I was craving some dumplings a little while ago, so drove down to get some from Banh Mi Hero and noticed that they were closed. Odd, since they're normally open until 9:00pm. I guess I'm out of the loop- just checked their FB page and saw this story from the CJ. I didn't see it previously posted here. And dammit, I still want some dumplings!
Lee Tran is closing Banh Mì Hero, his shop at 2245 Bardstown Road, where he serves Vietnamese sandwiches and fusion tacos, and plans to open a pan Asian noodle shop in the same location early in the new year.
"One of the reasons we're closing is we didn't have a lot of dinner business," Tran says. "There's not a big enough market in Louisville for banh mi … a lot of people don't know what it is." He'll close for a month or six weeks, preparing for the new shop, Tran says, and close the banh mi food truck as well.
Tran will call the noodle bar Yen Hapa, named in part for his mother. "Most people know my mom as Annie from Annie's Cafe, but Yen is her Vietnamese name. It means a swallow bird," he explains. "And hapa ... it's anyone of mixed ethnicity; most people in Hawaii use it for mixed Asians."
The new shop, which will serve lunch and dinner, will feature three sections on the menu: noodle soups, like the classic Vietnamese pho, noodle salads and stir-fried noodles. Tran will also keep a handful of the most popular sandwiches (in smaller sizes) and tacos from Banh Mi Hero.
"Probably half my dishes will be Vietnamese, but I'm going to add in other noodle dishes from Southeast Asia," Tran says, with dishes from Thailand, Cambodia and Singapore rounding out the offerings. "My mom has a Cambodian cook in her restaurant right now, so I'm learning from her."
He's also considering some Hong Kong style fare. "Most of the food I'm going to be cooking I grew up cooking," he says.
More information: (502) 456-2022.
