Today we’d like to introduce you to Tony Dang.
Hi Tony, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
2020 at the time the banhkhotlady idea was created, I was living in a van parked at my sister’s house. This was right when covid started. My mother was working as a manicurist at the time and I am a tattoo artist by trade. When the covid mandate went into effect, her salon shut down and so was the tattoo studio I was working at. During that time the food cooking groups on Facebook were blowing up because all of the restaurants were closed. I remember having a vivid dream of my mom serving my friend’s banhkhot! (Growing up my mom made her banh khot a different way as the fish sauce she made was really special that I had no idea how special it was. It was just how I always ate it growing up.) The first day we posted up our banh khots for sale, it was Mother’s Day and we sold something like 500 banh khots.
I thought it was just because of Mother’s Day; we sold a lot. Then I posted it up again the following week and both Saturdays and Sundays were selling a lot. I knew we had something special. We started our little operation at my sister’s house. Slowly the word got out and more people started ordering. The Iconic banh khot pizza box came into the picture when I realized our banh khot were getting soft once I delivered them. (I did door-to-door delivery when we first started just to get our product into the hands of people!)
2021, it got to a point where we were making so much banh khot our stove literally started blowing up. When that happened, it frightened my mom and we ended our house production. From that point on the banhkhotlady existence was unclear. My girlfriend now my wife mention we could cook out of her grandma’s house. She helped us out with making the banh khot at the time.
We briefly started a catering service but the logistics of on-site banh khot was really hard. We went MIA for a year to figure out the next plan. I was about to call it quits because we didn’t have a location to cook it at.
Jan. 2023 when I got an opportunity to do a presentation at the Asian Garden Mall, the owner Frank got to try the banh khot fresh. He gave me the green light to do a pop-up event at the iconic mall!
We did our official pop up and the masses came out to support us, I am a huge believer in manifestation and really believe the universe is always helping I looked up into the sky and asked for a place for use to call home. With the support of my wife and the community, one thing leads to another…I found a small restaurant for sale that was within my budget, my wife and I took the risk and put everything we had into the shop and we bought it! The project took two months to build it… currently in May 2023, we’ve been open for two months and it is going out of control in a good way
Present day my wife and I run the project; my wife is now the banhkhotlady the torch has been passed down to her. Everything currently being made in the shop is a revised version of my mother’s original recipe.
We get to live the dream and create something out of love and passion for our friends and family to try. We get to live our way and provide for all those that help us!
Our shop is more than just making banh khot. We get to be a part of our community and serve or community in different ways! With banhkhotlady, I created a fundraiser to support the AAPI community because of all the recent attacks on the elderly again. We are one of the co-founders of Seniors Fight Back, a 501.3c nonprofit that serves our community!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Has the road for banhkhotlady been smooth? I would like to say if the road was made and dirt and rocks then yes!
The biggest struggle was creating something that doesn’t exist yet. The way we produce banh khot streamline it hasn’t been an easy path at all. There are a lot of things I have to invent and create to help streamline our production.
To make banh khot take a tremendous amount of work and effort. We must pay attention to every banh khot individually. One second too long at the banh khot is burnt! Not cooked long enough and the banh khot is soft. It takes a special talent to cook banh khot efficiently.
The biggest obstacle is to process our raw ingredients and understanding what kind of flow the kitchen team needs to have it flow flawlessly.
The growing pains of a new business is how much I am putting is and not getting any return, or if I will even get a return. I started this project to help keep my mom afloat. All the money I brought in I gave it all directly to her. It was a lot of blood sweat and tears into banhkhotlady. Many times my wife and I would get into arguments that tested our relationship and I believe it will still continue to test our relationship. But banhkhotlady has also made my family and I stronger.
Transitioning into an actual restaurant is very eye-opening. We risked everything. I have been a tattoo artist for 13 years. And only knew about tattooing. My wife has only been in America for three years before we got married. The struggles of balancing our life is always in-play. With the restaurant been open for two months and my wife just giving birth, it becomes a bigger challenge to maintain the restaurant and the baby.
To open a restaurant with no experience is wild and a beautiful life experience. The future is unknown because we are so new but so far, I wake up every day loving every second of life!
Every time I think I solve a problem, a new problem presents itself and I am happy for any challenges that arise.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a visionary.
I am coming into my own abilities and believing in myself to manifest my visions are the strongest skills I’ve learned from life.
From the very beginning, I was always an artist more than just the canvas. I saw art in everything I did. I decided I wanted to become a tattoo artist because it was a way I could share my energy with others. My art is living and breathing on another human being. I’ve been molding my craft and my art for the past 13 years and still working on it. I will forever be a student of life.
The way I view life is my own interpenetration of how things are.
With the banhkhotlady, I see it not as a business but as conscious energy that speaks through me. A business has all stages of what we believe is being alive. A conception point, it needs to eat, needs to be fed, nurturing for it to grow before it can bear fruits.
How I process things is I just literally wait until a vision comes into my mind and it will tell me everything I need to know on how to execute it.
My life is to serve society in whatever capacity I can. I spent a good chunk of my life traveling Southeast Asia, learning about myself and learning about different walks of life. I worked with underprivileged women and children throughout Southeast Asia. I got to be a part of the creation of seniors fight back, the nonprofit.
Spending time in 3rd world countries, I got to learn a lesson in compassion for others and how to treat others. That has carried me into my present-day of doing the things I do!
What sets me apart from others? Nothing much; I just focus on being me and being authentic to myself. We all have our own abilities and talents!
The most thing I am proud of to date over everything I have achieved in my life is to become a father. My wife and son is what I am most proud of.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Take the risk, and enjoy the fails; life is the most surprising rollercoaster that you can get on. Be present with everything. Feel all the emotions, cry the cry and have gratitude in everything you do. You’ll wake up with a smile every single day.
Don’t let money dictate your every move.
Listen to and recognize your gut feeling is your best friend! It will save you from a lot of trouble.
Problems are good; they just feel sh*tty.
Contact Info:
- Website: banhkhotlady.as.me
- Instagram: instagram.com/banhkhotlady
- Facebook: facebook.com/banhkhotlady
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/ziCP_3e37yI
- Yelp: https://s.yelp.com/Rb8EaZMNEe
Image Credits
Johnson Doan
