Notable Edibles
WATERFORD’S TASTE OF VIETNAM
Trang Truong wanted to serve her Waterford community a piece of her own Vietnamese culture. With recipes that have origins centuries ago, The Pho Pot is able to do just that.
Pho (pronounced fuh) is a classic Vietnamese rice noodle soup typically served with a diner’s chosen protein—beef, chicken or tofu—in a bowl of steaming hot broth (vegetable or beef), plus bean sprouts, basil, jalapeños, cilantro and green onions.
The rest of The Pho Pot’s menu is also traditional Vietnamese. Diners will find a neatly curated list of options that includes a variety of appetizers and rice bowls with sesame pork, ginger soy chicken, stir-fried tofu and steak. They also have a wide selection of boba tea.
“We have a lot of customers who love our shop, love our food, love the Vietnamese culture. But they really don’t know a whole lot about it,” says Truong, whose family fled China in a homemade boat after the Vietnam War, eventually migrating to the United States in 1983.
For Truong, The Pho Pot was also an opportunity to start a business with her cousin, Phuc Le, who joined Truong after she returned from learning the restaurant business from relatives in Florida. They were open a year before the pandemic paused the business, a move that hit Truong particularly hard, also temporarily closing her nearby salon Nails on Main.
“Shutting down two businesses during COVID was really tough. We almost closed down for good,” says Truong. “But we converted The Pho Pot into an Asian market to generate revenue. And we were able to get some loans” from the federal Small Business Administration.
The added Asian grocery items—and the eventual return of takeout— saved the business.
“Our customers love the store, so much so that we’re actually tripling in size,” says Truong, who in the spring began renovations to expand with plans to restore indoor dining in September. “We’ve been really successful with the store and the noodle shop. The next best thing to do is to expand for our customers.”
The Pho Pot, 5673 Dixie Hwy., Waterford Township; 248-742-1220; thephopot.com
ISLA’S NOW IN STERLING HEIGHTS
When the Fort Street Galley food hall shut its doors right before the pandemic, J.P. Garcia and Jacqueline Diño had to figure out how to save their restaurant, Isla.
The husband and wife—Garcia is trained in Japanese and classical French cuisine and Diño is trained in French cuisine and pastries— opened Isla at the food hall in 2018. After a host of pop-up events in Hazel Park, the Filipino eatery landed its own brick-and-mortar location on the border of Sterling Heights and Troy earlier this year.
Isla—the Filipino word for “island”—combines the couple’s culinary training and their shared Filipino heritage. Having recently opened to indoor dining, the couple is introducing more dishes to the menu.
“A lot of Asian appetizers are prepared fresh and just can’t be enjoyed if they sit for a while,” says Garcia. “If customers order them to go and take them home, it’s not the same.”
One of the most popular dishes on the menu is the Pinoy Baked Spaghetti and Wings, a staple in the Philippines and one that Garcia says represents his style of cooking. Garcia employs his own recipe for brining, marinating and dredging the chicken wings, as well as for the sweet tomato sauce.
“It’s a pretty common dish over there,” says Garcia. “Traditional Filipino cuisine has a lot of Spanish influences and Chinese influences, plus American influences, too. We’re just trying to capture all those flavors in our own way.”
And if you’re there at the right time, you won’t want to miss their Buko Halo Halo, a seasonal treat featuring Isla’s ube ice cream with assorted tropical toppings and served in a coconut shell.
The duo will soon add staff members to Isla, as they build out a full bakery to accommodate Diño’s pastries and cakes. They also plan to add lunch hours.
“We’re mixing Filipino flavors and delivering them in a modern way. Our food is authentic to the Philippines and it’s authentic to us. Our customers have been loving it.”
Isla, 2496 Metro Pkwy., Sterling Heights; 586-883-7526; isladetroit.com
SLICED RIGHT
The directions on Slice of Flint’s pizza menu are to the point:
1. Choose your sauce.
2. Choose your toppings.
3. Enjoy your slice.
Owner Antwan Johnson knows pizza.
“Everywhere I go, I try the pizza, always trying to see what is new and different out there,” says Johnson, who in 2019 even built his own pizza oven from a barrel grill using an angle grinder. The hybrid pizza oven is wood-fired, which imparts a sweet-smokiness to the pizza, which Johnson says enhances the flavor: “The cheese, the dough, the meats all accept the smoke and have that flavor to them.”
After Flint’s Tender Bonez BBQ helped him secure a temporary food license, Johnson set up Slice of Flint in a pop-up tent. Residents instantly flocked to it. Less than a month later, wait times surpassed two hours, so Johnson created a website enabling customers to browse the menu—which features create-your-own or specialties such as the Farmers Market, Jive Turkey and Mellow Mushroom in slices or pies—to place online orders in advance.
Then COVID hit. Johnson had to turn his attention from pies to getting his business through the pandemic.
“I lacked the business knowledge, you know? But COVID really forced me to become a businessman and figure out what I need to do to make the business work,” he says.
Johnson worked closely with the Small Business Administration and fine-tuned a long-term business plan. He converted Slice of Flint into a food trailer, so that once restrictions were lifted, his pizza oven could be mobile, if needed.
Customers again flocked to get his slices. Because everything is made to order, the online ordering eases the wait-time pressure.
“It’s good for us and the customers because now they can just show up when their pizza is ready,” Johnson says. “But we still have folks who want to stand outside and wait.”
Slice of Flint: 214 W. 5th Ave., Flint (usually); sliceofflint.pizza
