The last thing Joe Schumacher — an experienced civil engineer and part-owner of a construction company in Windsor, Colorado — ever imagined himself doing was opening a Vietnamese restaurant.
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| Pho Duy restaurant chef Phong Pham holds up some steaming Vietnamese-style noodles at the business at 3000 S. 23rd Ave. in Greeley. |
In fact, when he began telling people that was his intention, they thought he was crazy. “You are going to open a soup kitchen?” his friends would ask. When he told his brother, he simply said, “No, you're not doing that.”
But a shift in the economy and a close, inspirational friendship with a Catholic priest changed Schumacher's destiny. Now, Schumacher and his construction business partners find themselves the owners of one of Greeley's newest restaurants, Pho Duy, which serves a traditional Vietnamese soup that it's safe to say has rarely been served in this area.
“It was quite a change,” Schumacher admits. “But the economy has been dismal. And I thought, ‘What better time to do it.'”
Schumacher took a gamble, and so far, it looks as if it will pay off. Pho Duy opened in mid-December on 23rd Avenue just south of the Greeley Mall, occupying the former Ron's 19th Hole site.
Schumacher and restaurant manager Dang Hoang said they are pleased with the reception they've received so far.
“We thought people would slowly ease into it,” Schumacher said. “But it took off from Day 1.”
In fact, chef Phong Pham, who has been traveling to Greeley from Denver to help get the restaurant up and going, said opening day was busier than anyone could have imagined.
“When we opened the first day it was like chaos,” Pham said, laughing. “Everyone was running around.”
Pho (pronounced “fuh”) is a traditional soup, usually made with a flavorful beef stock, rice noodles, onions and thin strips of cooked or raw beef. At Pho Duy, the soup also includes sliced green onions and cilantro, and is served with a plate for fresh bean sprouts, sliced jalapeños and basil leaves for garnish. Sriracha, a chile garlic sauce, and hoison, a sweet dark sauce, are also served on the side.
Pho Duy offers several varieties of the same soup, with different cuts of beef, tripe and even the less traditional chicken and shrimp. Other than the soup, the restaurant makes fresh spring rolls and a version of shrimp cocktail as an accompaniment or appetizer.
Sold in roadside stands as well as high-class restaurants, pho is eaten in Vietnam for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and is thought of not only as a comfort food, but as a cheap and filling meal.
Schumacher, co-owner of GLH Construction Inc. in Windsor, first experienced pho because of his friend and priest Monseigneur Peter Quang Ngyen, who served as the parish priest at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greeley for more than a decade before being reassigned to a church in Denver.
Father Quang, as he was known in Greeley, was an inspirational church leader and member of the community. But he was also an advocate for Vietnamese cuisine, and he urged Schumacher to try pho and other dishes.
“It got so I was driving down to Denver on the weekends to get pho,” Schumacher said. “My kids would get up on Saturday and say, ‘We want pho, Dad.' I would say, ‘If you come with me we'll go get it,' and they would. They'd be willing to drive down to Denver to get it.”
Father Quang once said in passing it would be nice to open some sort of spring roll restaurant in Greeley. But Schumacher began to think a pho restaurant would be better. He and his business partners began looking at locations, and with the help of Father Quang and his family, decided on the old Ron's 19th Hole location.
It took eight months to remodel the restaurant. Schumacher gutted the kitchen, doing most of the work himself, and installed huge gas burners used to cook and heat 20 gallons of beef broth at a time. Hoang, who has moved from Denver to Greeley to manage the restaurant, said the broth is made only with beef, no bones, and takes five hours to prepare.
The soup starts at $6.50 a bowl. Schumacher said keeping the prices low was his goal.
“We are not looking to get rich,” Schumacher said. “We are looking to offer really good, healthy food at a reasonable price.”
Hoang said the restaurant is already seeing many repeat customers. He said one woman, who sometimes eats breakfast, lunch and dinner at the restaurant, asked if they had a punch card.
Schumacher said he knew things were going well when he was told by the hostess that a customer wanted to see him one day. Schumacher went out in the restaurant to find a young Vietnamese man, who turned out to be a University of Northern Colorado student, holding his large bowl of pho.
“He said, ‘I've been here three years and this pho is just like my mom's,' ” Schumacher recalled. “I tell you I just about cried.”
Schumacher admits that being new to the restaurant business has been challenging. After working all day at his regular job, Schumacher is spending most evenings and weekends at Pho Duy, making decisions and learning how to run a restaurant. But he's not complaining.
“It hasn't been a burden at all,” Schumacher said, smiling. “It's been fun. I couldn't be happier.”
