Sacramento’s Little Saigon maintains its rich history

took on odd jobs to support his family in the United States. However, he sought financial stability and decided to start a noodle company with his brother and business partner, Cuong Lu, serving a fusion of Vietnamese and Chinese food.

“At that time, the restaurant was very small, maybe less than 1,000 feet. Tan worked 16 hours a day, every day, trying to make it work,” Jenny said.

In order to serve the best quality food, Tan, Cuong and their employees created dishes with only the freshest ingredients, while also selling it at an affordable price.

Despite not using advertisements, knowledge of TK Noodle’s emphasis on fresh, flavorful and clean ingredients spread, causing the brothers’ small business to flourish.

“By word of mouth, people began to come by and eat,” Jenny said. “Everyday, people would line up outside for TK.”

Due to the success of their first restaurant, Tan and Cuong decided to expand into Sacramento in 2001, opening another TK Noodle in the Pacific Rim Plaza, which is in Little Saigon.

Although TK Noodle’s Sacramento location experienced a slower start, as more family-owned grocery stores, shops and restaurants opened in Little Saigon, business picked up.

A cultural hub for Vietnamese Americans and Southeast Asians began to form.

“Escaping the war was already hard, with that bitter feeling of leaving their country with nothing and trying to assimilate with Western culture,” Nguyen said. “It was challenging, especially with the language and cultural barrier. So, when they found an area where they can relate to each other and see their own people speaking their own language, they feel comfortable, they feel safe.”

BY LAUREN LU

As I sit in the corner of TK Noodle, a tiny noodle shop in Little Saigon, I hear countless interactions happening at once. Around me, conversations in Vietnamese, Cantonese, English and even Spanish are being conducted — waiters shouting across the restaurant into the kitchen, customers chatting and the cashier thanking guests as they leave, satisfied after a warm bowl of noodle soup.

This sense of contentment and satisfaction extends beyond this small restaurant. In fact, it describes the entirety of Little Saigon Sacramento — a cultural neighborhood and community for Vietnamese Americans.

Only recently did I discover the rich history of the community, despite growing up immersed in it.

Mai Nguyen, an advocate for Little Saigon and member of the Property Business Improvement Districts, also known as PBIDs, said the neighborhood was officially recognized in 2009 as Sacramento’s first cultural designation.

However, Little Saigon has existed for far longer than that.

After the Fall of Saigon in 1975, countless Vietnamese families were displaced. So, during the late 70s and 80s, the United States welcomed a huge influx of immigrants fleeing the war, Nguyen said.

“A lot of them came to California, particularly the Bay Area, because the tech industry in Silicon Valley provided a lot of jobs,” Nguyen said.

However, living expenses in the Bay Area were high.

Consequently, due to South Sacramento’s lower housing costs, Vietnamese refugees flocked there despite its reputation for being susceptible to crime.

“A lot of Vietnamese immigrants back then lived in apartment complexes around Stockton Boulevard, which was a very abandoned area at the time,” Nguyen said. “Business folks in San Jose saw opportunity, and they started anchoring businesses in South Sac.”

In fact, my family’s business, TK Noodle, began in a small storefront in 1983 on William Street in San Jose. The restaurant moved to Little Saigon in 2001, where my mother, Jenny Lu, has worked for 22 years.

She is the niece of Tan Lu, the restaurant’s owner.

After immigrating from Vietnam, Tan

Huong Lan Sandwiches is another one of the first family-owned businesses to move from William Street in San Jose to Sacramento in 1997.

The sandwich shop, owned by Vivian Pham, is most famous for its bánh mì, a Vietnamese sandwich. It typically has fillings such as ham and vegetables. In addition, Huong Lan Sandwiches sells other traditional Vietnamese dishes such as pho, bún bò hué and various rice plates.

“It’s like Vietnamese street food,” Pham said. “Our cuisine has a lot of flavor, but yet it’s also very light and healthy.”

According to Pham, Huong Lan Sandwiches expanded through word of mouth, similarly to TK Noodle.

As a result of the wave of Southeast Asian businesses such as TK Noodle and Huong Lan Sandwiches to Sacramento, PBIDs took an interest in Little Saigon.

In 2009, assembly member Kevin McCarthy proposed the idea of recognizing Stockton Boulevard for the economic contributions of the Vietnamese American businesses in the area, according to Nguyen.

McCarthy, along with assembly member Van Tran, agreed that the best way to acknowledge the two-mile stretch of Asianowned businesses and homes was to give it an official name — Little Saigon. Today, the neighborhood reaches from 65th Street and Stockton Boulevard on the south side of the designation to Fruitridge Road and Florin Road on the north side.

“In order to make sure that the community was involved in the designation, we reached out to several Vietnamese organizations which were mainly run by the elders,” Nguyen said. “We wanted to make sure that this project was meaningful, that the right recognition goes to the right folks.”

In addition to formally labeling the community, the Little Saigon Committee, consisting of six members, was established to represent Vietnamese Americans in Sacramento.

The Stockton Boulevard Partnership, one of the PBIDs in Sacramento, prepared a presentation petitioning for the name “Little Saigon.”

“We were able to gather over 400 of our Vietnamese community folks, along with businesses, and we packed Sacramento City Hall that night,” Nguyen said. “We were on the agenda for the vote, and they all approved of this name, so it became a historic night.”

That night, there was a celebration featuring traditional dance for their success, Nguyen said.

“It’s a testament of the hard work and investment that we put into this really underserved, broken down area,” Nguyen said. “Because of the hard work and the jobs created, it created a retail shopping area, a place where immigrants can come to the Vietnamese community and call it home.”

In fact, Little Saigon has experienced an increase in diversity in recent years. For example, the racial demographic of Huong Lan Sandwiches’ customers has shifted.

“In the beginning, the majority of our customers and clientele were Vietnamese,” Pham said. “However, as we grew, it became more diverse. Word got out, and now we have all kinds of customers all over Sacramento who know our name.”

In addition, larger corporations and well-known companies such as Starbucks have moved into the area, Nguyen said.

“Our goal is to make it an international cultural place, while still having that cultural aspect of Asian, particularly Vietnamese culture,” Nguyen said.

But despite the immense growth that Little Saigon experienced with the resources allocated by PBIDs, COVID-19 had a drastic impact on these family-owned businesses.

“Little Saigon was hit quite hard, especially restaurant owners,” Jenny said. “We didn’t know what was going to happen, and just being out there was a risk.”

Huong Lan Sandwiches had a similar experience during the pandemic; however what Jenny and Pham missed the most was seeing their regulars and loyal customers.

“We always hope that our valued customers keep coming back to us,” Pham said. “Whenever we see a regular customer, it brings you so much joy because you know you’re doing something right.”