The beeping of the oven, the shaking of the drink mixer, and the crunching sound of cutting into vegetables: they’re all familiar sounds to Don Vongtheung.
He’s the owner of Banhdicted, which he opened back in 2020 after realizing the corporate lifestyle wasn’t for him and after owning a smoothie and raw juice spot. He grew up going to Phoenix to go eat banh mi. Now it’s a staple of his restaurant, which he brought to Tucson.
After going to San Diego with his wife Kim, an immigrant from Vietnam, and eating the banh mi at their favorite spot in California, they decided to create their own version of the tasty Vietnamese sandwich. You get your choice of a protein, such as chicken, beef, or shrimp. It also has cucumbers cilantro, pickled carrots, and Japanese mayonnaise all on a baguette bread.
However, Vongtheung realized something that was very eye-opening to him.
“I thought everybody knew what a banh mi was, everybody, right? Boy were we wrong,” Vongtheung said with a laugh.
It was a concept he said was hard to sell. However, he wanted to expand as quickly as possible so Tucsonans could get used to the Vietnamese specialty dish.