New Vietnamese restaurant King Pho opens in Okemos
OKEMOS — Eaton Rapids resident Thai Nguyen wants everyone to know about pho, the special Vietnamese broth dish that is the staple of his new restaurant King Pho.
“I want to introduce pho to everybody,” he said.
And he’s on his way to doing that along with his co-owner and friend Phillip Nguyen of West Bloomfield. The Okemos restaurant had a ribbon-cutting ceremony and soft opening Friday and is now serving customers.
The restaurant is in the former Jamaican cuisine restaurant Kingston Kitchen at 4749 Central Park Drive, next to Thai Nguyen’s other business Diamond Nails & Spa. The restaurant is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.
Thai Nguyen said the restaurant will offer more Vietnamese dishes when he has more staff, but for now the restaurant is just offering pho to the community. Pho is a Vietnamese soup dish consisting of broth, rice noodles, herbs and meat.
“We want to make it good,” he said. “We don’t want to rush it.”
But the restaurant’s focus will always be pho and the staff make the broth fresh every day. Thai Nguyen said people can eat pho all day, every day and not get bored of it.
“Pho is very easy and it’s very easy to consume,” he said.
Phillip Nguyen said they want to expose people to Vietnamese culture and its food and hope people like it.
The restaurant offers dine-in and takeout options. The restaurant has four employees but the owners are still hiring. People interested in applying can go to the restaurant or call 517-272-2880.
The restaurant’s grand opening will hopefully be in the next two to three weeks and opening it has been a $130,000 investment, not covering labor, Thai Nguyen said.
He said he started planning to open the restaurant about two years ago, but he hasn’t had the staff to operate it until now.
The space has been empty since Kingston Kitchen closed during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Amber Clark, the township's neighborhoods and economic development director, said the new restaurant is elevating the economy.
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The longer a space sits vacant the more it can deteriorate. King Pho is filling an empty space in the community and not taking away any green space, she said.
“It is the biggest joy of my day to welcome new businesses to the community,” she said during the ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday.
She really appreciates another young business coming into the community and Thai Nguyen already has experience running a business. If he runs it like his nail salon, it will be good work, she said.
She didn’t have time to try the food Friday after the ribbon-cutting ceremony, but her husband loves pho, “so I will be here later,” she said.
Contact Bryce Airgood at 517-267-0448 or bairgood@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @bairgood123.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: New Okemos Vietnamese restaurant King Pho opens
