The New Saigon, on the 900 block of Kearny, is closing. Vietnamese food has gone upscale and relatively new places like the Slanted Door in the Ferry Building show how well it can be marketed. Most Vietnamese cooks are well versed technically and have the chops to focus on the fine dinning aspects of their cuisine. New Saigon eschewed all that and focused on farm style lunches and dinners for working folks. It's unapologetically an old style phô joint. As tourists swarm to the new places on the block, and local business people strive to insulate themselves from any connection with the neighborhood, New Saigon got left behind. A new sushi franchise is slated to open in the spot when all the paperwork goes through.
Years ago ( 15+) I started going there for the lamb stew. A big bowl, a fresh mini baguette, a spoon, and a pile of holy basil with a lime slice. If you caught the owner at the right time, she'd break open the private stash and add one or two bird's beak peppers. No frills, you dealt with the bones as best you could while a shortwave broadcast from Vietnam, featuring operas and farm reports, drifted out of the back. When I worked at the Stone, on Broadway, our crew and some of the people from the Mab would take the break between soundcheck and showtime and go eat with guys that thought the Beats were Johnny-come-lately. But we're not a neighborhood any longer, we've graduated to being a commercial center, and $3.50 for a real big bowl of good anything is a fond memory.
