Pizza Comes to Hanoi

As a true pizza devotee, when I found out that two new pizza places had opened in Hanoi, I had to find out how the original dough, cheese, and tomato concept was being interpreted in an Asian country thousands of miles from the birthplace of pizza.

My first stop on this culinary tour was A Little Italian at 81 Tho Nhuom Street. This restaurant arrived in Hanoi by way of Australia with former Perth residents Deborah May and boyfriend Benjamin Bolto. They came to Vietnam to seek their fortune.

"Ben's father is a lawyer doing business in Southeast Asia and he felt Vietnam is where the opportunity is. So he urged us to come and look around," notes May as she casually explains her reason for starting a restaurant. "I'm pretty good in the kitchen and can throw things together that work. So a restaurant seemed like a good idea. When we settled on pizza, Ben went back to Perth where he worked in a pizza parlor for free for a month to gain experience. Then he taught the Vietnamese cooks how to make pizza."

By American standards, the kitchen at A Little Italian is minute. The toppings are set out in Oriental bowls in the orderly fashion chefs know as "mis en place." The dining room and outdoor court capture the genuine pizza parlor feeling of the classic American pizzerias although they lack booths.

When I visited, A Little Italian was filled with Westerners. College students on tour from New Jersey, business people from Canada, a French woman traveling in Vietnam to get over a relationship gone sour, and a reporter from Orange County, California had come here in search of familiar food. An ensemble made up of musicians from the Hanoi Symphony Orchestra provide a backdrop of classical selections on Sunday evenings. "We tried a rock band but it drove customers away," comments May.

But what about the pizza? If one suspends the memory of the typical American version, Deborah's and Ben's pizza is a great pie that doesn't take itself too seriously. The Margarita has a thick doughy crust and cheddar cheeses from France and Australia.

"The fresh basil comes from a plantation on my window sill and the sauce is made from tinned tomatoes," says May. Prices are moderate: $4 for a small and $8 for a large. American money is accepted as readily as dong as long as the bills are in good condition.

May presents her menu with a refreshing sense of whimsy. The "Fisho Pizza" has prawns and tuna with a dash of lemon juice. The "Chilio Oo" is spiced up with capsicum, the operative ingredient in Tabasco sauce. When May whipped up a spaghetti dish with tuna, prawns, and onions she said, "I thought it tasted pretty good, so tonight's special is called 'Spaghetti Tastio.'"

How did the restaurant come by its name? Says May, "One of Ben's ancestors was Italian so that makes him 'A Little Italian.'"

Another new and thriving addition to Hanoi's Western culinary scene is the Sunset Pub, located at the top of the Dong Do Hotel. The Sunset Pub makes savory pizzas as well as hamburgers and sandwiches. "I wanted to create the first Western-style bar in Hanoi," explains Matti Nurmi, a Finnish electrician-engineer-turned-restaurant-owner-and-catering-company operator. His partner and legal owner, as required by law, is Vietnamese. In this case it is his wife, Trieu Nguyen, whom he met while working on an irrigation project in Vietnam. The couple married in 1990.

The Pub's pizza is a good cheddar-topped interpretation covered with slices of fresh tomato. Nurmi offers a bottle of herbed olive oil to brush on the pizza, but it's not really needed.

In keeping with the Western theme, the pub offers the traditional pastimes including darts and jazz every Thursday. It also offers a unique spending opportunity. For $10, customers can buy a clock and have it displayed with the time and name of their hometown. Over 100 clocks line the bamboo-covered walls and include just about every time-zone in the world.

"When the U.S. embargo was lifted, our business shot up, " says Nurmi who tends a 45-foot long bar and recalls how the place was packed with Americans during a recent U.S. trade show at the Giang Vo Convention Center next door. Clad in yellow shorts and a black polo shirt, Nurmi is making a blue "swimming pool" cocktail for one of a group of Finnish customers. Disagreeing with Nurmi's observations, a Swedish traffic consultant argues that foreign business involvement in Vietnam has been increasing at a rapid and steady pace, "with or without American involvement."

Before places like A Little Italian and the Sunset Pub opened, American travelers looking for a place to dine on familiar food and socialize in a Western-style bar had to go to the five-star Metropole Hotel run by the French hospitality chain Sofitel. But with the addition of these two new restaurants Hanoi is treating its guests to the kind of neighborhood bar and restaurant that used to be just the around the corner in every American city.

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Published on 12/1/94