At 67, Luot Nguyen thought she wanted to retire after the stress of the pandemic took its toll. She’d spent a lifetime in the restaurant business.
But after dipping her toe into the world of the formerly employed, Nguyen found the lack of structure just wasn’t for her.
The longtime chef is back in the kitchen at her family’s latest restaurant, Magasin Vietnamese Cafe, in a new location on Magazine Street, just a block up from where she originally opened a dozen years ago.
“My mom isn’t the type to spend all her time with the grandkids,” says her daughter Kim Nguyen, who as a native English speaker runs the business for her mother.
Luot Nguyen came to the U.S. in 1975, like so many Vietnamese immigrants in the waning days of the Vietnam War. She traveled with her aunt, who adopted her when her mother died in childbirth, and the pair landed first in Orange County, California, where they worked in a relative’s restaurant. Then they relocated to New Orleans East, where Nguyen eventually opened Golden Lotus, a Chinese-American restaurant. She later added another location on Canal Street, but both closed after Hurricane Katrina.
In 2012, the family opened a combination corner grocery and takeout spot, true to its name, which in French means small store. That first location was 4201 Magazine St.
“It was a risk to open a traditional Vietnamese place in that neighborhood,” says Kim Nguyen, who also works in real estate. “She didn’t know how the food would be received.”
It was welcomed with open arms.
They expanded with Magasin Kitchen in the CBD in 2016. There they introduced more creative dishes in a space with modern design. That location closed during the pandemic.
Then the family opened Mukbang to focus on Viet-Cajun-style boiled seafood in 2022 on Oak Street. Between high seafood prices, a lack of street traffic and a brutally hot summer, the location floundered. Last fall, Kim Nguyen rebranded Mukbang as Magasin, but business was too inconsistent. With her mom eager to get back in the kitchen, the family returned to open a smaller cafe on Magazine Street in March.
The menu remains essentially the same as the original restaurant, Kim Nguyen says. “My mom wants to keep her customer’s favorites while elevating with a few new dishes,” she says.
The cafe offers a solid menu of Vietnamese noodle shop standards, starting with pho offered with brisket, filet, rare steak, chicken and tofu. Lemon grass beef, tofu, chicken and salmon are a few protein options available with vermicelli or rice. Bahn mi sandwiches are made with grilled pork or chicken, char siu pork or fried, marinated tofu.
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The chef upped her game with some dishes. She makes hand-pulled wide noodles, which are served in a stir-fried shrimp and garlic dish and in a spicy beef noodle soup. One version of her fried potstickers is stuffed with seasoned, chopped squid. Luot Nguyen also played around with firm tofu to get a meaty, umami texture in vegetarian potstickers. She pressed the tofu and mixed it with rice flour to a consistency that will go through a pasta extruder, creating little nibs.
She adds chopped avocado into her fresh spring rolls, giving a creamy finish to the popular appetizer.
As the third generation in the restaurant business, Kim Nguyen never planned to follow her mother’s path.
“But here I am,” she says. “She wasn’t happy not working in the kitchen. After she took a little break, it seemed like she lost her purpose. I wanted to see her happy again. It’s really all she wants to do.”
