Qui Tran & Marie-Anne Velasco - Nudu House

On this episode of The Sauce Podcast, host Lauren sits down with Qui Tran, founder of Mai Lee and co-owner of Nudo House, alongside chef and business partner Marie-Anne Velasco, for a conversation about food, community, resilience, and the stories behind two of St. Louis’ most beloved restaurant concepts.

Qui shares the remarkable journey of Mai Lee, from its humble beginnings as a small family-run Vietnamese restaurant founded by his mother in 1985 to becoming a cornerstone of the St. Louis dining scene. Marie-Anne reflects on her path from studying languages and working in some of the world’s top kitchens to helping launch Nudo House and bringing her passion for ramen and culinary history to the city.

Together, they discuss the partnership that led to the creation of Nudo House, the inspiration behind their popular Sonic the Hedgehog pop-up experience, and how creativity, collaboration, and a deep connection to St. Louis have fueled their success.

The conversation also explores the challenges of navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, supporting healthcare workers and tornado relief efforts, the realities of running restaurants during rising food costs, and why giving back to the community remains central to everything they do.
Along the way, Qui and Marie-Anne share stories about their backgrounds, friendship, family life, favorite aspects of restaurant culture, and what exciting projects may be next for Mai Lee and Nudo House.

In this episode:
• The origins of Mai Lee and its growth over four decades
• Qui Tran’s family story and Vietnamese roots in St. Louis
• Marie-Anne Velasco’s culinary journey through world-class kitchens
• How a friendship turned into the partnership behind Nudo House
• The rise of ramen culture in St. Louis
• Creating the Sonic the Hedgehog pop-up experience at Nudo House
• Building restaurants centered on hospitality and community
• Navigating the challenges of COVID-19 and supporting healthcare workers
• Organizing relief efforts after the St. Louis tornado
• The importance of collaboration within the local restaurant industry
• Rising food costs and the realities of operating restaurants today
• Family, mentorship, and life outside the kitchen
• Future plans, new collaborations, and what’s next for the restaurants
• Why St. Louis continues to be one of the most supportive food communities in the country

Come for the conversation. Stay for the culture. 🌿

 ✨ Presented by SWADE Dispensary, with 12 locations across Missouri. Learn more at swadecannabis.com. Our other podcast sponsors are 4 Hands Brewing Co. and LHM.

🎧 Watch on YouTube or listen on Spotify and all major platforms.
 📅 New episodes drop every Tuesday.

Transcript

Intro & Sonic the Hedgehog Pop-Up at Nudo House

SPEAKER_00 0:00

She goes, Hey dummy, you cook soup, why don't you do it?

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Suede dispensary, now with twelve locations across Missouri, is taking convenience to a whole new level. The cannabis brand just opened its first ever twenty-four hour drive-through storefront in Overland, meaning you can order online and pick up any time, day or night. Whether you're planning ahead or making a late night run, Suede is ready when you are with quick pickup, expanded delivery, and a seamless experience. Okay, hi, welcome to the Sauce Podcast. I'm your host, Lauren, and I am here with the uh brainchilds behind Miley and Nudo House. I'm here with Quetran and Marianne Velasco. Um, so can you guys just fill us in uh on your businesses?

SPEAKER_05 0:48

Thanks for having us, of course. Of course. Pleasure to be here. Um, well, like I like you said, uh, we've got Miley and Nudo, and uh right now we're doing Sonic the Hedgehog pop-up over on Delmore.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

And that's popping off, isn't it? You guys are really busy. It's a fun time. How did this come to pass?

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Um, I think uh, you know, we've always been uh obviously we've been huge cheerleaders for the city for a very long time. You know, all this stuff just doesn't happen overnight. So um, you know, we never burned any bridges, built a lot of great relationships throughout the years. And um, you know, my uh our good friend Andy, who has all these licenses, uh, he's done these in a lot of major cities, and we talked to him and you know, through him and talking with Sega and stuff like that, they allowed us to have it. Um, they usually never think of St. Louis as a major market, and uh, we're just very fortunate to be able to get the opportunity. And St. Louis has showed up, so we're very appreciative, we're very grateful.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

We like to eat here in St.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Louis.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

Okay, that's really cool. So kind of um paint us a picture. What's it look like in there? Is it all decked out?

SPEAKER_05 2:02

It's pretty much um every Sonic the Hedgehog's um fan's dream. You walk in and you're transported into, you know, immediate cartoon, um um characters everywhere, spinning rings. It's uh just seeing it all come together when we were um when we were transforming Nudo into it was was um was almost like uh a dream.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Five days.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Five days to transform. You're luckily we got incredible people. My buddy Chad did it, but yeah, it's you're immersed like like Marianne says, like you're just walking into the video game itself.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

That's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

But with food.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

With food, yeah. Yeah. So what kind of food you got over there?

SPEAKER_05 2:47

I mean, if you've watched the movies, you know, Sonic the Hedgehog is he he loves, you know, chili cheese dogs, um, hot dogs, uh chicken fingers, all of that kind of kid-friendly, you know, American food because Sonic and his friends are from a different planet. So they immediately jump into, I think in the movie, they're supposed to be in the middle of um Northern California or Southern California, somewhere, um, somewhere around that region. And he he um plays baseball and he does all of this fun, like human stuff. So it's it's really like every kid's dream. And he is like a kid that's just um he loves running around and discovering and like sneaking up on humans. So um just just having um, you know, his friends with him and discovering all of this fun stuff, eating chili dogs, watching baseball, playing baseball, um, running to San Francisco through his uh rings and all of this fun stuff, um, is really like immersed in the actual restaurant. So you're you're just like that. And then around um not only the movie, there's also all of the video games that have um been around since I early 90s, late 90s. So um you've got all those throwback scenes in um in one of the hallways that have all of the different um scenes of um uh different levels of the games and stuff. So really um uh old school fans that walk in are like, oh my gosh, that's in that, that's in this, this is that. So that's fun.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

Okay, and how long's the pop-up running?

The Story Behind Mai Lee & Nudo House

SPEAKER_00 4:26

June 28th.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Okay, cool. And then back to Noodle House.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Back to Noodle House.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

That'll be a transition for you.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

It was a it was a crazy transition uh to Sonic. So yes, it'll be we're gonna have to peel Sonic off the walls, something we don't want to do, but you know, we're gonna maybe could just leave like a little piece of them, a momentum. You know, the crazy things, like Marianne said, I mean, all the figurines and everything, it's we have to return those to Sega.

SPEAKER_03 4:53

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

We can't keep them. No, that's gonna be a fun process to like bring everything down and you know, pack it, wrap, bubble wrap it, and uh get it back to them. But you know, the everything's been great. I mean, St. Louis has really showed up, and you know, like I said, we're very grateful. It's uh it's been wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

I love that. Yeah. Okay. Now, for our listeners who maybe aren't familiar, can you just walk us through each of the concepts?

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Well, uh, I guess we can start with the oldest concepts. So I guess we can start with uh Miley's. Uh, you know, my mother started it in 1985. Cool. So it's been over 40 years. That's awesome. Um yeah, I mean, you know, we you know, we we started it out of uh a necessity to survive, and um, we're still standing. And, you know, like I said, we're also we're just very grateful. I mean, St. Louis is uh it's a great family town. Uh it shows a lot of support. Uh the chefs, you know, show a lot of support. So the we feel like the people have done the same, and you know, we're very grateful. And then um, you know, I had a I well, I don't know if I had an idea. I think my wife had the idea. And uh Marianne and I, um we've been friends for a while. You know, she's uh she's a stud. Those that don't know her, she's you know, my buddy David Choi, who owns Soul

How Qui Tran & Marie-Anne Velasco Became Business Partners

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Taco. I was just up in um Chicago doing this event with him, and uh he he was just randomly talking. He goes, you know, Queens had really good luck with the women in his life. I haven't had that much of luck with the women, but he goes, he's got a great wife and a great work wife. So um my wife actually, she took me to try ramen for the first time very long time ago. Okay, and uh, you know, real traditional Japanese ramen. I thought it was amazing. And I was like, Man, somebody should do this in St. Louis, right? And she goes, Hey, dummy, you cook soup. Why don't you do it? Yeah, and so I was like, She's really straightforward. Yeah. She was like, uh, you know, and I was like, Well, it's you know, it's really not my cuisine. She goes, Well, you don't just cook Vietnamese food, do you? And I was like, No. And so, you know, we just kind of uh did a little due diligence and I found the missing piece, and it was Marianne. So she was in Chicago at the time. Uh, you know, she I mean, she's worked in some of the best kitchens in the world, and you know, she ended up teaching at uh some of the culinary schools. And, you know, I was like pretty nervous because I was like, hey, do you want to just uplift your life and open a restaurant with me? You know, it's like I think that's more dangerous than going to the casino every day.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

Don't get me started on the casino.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

So thankfully she agreed.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

Yeah. So how did you two become friends?

SPEAKER_05 7:32

Just like how everyone becomes friends with Kui, I was a regular at Milee. Okay. Really? Yeah. So I was living in St. Louis uh before I moved to Chicago. Well, I was in Chicago and then I moved to St. Louis before Chicago again. Okay. Um and I was just a regular at Miley. I was working out out at uh Bally's in Clayton um back when it was still there. Was it Bally's or was it Big Tannies? It was still bad. Okay, we're old.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

Well sorry, I think we kind of showed our age. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:00

Yeah. Um, and I just happened to be working out next to someone who owned a Vietnamese restaurant, and I hadn't had pho in forever because I had just moved to St. Louis and I didn't know where anything was. And this girl next to me was just like, oh, she's got a Vietnamese restaurant. It's called Milee. It's over on Delmar. And so um it was Linda, his sister. Um, so I said, Well, I'm gonna have to check it out. I ended up going there like on a regular basis and just sitting at the bar. Um, I didn't know who Kui was, but we talked just a little bit here and there. And then um, I was working at uh one of the culinary schools, and I told some of my friends, and I was like, hey, we've after a meeting, I was like, let's go have some pho because I'm just craving it again for like the third time this week. Um so we all walked in, a bunch of tall hats and chef whites, like six people, six chefs, and um it was it was cold, you know, so we had to keep closing the door and we were waiting in line. And uh Kui was like, Who are you guys? Like, who are you is there a thing is happening that I don't know about? We're like, no, we just wanted to come in and have some food. So that's when we just started talking, and um and Kui and I, we Kui was like, You're a chef? I didn't know you were a chef. We just talked, you know, and I'm like a friend of Linda's because we work out together. So that's just how we worked, we met and then just stayed friends. I found out that his wife really liked pastries, and at the time I was teaching baking and pastry, so I was like, hey, I got a bunch of these books. How about you give them to my wife? And that's just how we just became friends. I moved back to Chicago and we still stayed friends, and yeah, and then he called me up and he's like, Hey, if you want to open up a place, and just so happened that I was obsessed with ramen at the time too. Um, so I'm like, I do know all of this stuff about ramen right now. Yeah and I'm a food geek, so yeah. So we just kind of yeah, we just kind of started there and here we are. How many years later?

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Yeah, she's a total food nerd because it's like I can tell you what's in a dish, she can tell you the origin of the dish. I love it, which it works out really well.

SPEAKER_02 10:07

Amazing. Yeah, so how many years has it been that you've been

Opening Restaurants & Surviving COVID-19

SPEAKER_02 10:10

partners?

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Oh man, since 2017. No, it's been almost nine years. Holy moly.

SPEAKER_05 10:15

Wow, are you sure that I thought that was three years ago? Wow, that's it. Yeah, COVID just blanked out a bunch of time. I know. It's just uh it's just you know, a space and time that all of us got lost in.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Yeah, how did you guys make it through that?

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

Thanks to St. Louis, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

I still have PTSD. Yeah, me too. Yeah, I mean, there was a lot of things. I mean, I think part of uh one of the big things was you know the support network. Because I remember like during COVID, we like had a nobody knew what was going on, and everybody's like, we're all gonna, we're all gonna go broke, we're all gonna, you know, everything's gonna fail. Um, there was no support. And so um, you know, I called some friends and I had a buddy who um lives in Pittsburgh now, but he, you know, he did a lot with like um, you know, like government funding, stuff like that. So uh I had I set up a meeting and there was tons of us, tons of restaurant folks at Nudo, and we just set up a screen and you know, we were just trying to see if we could get any you know questions answered. And obviously at that point nobody knew anything.

SPEAKER_03 11:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Uh, but I mean, I mean, that's part of it. Like the community came together because we're like, okay, so either we're all gonna fail and live on the streets, uh-huh, or we're gonna try to make it out, you know, this mess somehow. And and so um, I mean, we persevered. I mean, I I don't even know how we made it, I really don't, because it was some of the toughest, toughest times that anyone and we had just opened Del Mar, so there was no support for any restaurants that just opened.

SPEAKER_03 11:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

And so um, I don't know. I I really don't know how we made it. I'm just grateful we made it. Yeah. And it's just, and I think a lot of people feel that way because we really don't know. Like, I I can tell, I

Feeding Healthcare Workers During the Pandemic

SPEAKER_00 12:02

really don't know. We oh, you know what? Some one of the things that did help us though was um we had food. So one of the things, and obviously we're big community-based uh business, and obviously you if you know us, you know that we're always in the community, whether it's tornado, you know, helping the community, whatever it is. And so, like during COVID, uh, regardless of your politics, you know, you had the the the health field, right? So the nurses and the doctors, these people are just trying to save lives.

SPEAKER_03 12:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

And you know, they're getting just people, you know, whatever there it's it was so politicized, they were blaming the nurses, blaming the doctors. And I was like, dude, these people are the ones that are saving your lives if you get sick. What are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 12:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

So, you know, and then at that time we didn't know because what happens to, you know, the health field, right? They go work 18-hour days and then they come home, they can't see their family because they have to either shower separately or take their clothes off outside. Because you I mean, you remember that. Nobody's gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

I remember scary wiping off the the groceries and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Right, yeah. I mean, we were, I mean, you didn't, it was we didn't know exactly. So we just had to do we had to do to keep everyone safe, right? Instead of, you know, besides the ones that were like, oh, me, me, me, this is stupid, but it's not. It's like I I didn't want to be the one that, you know, Marianne has a family, so or you know, or I didn't want to be the one that got sick and then killed my parents, you know what I mean? Like, how could there's no there's not enough therapy I could go through to, you know.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

I know.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

And so one of the things we did though was we couldn't obviously there was no business, right? We couldn't, there was, I mean, so before the food went, whatever food we had and before it went bad, what we couldn't sell, I donated to the hospitals. So I would call some of the hospitals and say, hey, you know, hey Marianne, uh, you know, who do you have, you know, and then like someone they'll say, for example, like, you know, Barnes or you know, like St. John's, somebody would say, Well, we have 30 staff during the day, we have 90 at night. You know, and I would say, Well, I can't feed the 90, but I could probably feed the 30.

SPEAKER_03 14:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

And so, you know, we would end up like, whatever we had, we would make food, and then we would just drop it off at whichever hospital. You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 14:12

So Nudo, all in Cravecore, we would bring um uh trucks, like him and I would both fill up our our cars and we would bring from all of two over to Mercy, and then the Del Mar location, we would pack everything up and bring it over to Barnes. So nice. And it was really nice because we have a lot of our regulars found out that we were doing that and they were donating um um money so that we could feed the first responders, which was really nice.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Yeah, and and I mean the the longevity with you know, the really it all pays off because like when things started to come back to somewhat normalcy, then I had a lot of nurses come in and you know to Del Mar or whatever, like, hey, we've never been here, but we just wanted to say thank you. And you know what I mean? And so it's just I mean, that's that's just that's worth more than giving the food away. Yeah, you know, because it meant so much to them and it meant so much to us because I'm like, if I get sick and I happen to come down there, I hope, you know, take care of me. Yeah, I hope that you know I'll do everything. But you know, I mean, that's that's the thing, right? Regardless of whatever how you feel about things, it's you need to take care of the community and they are part of the community, they're saving lives. And so we, you know, we've always um so that that really helped us. That was one of the things that helped

Tornado Relief & Supporting the St. Louis Community

SPEAKER_00 15:33

tremendously.

SPEAKER_05 15:33

And then after that, it's nice because when the tornado happened and then the victims, you know, um needed food and you know, they needed some. Jose Andre reached out um to Kui and was like, hey, can you help? Oh, really? With all of this? Yeah, so well, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

So World Central Kitchen. So I mean it was crazy because the tornado hit Friday. They called me Friday night.

SPEAKER_03 15:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

They literally, the World Central Kitchen had boots on the ground, like coming in Friday night. And then they call I talked to them Friday, they came in Friday night. By Saturday, I mobilized over 20 restaurants. Wow to start cooking. I mean, it's amazing. Yeah, because I mean, us alone, we did what do we do? About 54, 5,500 meals in one week.

SPEAKER_03 16:16

Yeah, wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

I mean, it was insane. Yeah, and you know, it was rough because that tornado hit right in the Del Mar area. Yeah, and so we lost all the graduation business, we lost everything. I mean, like, and then people lost their home. It was a mess. And we, you know, people, there was no power in the loop.

SPEAKER_05 16:35

Yeah, luckily, the our building was the only one with power, and all the restaurants around did not have them. So really we were helping, we were trying to help out all of our all of our neighbors. Wow, and uh no one had water, like you know, we were given out, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

So it's just like yeah, it was just like tragedy all over again. It was just like, oh my god, now it's like COVID and now this tornado. Because a lot of people, I mean, it ruined businesses down there for a long time because people had they couldn't stay in their homes. Right. People were displaced, trees were everywhere. I mean, you saw it happen to Forest Park with over 3,000 trees.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

Oh my gosh, yeah, it's it doesn't even look the same, it doesn't look the same. It doesn't, yeah, that was crazy.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

3,000 trees uprooted. I mean, that's insane.

SPEAKER_02 17:15

Yeah, you know, so well it's nice you're you're being so helpful to the community.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

Well, they they raised us, so it's uh yeah, you know, I think that's part of why I think uh we always had like a gen I've always had like a genuine um uh like wanting to know everyone because you know it's you don't have to spend your money at our places, but you do. And so we're grateful for that. And so we want to make sure that I'm gonna see somebody at a grocery store. You know what I mean? So I mean, if anything, just want to say thank you. If I didn't get a chance, we were busy or didn't get a chance to say thank you in the restaurant, then outside the restaurant, we'd like to say thank you, and we're very appreciative.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

And I love that.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

We kept that philosophy moving forward.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

Very cool. Our podcast sponsor is Fourhands Brewing Company, which is celebrating 10 years of citywide here in St. Louis. The 10th anniversary celebration will feature collaborations with fellow iconic St. Louis companies, including Sauce on the Side, High Point Drive-In, Sugar Fire Smokehouse, Gus's Pretzel Shop, Witz's Roupier, Blue City Deli, STL Toasted, Strange Donuts, Peacemaker, Lobster and Crab Company, Clementine's Ice Cream, Strange Donuts, and more. Now I know that you both have very interesting backgrounds. So, Marianne, you want to just tell us sort of how you came into the foodie sphere?

SPEAKER_05 18:39

Um,

Marie-Anne Velasco's Culinary Journey Around the World

SPEAKER_05 18:41

okay, basically my girl. Yeah, basically. Yeah, yeah, basically a nerd. Um, I started cooking because I'm actually a um a linguistics, I have a linguistics background. So um I have uh a degree in languages, um, and I just started traveling from a young age, and because of traveling, I found food. So um that's basically what I did. I traveled around um in my early years and just cooked wherever I could, ate wherever I could, and then ended up um in um, I I told myself, and which I tell my kids all the time, I'm like, the first five years after you graduate is going to propel the rest of your life. So the first five years, you have to give yourself a goal. And mine was to work only in the top 50 restaurants of the world. Wow. So that's what I did. Love that. Um, yeah, so that's what I did. I ended up um at Charlie Trotter's and True in Chicago. And um, and um because of the um how close St. Louis was, uh, I ended up making him some friends and came to St. Louis. So that's how that's how um I just uh became invited into the food uh world, I want to say, because um from all of the other cities that I did work in, um New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Italy, um, Montreal, you know, um uh uh the Caribbean, it's just no one really ex, you know, invited into the scene like in like in St. Louis.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

There's something for that Midwest hospitality.

SPEAKER_05 20:20

It really is. Everywhere else was um cutthroat. Yeah. You um you had to make it on your own. You're really you had to be tough. You had to be, you know, you had to have your guard up all the time, you know. Um, and uh um it's funny. Um I I had dinner with Anthony Bourdain in Chicago. Um and um uh like back when I was still uh a line cook and you know, he didn't know who I was, I was just a nerd. Um and he gave me a nickname, it was cookie, because he couldn't believe he was like, You're too nice, you're too, you're too little and nice to be a line cook. You're not rough, tumble, whatever it was. And I was like, no, um, I am, you know, yeah, I really am. I'll hit you. Yeah. So he gave me this little, he gave me a nickname. You're a cookie, not a cook, you're a cookie. So um uh I I kind of took offense to that. And no, did you always do no? I was like, you know, privilege and kindness. Uh yeah, so but in St. Louis, it was it was okay to be nice. It's okay to um make friends with someone else from a another restaurant. And uh yeah, I I I started off working um in as a sushi chef over at uh the Ritz and made some really good friends. I'm still friends with them now, you know, 20 something years later. Um they were my first friends. They used to joke about how I still had an accent back then. I sounded like Siling Leon, you know, like Marianne's from Montreal.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

Oh, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 21:50

So uh um but uh but yeah, I just uh made some really good friends and uh I I decided to up root everything. And and raise my kids here just because it's just such a a welcoming, you know, good old fashioned, nice town.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

Yeah. Yeah. We are. Yeah. I agree.

Qui Tran's Family Story & The Origins of Mai Lee

SPEAKER_02 22:11

Okay. Queen, tell us about uh your childhood.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

Well, like, well, anyway, she didn't tell you, but like our uh like our good Canadian friends, smart Canadian friends, she speaks like four or five languages.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

Oh, wow, really? That's impressive. I love that. We don't do that here.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

It's like we only speak English. Right, we're so stupid. We should, you know.

SPEAKER_05 22:32

I mean, Que speaks peaks fluent Vietnamese, fluent English, and fluent kitchen Spanish. So again, kitchen Spanish.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

That's fluent Spanish, but kitchen Spanish. That's all you do. Yeah, so kitchen Spanish is okay. Um, wow. Well, it's uh I think my road's a little different. You know, we immigrated here in 1980. Okay. So I've been here, I was three, so I was here, been here since 1980 in St. Louis. Okay. Um, you know, I grew up uh grew up half of my time was on the hill. We're the only Asian family on the hill. My dad took a job uh at a mechanic shop called Jamco, right at Reburn Southwest. And his boss had like a two-family flat, and then we rented the upstairs, you know, one bedroom upstairs. So we we lived across the street, which was great. And then half of the time, um, for those of you that don't know, I mean, half of the time I'd only l I only slept on the hill. But most of the time I was in LaClee Town with my cousin, which is gone now. Oh so LaClee Town is gone. It's uh yeah, it's all bought up by Slough. Oh so um got it. Yeah, it was uh Is that where Humphreys was?

SPEAKER_05 23:44

Huh?

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Was that where I don't I don't remember, but it was like literally across the street from Harrisow State College.

SPEAKER_05 23:49

Yeah, that's where Humphreys was. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

But all that is all that is gone now. Slough owns all of it, but uh my cousin played baseball for the LaCleetown Thundercats. So fun. There you go. And we're also the only Asian family living there. So yeah, you know, so you you grew up, you have a little bit of alligator skin, you know, because you're the only uh Asian family anywhere, really, during that time. Okay and uh we actually um we started a you know, my mother worked a bunch of jobs. We actually had like we partnered up and had like this little chapsue down in Jennings called China Wall.

SPEAKER_04 24:24

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_00 24:24

Okay, so we had that, and then you know, it got robbed a couple times and stuff like that. But uh, you know, I think my mom to this day, she still has this little ledger, and you know, all the people she borrowed money from to open up my lee's.

SPEAKER_03 24:36

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_00 24:36

Like $50 from this person, $25 from this person. It's like this ledger since like so she knew who to pay back.

SPEAKER_03 24:42

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

So we actually, my Lee's the original location is at Delmar 170.

SPEAKER_03 24:46

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

And uh it opened in 85. We took over an old Greek restaurant.

SPEAKER_03 24:50

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

Used to be called Nico's.

SPEAKER_03 24:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

So it was only like five tables, literally. Oh, really? And it was literally a hole in the wall. Could you go up at a hole in the wall? We had the Pepsi board. So you would order. And uh, you know, we we opened it up and she was partnered with uh you know a woman named Mai. And uh that didn't work out at all. But it did. It didn't work out because uh, you know, she just left, left us everything. So my mother decided to do a few Vietnamese items and the rest is history, you know, uh became the first restaurant to literally have Vietnamese food on the menu and in St. Louis and the rest is history. I mean, we've been growing since then, and you know, we're in a big location in Brentwood now.

SPEAKER_03 25:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

So I moved everything there in 2010. So it's been 16 years in that location. Nice time flies.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

Yeah, it really does.

SPEAKER_00 25:42

Time flies.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

Well, that's cool. The World Cup is here, and there's only one place to catch every match like a VIP. Head to the Pitch Athletic Club and Tavern right across from Energizer Park at St. Louis Union Station. Kick back and comfortable lounge seating with your own personal TV. No bad views, no missed moments. Fuel up with daily rotating specials, including St. Louis favorites like Toasted Ravioli, plus their world-famous frozen Irish

Rising Food Costs & Running Restaurants Today

SPEAKER_02 26:11

coffee. Every match, every day, your spot is waiting at the pitch. Well, glad to see everything's going so well.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

You know, it's uh it's rough out there. We're just we're you know, we're just working on it. We're just trying to uh stay consistent. Um exciting things happening in St. Louis. Um, like Marianne said, we're just we're grateful. We have a lot of friends, you know, we still keep up with everybody, you know. Um when things get rough, the restaurant folks talk to each other and see what's going on, see how we can help each other, and that's what we've continuously done over the years.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

Yeah. Well, we know people gotta eat. And St. Louis definitely likes to eat.

SPEAKER_05 26:48

Yes, we do. Thank goodness. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

Well, like I said, we're grateful because right now it's hard to afford groceries. And so, you know, we it's everyone's seeing that kind of impact. Yeah. And so people can't afford groceries, and so they're eating out less or they're spending less, and you can't blame them. And you know, our philosophy is we can't gouge the community.

SPEAKER_03 27:07

I know.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

Um, because you know, they we're all in the same boat.

SPEAKER_03 27:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

You know, it's like it's like reality, we should be charging three the way prices are gone, we should be charging three to four dollars above everything we're doing now. But you can't do that, right? Because it it's just everyone's struggling. Yeah, we're on the same boat. So we have to kind of figure out how to um eat most of this right now until you know things move for me. It is. And so it's just you know, you just have to try to figure it out with the community and see what works because you know, if I lose you, then that costs more than raising it three dollars an entree.

SPEAKER_03 27:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:47

You know, so if I lose you as a customer forever, then that that that's more way more expensive. Yeah, and so we, you know, we every day we're trying to figure out okay, what you know, what can we get away with? What can't we get away with? How can we hold this? And you know, we've like I said, we've we haven't let go of a lot of people. We've just we've kept our staff. Um Yeah, we're just trying to do everything to just keep everything the way it's going and try to ride out, you know, some of this rough uh these rough waves we got.

SPEAKER_03 28:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

And we hope it doesn't last that much longer.

SPEAKER_05 28:21

We'll make it through. Everyone's doggy paddling right now. Yeah, we're just fine. We're all in the same boat.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

There's only one side of the life vest that's inflated right now. The other side's deflated.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

So all nonsense okay. Well, uh, let's see. So when we're not in the restaurant, what do you guys like to do for fun?

Family Life, Dogs & Life Outside the Kitchen

SPEAKER_05 28:41

When are we not in the restaurant?

SPEAKER_00 28:43

I know. When are we not in the restaurant?

SPEAKER_05 28:46

I like to sleep. Do you have fun? Do you do anything with it? I like to try and sleep. Uh, I like to try and see my kids, my dogs, my family. That's fair. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

Well, she has a lot of children.

SPEAKER_05 28:59

How many?

SPEAKER_00 29:00

I've got I count the dog.

SPEAKER_05 29:01

I count the dog. Yeah, I've got three dogs. Okay. Two children, one husband. So five, six. Yeah, exactly. She takes care of the whole family.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

Meanwhile, you know, my wife and I are what do you what are we? Dinks, dual income, no kids.

SPEAKER_05 29:16

Oh yeah. Oh, Jazzy's a lucky dog.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

Oh, yeah, we just have we just have one dog.

SPEAKER_05 29:20

Wow. Oh, spoiled.

SPEAKER_00 29:21

Yeah, she's the she's the total princess of the house. So he gets all the collars and dresses and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

Oh, that's cute.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

Yeah, so you know, so she Marianne likes to sleep.

SPEAKER_05 29:33

Um when I can.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

Yeah, when she, I mean, how can she sleep? She's got two kids and three dogs.

SPEAKER_05 29:39

How old are your kids? Uh 15 and 11. So going into sophomore, going into middle school.

SPEAKER_02 29:45

Well, at least they're sleeping.

SPEAKER_05 29:46

Oh, yeah. Our house is um, our house is the uh congregation house where and they're boys. So all of the boys in the neighborhood come to our house. There's always skateboards and bikes and everything in the um in the yard and in the driveway. And my husband rallies everybody um and feeds them while I'm at work.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

So it's like a refugee camp.

SPEAKER_05 30:08

Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much the kids all know. Oh, there's always really good food, and there's an outside fridge. You know, there's the fridge with all of the snacks and the drinks. So everyone knows, like sometimes I'll see a random kid, like our garage doors open. Random kid going and getting a frozen yogurt, like a go-go squeeze.

SPEAKER_02 30:25

And I'm like, is who is that?

SPEAKER_05 30:26

Is that it's our is one of our kids even home, or they're just coming in. Everyone knows that they can just, you know, amazing, grab a popsicle from the freezer, so and they can run around. You get a welcoming space. Right.

SPEAKER_00 30:39

Well, if I was a kid, I'd be going to her house too, because that's where all the good food is.

SPEAKER_05 30:42

I might go after this.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Yeah, that's where all the good food is.

SPEAKER_05 30:44

The dogs will come over for some pets, like, hi, I know you. That's sweet. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

You're 11 and you're like, oh, what am I eating? Foi.

SPEAKER_05 30:53

There's foie in the house. Yeah, sometimes there'll be random sushi and stuff on the counter. There's always something on the counter for some Nosh. So so yeah, so that's what our house is. And you know, now I've got some of uh some of my older kids' friends working at Nudo too, like just summer job, like, hey, I need I need a job. Can we work at Nudo? And you know, yeah. So I love that. Juniors and seniors, like, can we work in Nudo? So it's just

Final Thoughts & Why St. Louis Is Special

SPEAKER_05 31:20

like like I said, it's it's all based on community, it's all friends, you know, that yeah, noodle running and and yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

I love it. Nice. Well, I love that. Okay, well, is there anything else that you want people to know?

SPEAKER_00 31:34

Besides, we're very appreciative for the continued support. Um that's it. I mean, that's really thank you for having us.

SPEAKER_02 31:43

Yeah, thanks so much for stopping by.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

No, we appreciate it.