An Nguyen mentored under her mother in the kitchen of their family restaurant, New Saigon, for roughly 15 years. Last week, Nguyen and her mom, Ha Pham, danced around the kitchen of Nguyen’s new restaurant – Dân Dã – preparing for the opening ahead of the weekend.
Rather than mother teaching daughter this time, the two worked together, bouncing ideas off of each other. “This is the torch being passed,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen and her older sister Thao, along with their husbands, opened Dân Dã (pronounced yungh-yaa) in the former Baba & Pop’s pierogi shop at 9945 E. Colfax Ave. in Aurora on Sat., April 6. The family business is next door to their third sister Thoa’s highly acclaimed bakery, Banh & Butter. “We have the best neighbor to go to for a cup of sugar,” Nguyen joked.
Fans of Nguyen’s former restaurant, Savory Vietnam, will be happy to see familiar favorites on Dân Dã’s menu, including DIY spring rolls with bò nướng lá lốt (marinated ground beef wrapped in grape leaves and charcoal grilled).
Nguyen closed Savory Vietnam, at 2200 W. Alameda Ave. less than a mile away from her family’s restaurant, in December after four years due to a retiring business partner and a spike in rent.
The chef heard from many customers who missed their regular Savory Vietnam orders, so rather than present a brand new menu, she wanted to maintain the flavors with a new presentation.
The món kho (a traditional clay pot dish) with pork belly or catfish filets, among other choices, slow braised in caramelized sugar and fish sauce are now actually served bubbling hot in clay pots. “This is food for the people,” Nguyen said. “It’s rustic and comforting, and I want it to bring people back to meals like their mom made.”
The popular DIY platter with an assortment of fried softshell crab, lemon pork skewers, grilled shrimp, shrimp pork egg rolls and fried shrimp paste is now the Dân Dã three-tiered Tower. “I basically thought, ‘How can I put as much stuff on the table as I can in an efficient, but still pretty way?’” she said.
Eventually, Nguyen wants to create a seasonally rotating menu, but for now, “I’m following the formula I know before I turn this into my creative lab,” she said.
Ca Filet Bong Lay Kho To – catfish fillets – at Dân Dã in the Aurora Cultural Arts District on Thursday, April 4, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Her mom might not have presented some of the traditional dishes like Nguyen chooses to, such as a whole deep-fried striped rainbow sea bass sitting upright on the plate to show off Nguyen’s scoring work. “But I still learn new ideas from her every day,” she said. “She’s my inspiration.”
Dân Dã, which has 42 seats and eight spots at the bar, is open Tues.-Sun. from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. with brunch on the weekends. The drink menu boasts Vietnamese salted lemonade, iced coffee, as well as lychee spritzers and Saigon Vietnamese beer.
The sisters are hoping to carry on a new culinary legacy in Aurora after their parents sold New Saigon on Federal Boulevard, which they ran for 30 years, in 2017.
New Saigon, which had become a Denver staple, closed for good in February as Pham and Thai Nguyen decided to sell the building, which they still own. Thu, a fourth Nguyen sister, still runs New Saigon Bakery & Deli next door to the original restaurant, at 630 S. Federal Blvd.