shop. When it became available to lease, the couple saw it as their chance to make their restaurant idea a reality. Luu worked through permitting, architectural plans, plumbing, electrical work and construction over the course of roughly a year before the restaurant began its soft opening in May…