Our Story

Broken Dreams didn't begin in Oakland. It began with a one-way ticket to Vietnam, five dollars in a pocket, and a dream that changed everything. What followed were decades of restaurants, friendships, failures, reinventions, and, eventually, a journey back home.

My culinary journey began long before I ever stepped into a professional kitchen. As a young boy, I stood beside my mother as she cooked for an eclectic mix of students, musicians, authors, artists, and travelers. Watching people from different backgrounds gather around food planted a seed that would shape the rest of my life.

In 1980, I began my restaurant career in Oakland at a small French café called Le Pique Nique. There I learned the foundations of classical French cooking—pâtés, terrines, sausage making, sauces, and the discipline that professional kitchens demand. Six months later, the executive chef walked out. At just eighteen years old, the owner pointed at me and said, "You're the chef." That unexpected promotion gave me the confidence to believe I could one day build restaurants of my own.

Nearly twenty years later, I was on my way to Guangzhou, China, to resurrect my first restaurant concept with business partners. Vietnam was only supposed to be a stop along the way. I had visited the country before and fallen in love with its people, food, and culture, and living in southern China would have placed me close to the country I hoped one day to call home.

Then the bird flu outbreak changed everything. My business partners backed out. I found myself stranded in Vietnam with five dollars in my pocket, no job, and a hotel bill that was already a month overdue. What seemed like the end of one dream became the beginning of another—one that would lead to seventeen extraordinary years building restaurants, raising a family, and discovering a place that forever changed my life.

Building a New Life in Vietnam

Arriving in Vietnam with five dollars in my pocket, no job, and no plan forced me to reinvent myself. I didn't speak the language, but I quickly learned that Vietnam rewarded creativity, hard work, and relationships. Every setback became another lesson, and every small success opened the door to something larger.

My first opportunity came with Highlands Coffee, then a small Vietnamese coffee company. As Retail Director, I helped build its early retail operations before partnering with an Australian group to launch one of Vietnam's first dedicated juice bars.

When that partnership ended, I didn't walk away with much—just the use of a tiny bakery tucked around the corner on Phan Van Dat Street. At the time, I had no idea that little bakery would become the foundation of everything that followed.

The Birth of Black Cat

I never expected that a small bakery on Phan Van Dat Street would become the beginning of something much bigger.

The bakery came to me after my partnership ended. My severance wasn't cash—it was the use of a tiny bakery around the corner where we had been baking bread for our juice bar. Using money I had saved from my previous job, along with a small loan from my girlfriend's family, I bought a used mixer, a bread oven, and just enough equipment to start making bánh mì. Every sandwich sold paid for another repair, another piece of equipment, and another step forward.

The address was 13 Phan Van Dat in District 1.

The woman who sold cigarettes and snacks next door warned me that no business had ever survived there. Restaurant after restaurant had failed. Between the number 13 and the building's reputation, everyone believed the location was cursed.

It wasn't the first time I'd heard people say a location would never work. Back in Oakland, I had learned that the places everyone avoided often came with the cheapest rent—and the greatest opportunity. I've always enjoyed proving people wrong.

So when I heard that 13 Phan Van Dat was unlucky, it didn't scare me. It felt familiar.

If everyone believed the address was cursed, I'd lean into it.

I named the restaurant Black Cat 13.

Two negatives might just make a positive.

Little by little, the bakery became a café.

The café became Black Cat 13.

Homemade breads, fresh smoothies, and a new generation of bánh mì quickly built a loyal following. What began as a tiny neighborhood bakery soon attracted locals, expatriates, and travelers searching for flavors they couldn't find anywhere else in Vietnam.

Black Cat 13 became more than a restaurant. It became the foundation for everything that followed. Over the next seventeen years it grew into restaurants, cafés, bakeries, school dining programs, central production kitchens, and food concepts across Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

Building a Restaurant Group

Success brought opportunities I never expected. Black Cat's growing reputation coincided with Vietnam's rapidly expanding middle class, a booming tourism industry, and a healthy, growing expatriate business community. Together, they created the perfect environment to introduce unique restaurant concepts to a market that was eager for new flavors, new experiences, and new brands.

Every project taught me something different, and each became the foundation for the next. Over the years, I built bakeries, juice bars, cafés, noodle shops, bagel shops, burrito shops, cupcake shops, seafood hot pot restaurants, American barbecue, catering companies, school dining programs, central production kitchens, and eventually five online ghost kitchen brands.

Beyond Restaurants

As Black Cat 13 grew, so did the opportunities beyond traditional dining. What began with serving guests in a small neighborhood café expanded into operating large-scale food service for international schools, multinational corporations, health clubs, technology companies, and private events across Vietnam.

As Black Cat 13's reputation for healthy, scratch-made cooking spread, international schools and corporate clients began approaching us. They were looking for an alternative to institutional food—fresh breads baked in-house, balanced menus, and meals prepared without MSG or unnecessary processed ingredients. Long before those ideas became common, Black Cat 13 had earned a reputation for serving fresh, wholesome food without compromising quality, consistency, or presentation.

Black Cat 13 Catering eventually prepared thousands of meals each day for students, teachers, corporate employees, and club members. Our teams provided breakfast, lunch, afternoon snacks, executive dining, conferences, holiday celebrations, private events, weddings, and large corporate functions while continuing to operate restaurants, cafés, bakeries, and central production kitchens throughout Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

Managing restaurants was one challenge. Managing restaurants, central production kitchens, school dining programs, corporate catering, multiple brands, and several locations at the same time required building systems, training leaders, and empowering managers to operate independently. It transformed Black Cat 13 from a neighborhood café into one of Vietnam's most diverse independent hospitality groups.

After nearly two decades in Vietnam, raising a family, building restaurants, and helping shape a growing food scene, life eventually brought us back to Oakland. The dream had come full circle. Broken Dreams is a reflection of everything Vietnam taught us. Black Cat 13, however, still has its own story to tell. Our hope is to bring the original Black Cat 13 Saigon to Oakland in the near future, allowing both restaurants to share the same city while telling different chapters of the same journey.