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Located at the intersection of Tully and King roads, the Lion Plaza shopping center is in many ways San José’s original Little Saigon — a hub for homesick Vietnamese Americans since the mid-’80s, though it’s since been eclipsed by trendier malls like Grand Century and Vietnam Town. But in the mornings, the supermarket’s food court still fills up with hungry diners getting their phở or bó nè fix. And since August, there’s been an exciting new addition: Bột Chiên, a stall specializing in its namesake dish — Vietnamese omelettes topped with fried rice cakes.
Bột chiên isn’t strictly a breakfast dish, but at around 9 o’clock on a recent Sunday morning, the dining hall’s tables filled up with hungry diners feasting on the lacy, golden-brown omelettes heaped with pickled vegetables and, often, stretchy melted cheese.
Owner Tu Nguyen hadn’t always planned on getting into the restaurant business. He’d been an auto damage appraiser for State Farm for 15 years when he decided to buy CreAsian Bistro, a Vietnamese fusion spot in Pittsburg, from a friend in 2016. Soon after that, he invested $150,000 to transform a Quiznos into another Vietnamese restaurant called Anh’s Kitchen. But running the two restaurants at the same time turned out to be more intense than he’d bargained for.
“I had a restaurant with 73 items,” says Nguyen. “I said, ‘What can I do to simplify this?’”…