Becoming
Mamma Hai How the Syracuse community rallied together to support a local restaurant and protect family tradition. Written by Ava Bartholomew | Photographs by Ola Czartorjska
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he atmosphere in Salt City Market when it opens at 11 a.m. is serene and relaxing. It is the perfect place to grab a bite to eat and ease into the morning. Just an hour later, a different story unfolds. People crisscross throughout the building, ordering from one restaurant, then hopping over to another, before grabbing a place to sit. The hustle and bustle of Salt City Market truly displays the close-knit community composed of vendors and regulars alike who always welcome outsiders. What these newcomers will fail to recognize, however, is the hole that was left in the community over the summer when a core member faced a family crisis and had to step away from her small Vietnamese restaurant, Mamma Hai. Following her time at Newhouse and career in journalism at Syracuse’s The Post Standard, Ngoc Huynh decided to make a career change. She launched Mamma Hai with the grand opening of Salt City Market in 2021. Born in Vietnam before escaping to Japan and eventually Omaha, Nebraska, Huynh’s mom and aunts owned a billiard house, in which the primary source of revenue came from the food they sold. Because she was surrounded by cooking as a business all her life, Huynh never intended for it to be
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any part of her future career. However, in her home, at parties, and for work events, Huynh’s dishes were always met with similar statements, leading to one overarching theme: she should pursue this professionally. Eventually, she heard about the upcoming Salt City Market and decided to audition and see how it would go. The next thing she knew, she was in the midst of starting a restaurant while still maintaining her position at The Post Standard. It wasn’t until her editor urged her to take what he considered to be “the chance of a lifetime,” emphasizing that she could always return to journalism, that Huynh fully committed her time to the restaurant. In a leap of faith, Huynh leaned into her community and followed her passion, successfully opening Mamma Hai. Supported by friends and family, including her parents, Biec Huynh and Hoa HuynhNguyen, who moved to Syracuse from Omaha, Huynh’s Mamma Hai took off. Huynh’s work, in many ways, is an attempt to preserve her mom’s recipes while also contributing her own unique flair to the dishes. Unfortunately, this summer, her attempts to maintain her mother’s legacy