"The steamed rice crepes, the crispy pancakes, the phở, the soup, these are all representations of my DNA,.That's why I put my visa, my refugee visa, at the forefront of my logo. That was my way of saying, 'Hey, if you like my food, you have to actually like where I came from as well.'"
So what made Nahji open Lady Chu, after she had built her infamous Vietnamese tuckshop, Miss Chu?
"What made me do Lady Chu? Survival. Everything is survival. Otherwise, I'd be in bed having a great time watching movies….sitting in the sun in Barbados. But no, here I am on Roslyn Street feeding you guys.”
She opened in the middle of COVID, when Roslyn Street had sites to spare - and because of the number 3.
"During COVID, which is when I opened, there were seven empty sites, all on Roslyn Street, and I took one, which was number three. I borrowed $50,000 from my auntie, and she goes, 'Are you that desperate?' I went, 'Sorry?' And she goes, 'Let me have a look at the lease.' And she goes, 'It's number three. It's going to work.'"
"Three in Vietnamese culture is a very powerful number,” says Nahji.
“You cannot mess with the number three. It's a triangle. Try to break a triangle. You can't. That's why it's worked. It's got nothing to do with my talent. It's to do with number three. That's all it is."
She could be on to something, as the restaurant has grown and grown.
"One year after I started, I needed another site because it was too busy. And then another year later, I took another site…Keep going, keep going. Now we've got 90 seats, 120. Do I hear 150? Am I filling 150? I'm filling 150 seats."
Currently, the venue seats 150, and also has a function room, meaning they can actually cover 200 seats on any given night. Whether it’s the rule of threes or simply a savvy businesswoman, this growing venue is the model of hospitality success.
