PROFILE
Kieu Nguyen
Rosé Coffee & Wine Photos by Ian McCausland
At the age of 10, Kieu Nguyen was already envisioning herself as a restaurateur. Her approach to the industry has been methodical with long-term vision. After high school, she completed Red River College’s Hospitality Management program and gathered experiences in a range of restaurants, from coffee and donut shops to familyowned and fine-dining restaurants. She eagerly drew from her experiences, learning what worked (and what didn’t), drawing lessons from each experience until she was ready to build her dream restaurant. After months of searching for the location that would fit into her specific vision, Kieu settled on a raw space (formerly Antiques and Funk) on the corner of Main and Bannatyne and built it into her dream restaurant—a one-woman show where Kieu curates (and prepares) the food, creates (and pours) the drinks, and hosts her guests in a one-of-a-kind intimate space. What can people expect at Rosé? I do everything, so I focus on quality and freshness in my menus. We change the menus twice a year: for the warm season, I focus on fresh, simple, cold dishes, and for the cold season, we have heartier dishes and sauces. We serve local beer and house-made cocktails, and I have a wine menu that is paired specifically with our current menu. What is your secret ingredient? I think that my secret ingredient is love. I put so much love and thought into everything. And also, salt—for both food and drink. Was food important in your family? My Mom is a foodie. She took me out a lot, and it inspired me very early. She was also a businesswoman, and it was very good for me to see how she handled business, especially when things weren’t successful. It was important to see how she could turn that around.
38 Shop Local, Globally
Burrata with blood orange, coriander, garlic, honey, lavender, and sourdough