RL Reeves Jr visits Singleton’s Mini Mart in New Orleans
The exodus started in spring 1975.
Following the fall of Saigon to the Communist North Vietnamese, 130,000 refugees were evacuated from South Vietnam.
Operation Frequent Wind, the largest boat and air lift in refugee history was a rousing success that would lead to 1.4 million Vietnamese émigrés resettling in the United States between 1975 and 1994.
The Gulf Coast South was a favored destination.
Singleton’s Mini Mart 7446 Garfield St. New Orleans, LA 70118
The young Nguyen migrated through three international refugee camps before he finally arriving in Gulf Breeze, Florida, where he grew from teenager to young man.
Within six months of landing in Gulf Breeze, Florida, Bau, who had studied French and English as a student in Vietnam, was fluent in the tongue of his new land.
But first came romance.
It’s Thanksgiving 1981, and Bau Ngyuen is looking for a party. New Orleans East’s lush swamps and bayous bear no small resemblance to the Mekong Delta and the warm sultry climate would’ve been welcoming.
Singleton’s Mini Mart (504) 866-4741
Nguyen did not know it but the girl who would become the love of his life’s family owned the house and Laura, his future bride was inside.
They have now been married 40 years.
The Vietnamese diaspora in the American south is a case study in emigrant culture. The fishing industry in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida has long hosted thousands of hardworking southeast Asians as well as Croats and not a few Americans who have migrated from across the continents to find work as fishers.
Singleton’s Mini Mart in the Black Pearl neighborhood of New Orleans
By the late 70s, the Versailles neighborhood of eastern New Orleans, which housed the most densely-populated group of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam, had turned into a thriving commercial district where you could get food as good as any served in Ho Chi Minh City.
In 1993 Bau Nguyen returned to New Orleans from California where he had sought his fortune in the furniture business. He and his wife opened a grocery store in the Gentilly neighborhood in spite of having little knowledge of the industry.
They quickly discovered that the grocery game is a hard one of long hours and low income.
After losing their lease they found a long running quick mart in the Riverbend area of town and set about reimagining it as a po boy and hotplate joint. Singleton’s had been around for seemingly forever but with Bau and Laura running it as a tiny quick-service cafe it soon became a destination for the po boy literati from across greater New Orleans.
A jar of Blue Plate mayonnaise at the ready for po boy construction
Food like the classic Franco-Vietnamese sandwich, the banh mi is in heavy abundance. In Vietnam proper the word banh mi just means bread but here in the US it gets fancified a bit and is commonly used to describe one of the most luxurious foodstuffs on the planet combining mayonnaise, pork belly, pâté, pork shoulder, cow’s butter, and a bounty of herbs and vegetables such as cucumber, cilantro, daikon and carrots marinated in white vinegar and sugar, spring onions, and chile peppers.
Charming decor at Singleton’s Mini Mart in New Orleans
The first recipe the Nguyen’s developed was for a philly steak sandwich
Through trial and error they developed their now-legendary Korean BBQ po boy which I can attest is a top five sandwich in the city.
How successful is Bau and Laura’s po boy shop? They put five kids through college selling po boys, hotplates and pho.
Now the kids are grown and succesfull young adults.
Bau has not been home in 50 years. This fall he and his wife will rectify that with a three week visit where they plan on crisscrossing the country on a quest to find the best pho in all the land.
Visitors in their native land.
Singleton’s Mini Mart
7446 Garfield St. New Orleans
70118
telephone
504-866-4741
Singleton’s fried shrimp po boy is in the top five of fried seafood sandwiches in southeast Louisiana
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