Pho Quan Viet Cuisine readies for menu expansion with move to Paris Road location

Hiep Quan for at least the last two years has looked for a new location to house Pho Quan Viet Cuisine.

The pieces for a move fell into place when the Hardee's on Paris Road closed down. Within two days of meeting with the building's owner a lease was signed and it set into motion a timeline of moving the restaurant from its relatively small location at 1301 Vandiver Drive, Suite J, to the larger locale at 2016 Paris Road sometime in February.

While Quan had aimed to find a location either in the Conley Road shopping center or at the south part of town in the Nifong Hy-vee shopping center, he had proverbial doors slammed in his face, said Julie Quan.

"We aren't allowed to go in because other franchisees or other places selling similar items. We couldn't go into Conley because there is already the Chinese place there," she said, with Hiep Quan adding he came across someone that said to him "all Asians cook the same."

While those interactions were disheartening, the work with their new landlord was a breeze, the pair said.

Permits are cleared and architectural and interior work now is underway. Julie Quan said her daughter is helping with how the interior will look. Green still will feature in the interior.

"My favorite and his favorite color is green. It's a lucky color that we like," she said, adding the restaurant will have an Asian look, but with a modern twist.

Regular customers are excited about the move because it also means more seating availability, Julie Quan said with a laugh. The new location also sees more regular traffic than on Vandiver, she said.

Growing the menu

The new, larger Paris Road space means menu items will come back that had to be cut due to limitations at the Vandiver location and even a menu reduction due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

When Pho Quan first opened in 2015, the menu also included Báhn Mì, a sandwich on a baguette with choice of protein and then topped with pickled carrots, cucumber, green onion and chili. That had to be cut, but will make a comeback.

The menu today features Pho, a type of noodle soup with a flavorful broth; Bún, a dry noodle dish with meat, veggies and fish sauce mixture for dipping; spring rolls; crab rangoon; eggrolls; fried bananas; and fried rice.

"We had a lot of items here back in the day, but we just didn't have enough room to work around," Hiep Quan said about the menu changes.

The limited space also has meant produce shopping happens daily or every couple of days. With the larger space on Paris Road, they can do more bulk ordering and storing, said Julie Quan.

A spicy type of Vietnamese soup, Bún Bò Huế, will hit the menu for the first time when the new location opens, along with bringing back a rice plate dish. Recipes Hiep Quan uses come from his mother and his own modifications on them.

Hiep Quan is excited about the drive-thru possibility associated with the new location. Hours will expand out to include Saturdays at the new location and possibly could extend earlier to bring in more breakfast-like items, he said, noting Pho really more is a morning, breakfast item than lunch or dinner for the Vietnamese culture.

A lifelong goal

While this is not Hiep Quan's first foray into the restaurant business, Pho Quan Viet Cuisine is a lifelong passion realized.

He had a restaurant in Mexico, Missouri, from 2003 to about 2005. After that closed he worked in factories for 10 years, also working part time in the evening at restaurants. By 2015, he was able to open Pho Quan in Columbia.

"I always wanted to come back to restaurants when I was working at the factory. I got my money saved up and opened here. I'm successful now and it's time to move bigger," he said. "... We took a chance and the landlord is very nice. It happened smoothly."

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Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Subscribe to support vital local journalism.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Pho Quan Viet Cuisine plans move to Paris Road