food
NGON IS WHERE THE HEART IS Hanoi street food meets Lowest Greenville
Story by RENEE UMSTED | Photography by JESSICA TURNER
CAROL NGUYEN never planned to be a restaurant owner. After leaving Vietnam in 1978 as a refugee, she moved with her family to Australia. It wasn’t until 1995 when she returned to Vietnam, and she lived there a few years before migrating to Texas 20 years ago.
Her first business was a retail store, but it only lasted about a year. Eventually, she decided to open a restaurant, which wasn’t an unusual decision for her family. One of her cousins owns one in Vietnam, and her aunt has a Cajun restaurant in New Orleans. The Cajun restaurant was where
22 lakewood.advocatemag.com JAJANUARY 2022
Nguyen learned the ins and outs of the business. And in 2013, she opened Crazee Crab in Grand Prairie. Seven years passed before Nguyen opened Ngon Vietnamese Kitchen. Missing the food she grew up eating, she wanted to do it right. “I wanted to try some Vietnamese food
