Photograph courtesy Lang Thang Group
It all started with bread.
“We have a small room at Pho Lang Thang and the initial plan was just to bake our own bánh mì bread there for our existing sandwich offerings,” says Duy Nguyen, partner in Lang Thang Group, which owns Pho Lang Thang, Quan Hapa, and The Hi-Mark. “Once we started, we realized making only bread would waste the space so we decided to make all the other things you would find in a Vietnamese bakery, too.”
Led by Executive Pastry Chef Paige Trout and Bakery Assistant Anne-Marie Woolhiser, they began testing pastries at Pho Lang Thang back in March. The restaurant group officially launches The Bakery at PLT this Friday, June 26, with complimentary samples at the Over-the-Rhine restaurant.
The menu brings Vietnamese pastry tradition together with classic European technique, and includes croissants, Kouign amann, pâté chaud (a savory puff pastry with ground meat) and chè ba màu (a three-color pudding) as well as an existing lineup of flan, cream puffs, fruit tart, Swiss rolls, Vietnamese honeycomb cake, and Vietnamese jellies.
Photograph courtesy Lang Thang Group
Nguyen says the bakery idea has nostalgia inspiration: Vietnamese bakeries of his youth.
“Bao [Nguyen, Lang Thang Group co-partner and Duy’s brother] and I both grew up in California going to those bakeries, and we always wanted to bring some of those offerings here,” he adds. “We talk with our other Vietnamese friends here often, and one thing we all do is travel to larger cities, visit the Vietnamese bakeries, and bring back as much as we can. It was never a business plan. It is just something many of us Vietnamese folks in Cincinnati do because we lack it here. Just like when we started PLT, we wanted to share the food we love with our city.”
Nguyen says during the soft launch phase the cookies and fruit tarts have been the biggest hits, and a housemade bánh mì bread is in the works.
“A Vietnamese bakery fits right in with our food,” he says. “It’s just how we eat. When we visit other cities, we go to the pho shop first and then the bakery right after. Having both in one spot at Pho Lang Thang brings that together. We often get Vietnamese travelers stopping through on their drives, this makes it super convenient for them.”
Photograph courtesy Lang Thang Group
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