Unaware he’s about to be evicted, owner buys, renovates pho house

By Jane Park

The Details:

Tim Le and Tuyen Nguyen looked forward to upholding Pho Golden Cow’s legacy after taking ownership two years ago. The husband-and-wife owners were all in: Le bought the property, invested in renovations and upgraded its furniture.

Unfortunately for them, there was a catch.

The building’s landlord failed to notify Le of Virginia Hospital Center Arlington Health System’s (VHC Health) plans to demolish Graham Center, where Pho Golden Cow has sat for 21 years, according to Viet Place Collective. The anti-displacement grassroots organization supporting Vietnamese cultural preservation, told AsAmNews Le purchased the restaurant property a year ago not knowing VHC Health acquired the strip mall in September 2023 for $12 million with plans to displace its tenants.

Pho Golden Cow sits in Graham Center, a 72-year-old strip mall just a couple miles from the Eden Center, a bustling hub of culture and small businesses for Virginia’s Vietnamese community. Graham Center also houses three other Vietnamese-owned small businesses: the dental office of Dr. Hung M. Nguyen, DDS, Bien Hoa Oriental Supermarket and Skyline Nail Supply.

What these businesses weren’t prepared for, however, was to be ousted from the “aging, dilapidated” strip mall, as VHC Health once described it. But for them, the Graham Center has been home for their businesses for decades.

VHC Health’s plans to redevelop Graham Center into a hybrid urgent care facility and emergency room have displaced the immigrant-owned businesses along the strip mall. Aside from the four Vietnamese-owned businesses, the remaining five are Mexican, Salvadoran and Turkish-owned, according to Viet Place Collective.

Nguyen said she felt “so sad” when she received news that Graham Center would be redeveloped. She and her husband have been left with little time to recoup from their investments and make a profit.

“Ownership has recently finalized plans for the site, and as a result, effective March 31, 2025 your month-to-month tenancy will be terminated to allow for new construction activities on the site,” a property manager told Pho Golden Cow in an email obtained by AsAmNews.

VHC Health offered to introduce the tenants to a leasing broker, but the owners preferred to work with familiar brokers who likely spoke the same language.

This was VHC Health’s only offer of relocation assistance to the tenants.

The tenants also felt the email, sent last August, did not give them enough time to move their businesses. 

VHC Health conducted two community meetings last May and July, respectively. The health system then applied for the development of the strip mall with Fairfax County, whose jurisdiction Graham Center falls under. 

VHC Health went through a public hearing process, meeting first with the Fairfax County Planning Commission last September.

VHC Health then met with the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors the following month after the Commission approved their application.

Both meetings were open to the public.

The Board also approved VHC Health’s plans, but there was little to no mention of the displaced businesses nor the benefits the owners should receive. There was no outreach to the businesses following the public hearings either.

That’s when Viet Place Collective got involved.

The non-profit organization previously advocated for the Eden Center after the shopping center’s Vietnamese-owned businesses were at risk of displacement because of the city’s redevelopment plans.

Now, Viet Place Collective is supporting Graham Center’s businesses. A spokesperson from the organization said they felt it was unfair for Graham Center’s tenants to receive a seven-month notice to vacate despite having been there for decades.

After organizing outreach to the businesses, Viet Place Collective then conducted an email campaign to ask VHC Health for the following demands:

• Rent relief
• Extended time to vacate
• Funds to assist in relocation
• The non-profit said these requests came directly from the tenants.

Viet Place Collective then set up a meeting with the tenants, VHC Health and Supervisor Dalia Palchik from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Feb. 28.

Both Nguyen and Le were present at the meeting.

The non-profit had initially emailed Palchik to communicate that she did not protect Graham Center’s businesses when she voted in favor of VHC Health’s development plans. The Supervisor responded in agreement and that she would attend the meeting.

After the meeting, VHC Health agreed to the following:

• Extend the date for the cessation of business operations until April 30, 2025
• Extend the date to completely vacate and surrender possession of leased premises until May 15, 2025
• Abate all rent and other charges from March to May 15 if tenants have paid rent and other charges up until Feb. 28
• Expedited return of security deposit
• Absorb costs of “junk hauling” after tenants have vacated premise

While the tenants celebrated their victory, they still grieve for their longtime businesses. Some owners have relocated their businesses, while others are retiring. 

“We lost something here, and we try to build a new restaurant,” Nguyen said. “We have customer loyalty, customer(s) know us…We are (a) small business. We try to survive this difficult time, you know, the economy, impact(ed) us. We try to survive.”

Nguyen and Le are still searching for alternatives to Pho Golden Cow’s Falls Church location. They have taken out a business loan to rebuild what they’ve lost from the displacement.

“We take the business loan to build another restaurant because we lost a lot here,” Nguyen said. “We lost a lot of money here, we (did) not get enough money, but we have to try to put another business loan to get a new location. So hard for us, difficult times.”

Nguyen and Le are taking the redevelopment especially hard after promising to look after Pho Golden Cow for longtime friend and previous owner Chef Loc Nguyen.

Loc used to hand-pick every ingredient for the restaurant’s dishes for almost 20 years.

“No matter the cost, we never put our standard down with our ingredients. This is the plus factor of our recipes,” he once said.

The chef passed away from lung cancer last July — less than a month before VHC Health notified Nguyen and Le of redevelopment plans.

Nguyen had over two decades of experience and expertise before opening Pho Golden Cow in Graham Center. He ran the Vietnamese restaurant for almost 20 years.

That wasn’t the end for the beloved noodle house, though. Before his death, Nguyen handed it down to Nguyen and Le, who’ve avoided straying from the late chef’s concept and vision to honor his memory.

One example is how Pho Golden Cow’s interior has been kept to its original layout.

Seated near the East Coast’s epicenter of Vietnamese-owned businesses, Pho Golden Cow has faced hefty competition, but compared to nearby restaurants, Nguyen said that Pho Golden Cow specializes in traditional pho and authentic Vietnamese cuisine.

But it’s not just the Vietnamese comfort food that makes this restaurant a comfort spot for its surrounding community. Many locals have become regulars, forming close relationships with employees. While Tuyen and Le took over just two years ago, Pho Golden Cow’s staff have established roots of their own. 

One employee has been working at Pho Golden Cow for almost 15 years — just a handful of years after it first opened under Nguyen.

“Many customers come here. He say, ‘hey,’ and because I (came) to (the) restaurant after him, he know everybody,” Tuyen said. “The staff know everybody, when they (are) little kid(s), and they grow up with us.”

For both the owners and the staff, what they’ll miss most about the restaurant are the customers, especially regulars they’ve grown close to over the years. Tuyen estimated that Pho Golden Cow feeds about 45,000 people a year.

“I saw customer(s) who eat here when they are kid, when they are a little kid…they still come here,” Nguyen said.

With Graham Center’s pending redevelopment, the couple will focus on Pho Golden Cow’s secondary location for now. The owners opened another restaurant in Springfield, VA, last July — about a month before they received word to vacate the Falls Church location.

Although Springfield does not have a prevalent Vietnamese presence like Falls Church, Nguyen and Le have found ways to spread the word about Pho Golden Cow.

The restaurant is now active on social media and has expanded its services to food delivery apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats.

The Springfield location has also expanded its menu, serving dishes like fried rice and even tacos alongside its notable pho. The restaurant is open all week from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

(The Takeaways was written using AI and published only after factchecking by our editors)