French-Vietnamese fusion restaurant Bonjour Vietnam, which closed two months ago after receiving a notice about failure to pay rent, has reopened under the same ownership as the second location of popular Vietnamese restaurant Rice Paper.
Formerly located on the first floor of the Hotel San Carlos on Central Avenue and Monroe Street, Bonjour Vietname shut its doors in September after receiving a notice from the hotel’s owner, Gregory Melikian, saying the restaurant owed nearly $5,000 in rent.
However, Robert Melikian, Gregory’s son and manager of the day-to-day operations of the hotel, said that the conflict between Bonjour Vietnam owner Lan Tran and Gregory Melikian had nothing to do with business or even with paying the rent.
“(Gregory) just got mad,” Robert Melikian said. “It was a personal thing and he put a sign up. Both shaped up and compromised. We are all back in business.”
The original Rice Paper restaurant is located at Seventh Street north of McDowell Road.
Tran, owner of both Bonjour Vietnam and Rice Paper, told Melikian that she wanted to move Rice Paper to a new location because of parking issues. The space was too small at the previous location, she said, so they decided to alleviate the crowded parking lot by opening a second location.
Members of the Tran family own and operate several restaurants around the Valley, each offering unique cuisine.
Kapono Rowe, a server who has been working at both Rice Paper and Bonjour Vietnam for more than two years, offered other reasons for why the business made the switch.
He said the business at Rice Paper was doing much better than at Bonjour Vietnam, and workers at Bonjour Vietnam were getting discouraged because they were not making as much as they had been at Rice Paper.
Rowe also said the air conditioner at Bonjour Vietnam broke over the summer, which contributed to the closing of the restaurant. He said during the time the restaurant was shut down, the owner decided it would be better to change it over to Rice Paper.
Dennis Tran, Lan Tran’s brother, said that managerial challenges contributed to Bonjour Vietnam’s closure, and that it was time for the restaurant to restructure and rebrand. There was never going to be an empty space there for long, though. Negotiations to open Rice Paper started soon after the restaurant closed, Dennis Tran said in a past Downtown Devil article.
“We didn’t want to set ourselves up for failure. It’s hard to stay open, be open or have a concept that works,” Rowe said. “Rice Paper is a tested concept. We know it works.”
The new location has the same menu as the Rice Paper located on Seventh Street and offers a modern spin to Vietnamese dishes.
Cecilia Pena, receptionist at Hotel San Carlos, said the restaurant still has the same management and food.
“I ate when it was Bonjour Vietnam and it was really good, but now I think it is better because now they have more options,” Pena said. “I haven’t been since it just opened three or four days ago but it is still the same management.”
Contact the reporter at lawong@asu.edu
