Near Southside chef to open ‘dream’ restaurant with family’s Vietnamese recipes
Hao Tran of Hao’s Grocery and Cafe in Near Southside recently broke ground on her “dream project.”
Two years ago, her landlords Will Churchill and Corrie Watson Fletcher approached the Trimble Technical High School teacher and self-taught chef with the opportunity to open her own restaurant in a business development space in White Settlement.
“I thought about it, because I’m still teaching, and I wasn’t going to stop, because I only have a few more years left before I can retire,” Tran told the Star-Telegram. “But food was my first love, besides my children. So I decided yes, that’s a yes.”
Hao’s Grocery gained popularity through cooking classes and private dinners, where customers learn how to make food like dumplings and egg rolls. The shop also features a selection of local products and Asian ingredients.
Tran says she is still deciding whether she will keep Hao’s Grocery and Cafe once the new space opens. Regardless, her new restaurant will also offer cooking classes, private dinners and events, as well as a small grocery section.
Hao Tran’s dream has been years in the making
Tran became an empty-nester seven years ago. She said she found herself depressed as both her daughters were away at college, leaving her no one to cook for. So, Tran started cooking for the Fort Worth community through pop-up events.
Around the same time, Tran co-opened The Table Market and Culinary Studio off South Main at 120 St. Louis Ave. Then three years ago, after her business partner moved, she turned the space into what we know today as Hao’s Grocery and Cafe.
Though Tran is a self-taught chef, her cooking is what caught Churchill and Fletcher’s eye.
“They just approached me because they’ve eaten my food,” she said, “They’ve gone to my dumpling classes over the years. They’ve seen me do what I do in a very grassroots kind of way.”
Tran is treating the project like her “third baby.” She said she sold everything she had besides her clothes and car and moved into a friend’s apartment garage.
“It was not a hard decision,” she said. “I had to ask myself: ‘If you don’t do it now, when are you going to do it?’”
Construction crews broke ground on her new Vietnamese restaurant, Duong DeVille, in late January. The space is located in Entrepreneur Park, a new 17,000-square-foot business development at 405 S. Jim Wright Freeway in White Settlement.
Tran’s new Vietnamese restaurant is named after the Cadillac her father bought her and her siblings when she was younger. Her business partners are also the great-grandchildren of Frank Kent, founder of Frank Kent Cadillac in Fort Worth.
What will Duong DeVille be like?
Duong DeVille will have a fixed menu of Vietnamese food from the southern region of Saigon and the western region of Hue. Tran’s cooking is inspired by family recipes, as her father is from Hue, and she grew up spending time with her aunt who ran a restaurant in Montreal.
“We’re not just going to be a pho place, because we want to offer the taste and the aromatics that are used in traditional Vietnamese food,” Tran said.
All ingredients will be locally sourced, from the protein to the produce. The menu will also have vegan options.
Plans for the nearly 4,000-square-foot restaurant show around 120 seats with a full bar – a big upgrade from her grocery store that has just a small dining room.
Tran wants the space to feel natural and peaceful, with textures of bamboo and furniture made from recycled chopsticks. She also plans for a garden on the patio as an ode to her grandmother, who sewed seeds into her shirt when her family left Vietnam and came to Texas.
She plans to open Duong DeVille in late summer for Thursday through Sunday night dinners.