Roast pork marinated in red tofu, son-in-law egg sandwiches, hibachi-grilled lamb meatballs: welcome to Bac Pham’s vision of Vietnamese food.
In his short yet action-packed career as a chef, Bac Pham has cooked many cuisines.
He’s cooked modern Australian at State Buildings’ bustling Petition Kitchen. He’s dabbled in Italian cucina at Swanbourne wine bar Vinotto. He’s even helped advance the new-wave bowlo food movement with the Special Delivery crew at Doubleview Bowling Club.
This July, Pham finally gets to focus full-time on the flavours of his heritage when he opens North 54: a fresh-faced, 25-seat eatery in Leederville serving Vietnamese food. Vietnamese food, it’s worth mentioning, as viewed through the lens and life story of a Vietnamese-born, Australian-raised latecomer to the cooking game.
“It’s authentic, but it’s definitely not traditional [Vietnamese cooking],” says Pham. “I’m cooking traditional recipes but not doing them the traditional way.
“So take something like bun cha (Vietnamese meatballs). Traditionally, they’re eaten in a rice noodle salad, but I’m going to put it in a banh mi (bread roll).
“It’s not traditional but as long as it tastes good, that’s the most important thing, right?”
Although North 54 is Pham’s first bricks-and-mortar venue, he’s run many successful North 54 pop-ups over the past two years, including residencies at Aberdeen Street homeware store and cafe Arrival Hall, Beaconsfield Wine Bar and Patio in Fremantle. But by investing in a permanent home, Pham has created an ideal pulpit from which to tell his story as well as that of his family and culture.
The shop’s name, for instance, pays tribute to his grandparents on his mother’s side who, in 1954, fled their home city of Nihn Binh in northern Vietnam to start a new life in the south. (Pham’s first name Bac, incidentally, is the Vietnamese word for “north”.) The foundations for all of Pham’s recipes comes from his mother Nga Nguyen. Pham’s dad Dinh Pham helped repaint the breezy, wood floored eatery on Oxford Street that traded, fittingly, as Vietnamese eatery Three Sisters before rebranding to Gigi’s Bowls. Both mama and papa Pham also own a deli in Armadale serving Chiko rolls and pies alongside Vietnamese dishes including banh mi.
As Pham alluded, banh mi will be integral to North 54’s daytime offering with six rolls making up its core range. Think atypical fillings such as roast pork marinated in red tofu and five-spice, lamb meatballs, or deep-fried and chopped son-in-law eggs: a riff of the popular fried egg banh mi.
The bread – mainly wheat with a touch of rice flour for that all-important lightness and cotton wool texture – is Pham’s recipe but will be baked off-site while the chicken liver pate is being custom-made for the shop by local charcuterie producer (and one of Pham’s former workplaces) L’atelier Gourmet Food.
One thing North 54 won’t be serving, though, is banh mi thit: the ubiquitous pork cold-cut banh mi and, at times, an unwitting lightning rod for debates on perceived value and “authenticity”.
“If people want a traditional banh mi, there are already plenty of places to go and get one,” says Pham.
“I want to keep people on their toes by not serving the same things as everywhere else and having specials come on and off the menu.”
Each of the banh mi fillings is available in a rice noodle bowl as well as bread roll and diners will be able to take aim at meat and vegetarian spring rolls, pate so, cookies and other Vietnamese snacks. The drinks offering will revolve around Vietnamese-style drip coffees, matcha and other Asian beverages.
While North 54 might be hard to pigeonhole – Pham likes the catch-all “snack bar” for his combined dine-in and takeaway space – the hope is that it becomes a place of community. Pham hopes to host evening events including “broth nights” where his mum cooks the warmly spiced soups from Vietnam’s north that he adores. Similarly important is sharing his space with pop-ups including close friends and fellow cooks Drew Dawson of Off License (Dawson and Pham both travelled to Vietnam in 2023 for an eating trip ahead of the first North 54 pop-up) and Special Delivery’s Jacob D’Vauz. After all: the term family isn’t just restricted to those we’re connected to by birth.
North 54 (253A Oxford Street, Leederville) is due to open mid-July.
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Max Veenhuyzen is a journalist and photographer who has been writing about food, drink and travel for national and international publications for more than 20 years. He reviews restaurants for the Good Food Guide.
