“It is true that even in Vietnam, the best time to enjoy pho is early in the morning, when the broth is still fresh,” Pham says. “The same pho, however, if kept on the fire until noon time, tends to go flat, and the end bowl will not be as good. I developed the pho products so that I could offer pho in addition to my regular menu. Under this system, the pho broth is assembled at the last minute, and so each bowl is the same no matter what time it’s prepared. The StockPot pho base is made with all the aromatics and spices, and if you dilute it to order and serve with all the fresh condiments—meaning the fresh noodles, the paper-thin slices of onions, the green onions, and cilantro, and the side of bean sprouts, lime, and basil—then the bowl is absolutely delicious and, more importantly, consistent each time.”

Pham predicts that pho will win over mainstream America, akin to the way such dishes as pad Thai have spread beyond the menus from which they first emerged. “I do believe it’s a matter of time,” she says. “At my Lemon Grass Grill and Noodle Bar, we have customers who come and eat pho for lunch two to three times a week, and prior to that, they’ve never had it before. It’s comfort food, and I think that it will do very well in areas [with] cooler climates.” As proof, Pham cites the noodle concept she launched at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where sales of pho top approximately 300 a day among a student body that is only 7 percent Asian.

Primed for Expansion

Denver is one of the nation’s best testing grounds for up-and-coming dining concepts, so it’s no suprise that Tom Bird, a native Kansan who graduated from the University of Colorado in Boulder, chose Denver to launch a new dining concept in 2004 after years spent in successful mergers and acquisitions in Los Angeles’ entertainment industry and, later, investment banking. Half-Vietnamese, Bird grew up knowing pho, but like any typical American high schooler, aimed for McDonald’s and Taco Bell at lunchtime. That was 15 years ago. Today, Bird says, that demographic, at least in Denver, seeks something beyond the usual for lunch. Pho Fusion Asian came to the rescue.

Affluent students from Cherry Creek High aren’t the only customers frequenting Pho Fusion Asian. Indeed, Bird says, his clientele is highly mixed, consisting of non-Asian businesspeople, moms and families, the health-conscious, and others who have discovered the goodness of pho, often after trying something other than pho on the first visit. But it’s pho that gets them returning again and again.

The biggest catalyst to pho mania? Bird echoes the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes: There’s nothing new under the sun. That’s as true in foodservice as anywhere, and pho’s an exception that just happens to be flavorful, inexpensive, and healthy.

“New alone doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s good,” Bird concedes, pointing out that pho is more than a century old in Vietnam. “Consumers are very rarely introduced to a new food product. With current retail dining trends, the [rate of] increased demand for pho will be short compared to historical comparables. If high schoolers are actively seeking out these emerging ethnic foods on a daily basis, it is pretty strong evidence that the time has come.

“Fundamentally, the food product is simple, clean and healthy. The growth potential for pho is massive. The limiting factor for pho is purely related to operations and execution, which makes the product uniquely attractive,” Bird says.

So sure is he that his business model will thrive in other markets, Bird and his partners are courting investors to begin expansion outside Denver.

Despite its global presence, Pho Hoa, the world’s largest pho chain, maintains a familiar mom-and-pop feel at the unit level to attract diners in the predomimently Asian communities where restaurants operate. The company plans to increase North American units from 40 to 44 within the next year, says co-founder and president Binh Nguyen. He believes pho has further potential because of increasing Asian populations in the U.S. and Canada. Besides, Nguyen says, you simply can’t beat the value of something that also tastes this good.