Story of Baltimore Pho in the Hollins Renaissance
                                                                                  Jim Collins

           When I first visited Hollins Market back in 2002 and admired the area’s magnificent architecture, many storefronts were vacant and boarded up. I spent weekends on the street talking to anyone who’d listen to my questions. We spoke about the community. We often found ourselves talking of the Dreams -- and
Broken Dreams –- all around us. Everyone was open and friendly; the
conversations were remarkably without preconceptions.  

           I ended up purchasing several commercial properties and many have now reopened with new businesses. The local Community Association, the new Mayor Sheila Dixon, City Councilwoman Agnes Welch, and many individuals all worked
to bring change. By 2007, it seemed like a perfect time to bring in a new Gathering Place sort of restaurant. But I couldn’t find any takers for the property where the popular Cultured Pearl restaurant once stood. So, a few of us decided to do up
the old place ourselves.

           Our Dream was to offer exceptionally tasty and healthy food at a reasonable price -- and in a friendly atmosphere. I couldn’t help remembering my two years in Vietnam as a civilian adviser back in the late 60’s when I’d enjoyed delicious and mouth-watering ‘pho’ every day. Two good friends from those days in the Mekong Delta, Carl and Kim-Dung Robinson, had moved to Australia where they ended up running a highly-successful Vietnamese restaurant in Sydney, the Old Sàigòn. They offered to come all the way to Baltimore and help us get started. We wanted to highlight not just ‘pho’ but other gourmet Vietnamese delights handed down from generation to generation in Kim-Dung’s family in Gò Công Province, a region renowned for its tasteful cuisine. We recruited Larry Huynh as our Executive Chef who remembers as a small child the tongue-licking smells and savory tastes from his mother’s own kitchen and her small rural restaurant ---- and who is dedicated to recreating them for your enjoyment. And so Baltimore Pho was born.

           Baltimore Pho is not just a Baltimore restaurant. Nor is it just a Vietnamese restaurant. It is a Baltimore Vietnamese Restaurant that combines history, influences and ideas recast and mingled together for today.

           A couple examples:
         1.When I finally returned to Vietnam for the first time since the war in 2004
and re-entered Gò Công where I’d worked, I wondered how I would be treated.
With indifference or hostility? To my surprise, I could not have imagined the reception and the genuine smiles and warmth of those who still remembered me.
At a local restaurant, the owner approached and gave me a hug. He was the local Viet Cung District Chief during the war. Inviting me to enjoy the meal, he said,
“I am glad you have returned. I want you to know there was never anything
personal with you during the war. We just wanted to run our own country. That’s all.”

           2.And then back in Hollins one day, I was recalling those initial impressions
of the area -– the Dreams and Broken Dreams -- to an elderly African-American gentleman who’d grown up here in the 1930’s. “That’s not surprising,” he told me. “Hollins has always been like that. It is a microcosm of Baltimore. There were a couple blocks of Germans, a couple of Lithuanians, a couple of Irish, Jews, Italians, African-Americans and so on. We all went to each other’s weddings and funerals. We all knew each other.”

           That is the spirit of diversity, understanding and unity we bring to this restaurant. And what better place than Baltimore’s Hollins Community whose soul has understood this spirit for generations? We know how old prejudices and boundaries only hold everyone back. Baltimore Pho crosses over them and pays homage to the people of this wonderful city who work every day to achieve their Dreams amidst the Dreams and Broken Dreams of those before them. Likewise, we pay homage to the people of Vietnam who also work every day to achieve their own Dreams amid the changing fortunes of their beautiful country.

           So, welcome to Baltimore Pho! We invite you to enjoy the food, drink and warm feelings we share with you. We hope you’ll treat this as your Second Home and that we’ll see you again and again. And do let us know if we can do anything more to help you enjoy your visit.