Today we’d like to introduce you to Viet Huynh.
Hi Viet, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My business partner Ron and I met through mutual friends years ago. He was working a corporate job and I was a real estate broker and we both decided it was time to take on a new challenge. His family owned three successful restaurants previously and together, we wanted to have a business that brought people together especially during a time where things in society felt divisive.
Bird’s Nest Cafe started in 2016 immediately drew on the tremendous support of USC’s students, teachers and staff. We quickly gathered a large social media following and became known for our signature French Toast, Breakfast Burritos, fresh ingredients and house-made sauces. We expanded into Downtown LA with our second location in 2018 on Olive Street and we started serving customers from the Metropolitan Courthouse plus the offices and residents in the area.
In a world of many different options, I think our selection of breakfast classics and comfort food makes people feel at home when they dine with us. Today, we are recovering from the effects of the recent pandemic and are fortunate to be able to make it through. We hope to build from here and continue to serve our loyal customers and attract new ones from our community as well.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
COVID-19 was an event that no one saw coming. Our sales were doing great and we had just completed back-to-back catering events for 700 and 1000 people. Then when the stay-at-home order started, we lost over 50% of our sales in one week. It was a very difficult time for us and our community.
We decided that we had to find a way to stay open no matter what. First of all, we had over 20 employees depending on our business for their livelihoods. Second, we did not know what would happen to our business if we did close even for a short period of time. Finally, we felt that we could make a positive impact on the community if we kept the restaurant going.
We had to layoff some of the newer employees and reduced hours for our more senior staff. We also had to shift our model from table service to full delivery and takeout. Fortunately, we were already using third-party delivery apps like Uber Eats, Postmates, and GrubHub so we still had orders coming in. We also launched online ordering for pickup through our website and that helped our customers interact with us directly.
Once we were stabilized, we started giving back. We donated over 1500 meals to first responders, frontline hospital and health care workers. We were proud to take part in the Council District 8 – Meals for Seniors program sponsored by Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson. We prepared box lunches for local seniors and they were dropped off at their doorstep three times a week. We were very thankful to see our loyal regulars through the ordeal and we feel that we were able to attract more new faces from our local neighborhood.
As LA County opens up more and more, we are still looking for ways to help stop the spread. We obviously removed all community condiments and water stations. We encourage our customers to enjoy the beautiful weather and our outdoor dining. We are also developing more systems that will limit close contact between our staff and customers just to help keep everyone safe. We are among the fortunate restaurants to make it through the pandemic and if there is a silver lining, we hope this difficult time made us stronger and able to serve our customers better.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Bird’s Nest Cafe?
We take pride in the quality of our food and service. We feature fresh, natural ingredients (no microwaves exist in any of our locations) and in-house crafted sauces. We also try to deliver great value with our portions and keep our prices reasonable for our customers. COVID-19 has made food costs go up so finding the right balance between rising costs and our prices has definitely been a challenge.
We put a lot of care into all of our dishes like our signature Breakfast Burritos which are filled with fresh scrambled eggs, hash browns, quality meats, cheeses and house-made sauces. We choose a special brioche just for our French Toast, and we serve it with caramelized bananas, seasonal berries and a light dusting of powdered sugar. We also proudly serve Gavina Coffee which is a local, Los Angeles based coffee company. The quality of their coffee beans are amazing and a big reason why our lattes and blended drinks keep people coming back.
We also know that time can be limited for our customers during the daytime so we try to serve our meals as quickly and efficiently as possible. When you walk into a Bird’s Nest Cafe, you should be greeted by a friendly staff and your meals should be ready for you in a reasonable time. We also know our customers love their breakfast so we do our best to make their order just the way they want them.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Like most restaurant owners, I feel we care a lot about the quality of service and of the ingredients that we serve to our customers. But on top of that, we try to create a positive, fun environment where our staff can work as a team and treat our customers well. It can be very stressful during our rush periods but as long as we have good communication and people willing to work together, we know we can deliver great food and drinks to our patrons. I believe customers really pick up on that positive energy and hopefully, it keeps them coming back.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.birdsnestla.com
- Instagram: @birds.nest.cafe
- Facebook: facebook.com/BirdsNestCafeLA
Image Credits:
Jenni Aceret photographer – @jenaceret James Huang photographer – @1jameshuangphoto
