TWO SIBLINGS AND THEIR JOURNEY TO CREATEFRESH VIETNAMESE CUISINE IN SEATTLE
Monsoon
Siblings Eric and Sophie Banh knew they wanted to do something very different, as the typical formula for Vietnamese restaurants in Seattle in the late 90s was quite limited at the time. There were plenty of good phở joints, and a few places were doing decent sugarcane shrimp wraps and the like, but they really wanted to elevate the idea of Vietnamese cuisine altogether. They wanted to use local ingredients, experiment with tradition, push the boundaries of “ethnic” food, and introduce the city to something entirely new, something original.
After much location searching, they were having a hard time finding a spot they could afford, so they went back to their dad’s old playbook. They approached a breakfast place on Capitol Hill, called Craig’s 19th Avenue Café, with a modest proposal. Craig’s was only open for traditional breakfast and lunch, so at night the café sat empty. Sophie and Eric proposed to transform the tiny café into a kind of “Vietnamese pop-up.” They would prepare and serve this newly-formed vision of Vietnamese cuisine during the night shift, right after the Craig’s crew had left for the day. And then, like cobbler’s elves, they would have everything cleaned up and prepped for Craig’s breakfast crew before dawn. It sounded a little crazy, but everybody seemed to be on board.
As they started preparing the menu for the first night of Craig’s Crazy Nighttime Vietnamese Pop-up Experiment, the phone rang. The owners of Craig’s had changed their minds. Instead of doing a pop-up, they wondered if the siblings wanted to buy the place outright. The price was right. Monsoon was born.
When they finally opened for business in early February of 1999, Monsoon became the first Seattle restaurant to reimagine Vietnamese cuisine. They also had to reimagine how a kitchen operates since they didn’t have enough money left for any new equipment. The kitchen line was made up of bus tubs filled with ice to keep things cold, they didn’t have a proper wok station, and the ancient stove left over from Craig’s had to be lit by hand each time and then coaxed to life with incantations. But somehow it all worked. They finally had a real restaurant, and the future was looking bright.
People in Seattle were hungry for something different to eat. Monsoon fit the bill perfectly: Seared Chilean Sea Bass, Tamarind Soup, Grilled Lá Lốt Beef, Red Bean Chicken with Taro Root, Wok-Fried Red Chili Scallops with Dried Yam, and Filet Mignon “Lúc Lắc” with Tomato and Butter Lettuce. This was the food the Banhs had been dreaming about for so long. Seared Chilean Sea Bass caught the taste buds of one Seattle food critic, who added it to a Top Ten Seattle Dishes of 1999 list. The Seattle Weekly called it “the best seafood they had tasted in this town.” The rave reviews kept pouring in.
But sadly, what had quickly become the signature dish (Chilean Sea Bass), had to eventually be retired due to over-fishing and newly acquired “endangered species” status. This setback paved the way for the Catfish Claypot, however, and it quickly took the mantle. The only real problem Monsoon faced was a line out the door every single night of the week, and that’s truly a great problem to have. All that hard work finally paid off. Monsoon had arrived, and business was good.
In 2008, Monsoon looked East to open a second location in Old Bellevue. They now operate the original location in North Capitol Hill and their Bellevue location, serving lunch, happy hour, dinner, and weekend brunch. Along with Sophie and Eric, Sophie’s husband Sowady has been there since the beginning and would work late nights after his day shift at the Department of Transportation to help get Monsoon ready to open. He has remained a business partner and helps oversee operations alongside Sophie and Eric, as well as Sophie’s son Chris.
