Mother and daughter launch Vietnamese sandwich shop

A mother and daughter are bringing some flavors from their native land of Vietnam to a new restaurant in southeast Springfield.

Banh Mi & Me is a first-time business ownership venture for Linh Neal, who has teamed with her mother, Mui, for the concept, which she describes as a quick-service Vietnamese sandwich and coffee shop. The eatery is located at 3405 E. Battlefield Road, Ste. 124, in a strip center near U.S. Highway 65.

“We have limited seating, but we try to make it as inviting as possible,” she said of the roughly 2,000-square-foot shop, which opened Oct. 6 and employs three. “It is designed to be more of a grab and go.”

Apart from the bread, Neal said she and her mom make everything in-house. Its food menu includes seven varieties of banh mi sandwiches, such as the OG, which includes three kinds of pork, pickled daikon and carrots, cucumbers, jalapenos, cilantro and pate. Other sandwiches contain proteins including pork belly, chicken, beef and tofu.

“Our coffee is different than what you would find at Starbucks. No. 1 being our coffee is from robusta beans,” she said, noting arabica is a more typical coffee bean found at coffee shops. “We choose robusta for its bold and rich flavor and also its caffeine content.”

The coffee prepared at Banh Mi & Me is a popular brew style method in Vietnam, Neal said, noting she and her mother were born in the southeast Asian country.

“I want to honor the way that we brew it traditionally, which is through a phin filter,” she said. “It’s like a combination of a pour-over and French press.”

Neal said her family moved to St. Louis from Vietnam nearly 20 years ago, when she was 11. Now 30, Neal has lived in Springfield for over a decade after moving here to attend college at Missouri State University. Her mother stayed in St. Louis but moved to the Queen City in March at Neal’s urging to pursue Banh Mi & Me.

“My mom and I didn’t always live together, so we didn’t have the opportunity to be as close as I wanted,” she said. “I thought that this would be a good opportunity for us to be closer and also have something of our own.”

The mother and daughter are no strangers to the food service industry. Neal said she has server experience at First Watch, LongHorn Steakhouse and Zio’s Italian Kitchen. She said her mother formerly was a kitchen manager for a St. Louis location of Pei Wei Asian Kitchen.

Neal said startup costs were around $115,000, declining to disclose lease terms with Greenleaf Holdings LLC. The Neals own the business via Vong Family Food Co. LLC, according to the Missouri Secretary of State’s office.

While her primary focus will be the restaurant, Neal said she plans to maintain involvement in Cantrell Real Estate, where she works as a real estate agent.

“I still have my license, and I’m just going to keep it and sell whenever I can,” she said.