FIND MORE FOOD & DRINK COVERAGE AT WESTWORD.COM/RESTAURANTS CAFE Now Open for Lunch Monday – Friday, 11am – 2pm Lunch Specials Happy Hour Game Day Specials * Tuesday through Saturday * Kitchen Open until 2am * Sunday through Monday * Kitchen Open until Midnight Live Music, DJ, Poker every Monday, Trivia every Wednesday, Karaoke every Saturday, A Free Drink Bring in this ad for Inga’s Alpine Tavern & Lounge 5151 Leetsdale Dr, Denver • (720) 389-6203 www.ingasalpinetavern.net Open everyday 11am – 9pm Dine-in · Takeout · Delivery 4660 S Yosemite St, Greenwood Village dumplingfactoryco.com (720) 420-9461 About to Be BY JEHU IYEMA “Denver is ready for Vietnamese fl avors,” says Anna Nguyen, co-owner of Sap Sua. Nguyen and her husband, Anthony, plan to open a brick-and-mortar location in Cherry Creek by the end of the year — though Anna doesn’t want to share the exact address just yet. Anna and Anthony met nine years ago at culinary school, when Anna went back for seconds at the school’s buffet. “I saw her the fi rst time, and when she came back a second time, I knew I loved her vibe,” Anthony remembers. Over the years, the couple talked often about opening a res- taurant together, but the idea stayed on the back burner — until the pandemic gave them the time to work on it. In November 2020, the Nguyens moved from Anthony’s home state of California to Longmont, where Anna grew up. There they started serving Vietnamese food out of a cart. “It never even had a name, but it gathered a pretty strong base of support,” Anna says. “We weren’t even sure how Vietnamese food would do in Longmont, but people loved it.” The concept soon grew, and the Nguyens began doing a series of pop-up dinners at Pizzeria Locale in Boulder, Sunday Vinyl in Denver and Hickory and Ash in Broom- fi eld. “Through these pop-ups, we have to maintain this identity, but we don’t have a space to do it in. That’s been challenging,” admits Anna. But, she adds, it’s also helped the couple build confi dence in their cooking. Sap Sua is inspired by Anthony’s up- bringing as a fi rst-generation Vietnamese person; the name translates to, “about to be,” Anna explains. “For us, it’s the mindset of staying humble and working really hard to develop our skills. In other words, it’s the implication that if you always think you’re about to be great, you’ll never stop working toward that goal.” The couple hopes to introduce customers 16 who aren’t familiar with Vietnamese fl avors to the cuisine, and to take other fi rst-genera- tion Vietnamese people back to their child- hoods. “Kids like myself, we didn’t share the same experience as our parents,” Anthony adds. “Our food represents that. Our food should feel separate from our parents while still keeping the integrity and traditions.” One pop-up hit that will defi nitely be on the menu when the restaurant opens is a charred-cabbage dish. “It has an egg yolk sauce, with fi sh sauce and anchovy bread- crumbs,” Anthony says. At the fi rst pop-up, some guests ordered the dish, fi nished their dinner, then asked if they could order it again, he recalls. “It’s based off a humble dish my mom would cook for us,” he explains. “She Anthony (left) and Anna Nguyen are planning to open their Vietnamese restaurant this year. would work six nights a week and still fi nd time to come home and cook for us. But on the nights she was super tired and wasn’t inspired to cook, she would make this dish.” As they work to open the restaurant, the couple has faced many challenges that they didn’t see coming, from delays in fi nding the perfect second-generation restaurant space (one already outfi tted with the right equipment) to fi nancing the whole operation themselves. But there have been internal struggles, too. “There’s been a lot of self-doubt, like, ‘Can we really do this? Are we capable of accomplishing this dream?’” Anthony says. But now that dream is getting closer, and plans are being fi nalized. Eventually, the restaurant’s bar will double as a bakery in the mornings, headed up by Anna, who has a pastry chef background with a focus on French techniques. “The beauty of it is that Vietnamese food has been highly infl uenced by French food, because Viet- nam was occupied by the French for a long time,” she explains. “A lot of traditional Vietnamese pastries and desserts stem from traditional French ones. The pastries will be this nice sweet spot of feeling very French but with a lot of Vietnamese fl a- vors, all in my style, which is really simple, handmade, and not too fussy.” When Sap Sua does open, the Nguyens want to create a welcoming and comfortable environment where guests feel like they can be themselves. Anna hopes that at the end of a meal, customers will walk back to their cars thinking, “I have never tasted anything like this. I want to come back for more.” For more information on Sap Sua, including upcoming pop-up dates, follow it on Instagram @sapsuarestaurant. MAY 26-JUNE 1, 2022 WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | westword.com CASEY WILSON
