Today we’d like to introduce you to Vinh Chau “vinnie” Nguyen
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
It started out as a means to meet an end. We were new parents. Get worrisome about the down side of Daycare and just the prospect of others taking care of our children. Since I am already a chef and I love cooking, a food truck would be ideal for us to have the time we needed with our kids and also make a living. Later on, we realize that we were very unique with our food and we loved representing our culture thru food.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been a really tough road. I started a Food truck once already in 2013 and with a very small budget. The truck ended did up being with a lot of mechanical problems.
Retrying again in 2017 with newer trailer with a partnership. Things went sour and I was double in debt. We kept at it while my wife worked morning, I would be a stay at home dad and took care of the kids. She would come home at 8pm and I would take the trailer out to work nights. We had a lucky break with the industry workers coming home late.
We were then offered a permanent spot to sell our food with the condition of building another truck. Back into debts again. Unfortunately, the location also didn’t workout and we were now with two food trucks. We kept grinding with one food truck and in 2019 sold my house to cash out and settled some debts. Later on a brewery offered to “buy” our food trailer. Unfortunately, they later on went out of business and returned the trailer in pretty bad. Back to the grind with only one food truck now.
Covid 2020. Awful for everyone.
2022 a lucky break brought us into a farm for an amazing 2 month. Another offer came in for us with a once in a lifetime opportunity. Again though, this time we had to build another food truck. We all my experiences combined. I knew exactly what to build though. With the help of all my family members and my god mother, We are here now, two months into the journey of Chin.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Nguyen and Lam LLC DBA Pho Wheels Orlando and DBA Chin?
We believe ourselves to be the personification of the American grind and dream! Both my wife and I are immigrants. We started a family with nothing but promises to each other. We are not rich in term of money but I consider myself to be humble and full of love & memoirs!
Our food when we started was the only Vietnamese food truck in the area. We specialize in Pho, with other fusion dishes. We are very proud of our Pho as a food but mostly proud that we can show the food truck scene our national food.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I currently want to stabilize Chin. My hope in developing Chin in a such a way as to be able to have multiple store front. I want to be able to “offer” a low entry point for an established concept for individual that maybe be in my shoe when I started.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Pho wheels orlando
- Facebook: Pho wheel’s Orlando
Image Credits
Instagram @Communityprosconsulting
