After hard knocks, optimism is on menu for Vietnamese restaurateur
Restaurateur Van Thanh Pham has experienced more than his fair share of hard knocks in his lifetime.
Restaurateur Van Thanh Pham has experienced more than his fair share of hard knocks in his lifetime.
At his restaurant Pho Pasteur in the heart of western Sydney’s bustling Paramatta, where he has served pho and other traditional Vietnamese dishes for 26 years, Mr Pham has finally had a moment to catch his breath after one of the toughest years in his business’s history.
Not only was he forced to shut his restaurant for three months during lockdown, he was also facing a personal loss — the death of his wife, Thuy Bich Thi Pham, after she lost her fight with cancer in March.
“It was very hard, very difficult,” Mr Pham said.
“We started back with just take away and then there was a time where we could only have 10 people in the restaurant; that was also hard.
“We had to lay off staff. There were no customers, so there were no jobs.
“But it’s been picking up slowly over the past 10 months.”
The father of four, who calls Liverpool in western Sydney home since he arrived in Australia on a boat as a 26-year-old refugee in 1979, has handled the challenges of the pandemic with grace and optimism.
He said he would soon be looking to hire more staff when the restaurant returned to its former bustle.
“Australia is a good country — it’s safe and you have freedom here,” he said.
“The future will be better after COVID has passed and we will get more people here to work when it’s busier.”