Shortly after arriving in St. Louis as a refugee with her husband and young son, Lee Tran opened Mai Lee (8396 Musick Memorial) in 1985. Tran had no professional restaurant experience, little English skills, and no business management experience. What she did have was a passion for both her Vietnamese culinary heritage and hospitality, which she transformed into one of St. Louis’ most beloved and must-visit restaurants. Today, 40 years into Mai Lee’s career, Lee and her husband, Sau, reflect on how far they’ve come and what they hope to give back to the St. Louis community that they say has given them so much brought.
You experienced an unimaginable journey from Vietnam to St. Louis. Can you tell us the story?
Sau Tran: I was in the South Vietnamese army before the communists took over in 1975. After that I had to stay for a few years, but we wanted to leave. It was very difficult; my brother and my uncle were killed, but it was difficult to get out because we had to escape secretly by boat. It cost a lot of money, and we didn’t have any, but our friends and family came together so me, my wife (Lee), and my son (Qui) could go. It was very dangerous. We had to leave at night and boarded a boat with 163 other people to a refugee camp in Malaysia, but they were overcrowded and turned us away. We had no working engine on the boat, no food, no water and were at sea for four days. We didn’t think we would survive and we all started praying together because we didn’t know what else to do. On the fourth day we saw dark clouds: it rained, and we were able to catch the rainwater in our shirts and wring them out, so we had something to drink. Then we saw a big ship coming towards us in the distance. It was the Indonesian navy. They stopped for us, gave us food and water, and helped repair our boat, allowing us to get to the Indonesian refugee camp. We feel so lucky to have survived. Most people who left Vietnam by boat did not survive.
What was it like once you arrived in the United States?
Lee Tran: None of us knew English, but we were sponsored by the Unitarian Church of Waterman and Kingshighway. They helped us a lot, especially a church member, Jean Dean, who came to our house and taught us English.
How did you come to open Mai Lee?
LT: I was working in a tie factory downtown, but I knew I wanted to do something more, especially because I wanted to help my family in Vietnam. I had made friends here with a woman named Mai, and one day she called me and said she wanted to open a restaurant. She knew English better than me, but I knew how to cook – not professionally, but I was a good home cook. We teamed up to open Mai Lee, but Mai decided to go in a different direction pretty quickly, so I ended up taking over the restaurant completely.
Mai Lee was originally a Chinese restaurant. What made you add Vietnamese cuisine to the menu?
LT: When we first opened our doors, business was not good at all. About a year later, I thought it would be a good idea to expand the menu and add Vietnamese dishes because I wanted to show off my culture and heritage.
ST: At the time, no one was really serving Vietnamese food in St. Louis. For this reason, Joe Pollock of St. Louis Post-Dispatch I came to try it and write a review. He said it was very good and we got a lot of new business afterward.
LT: It was a turning point for us. After that, business was really good and we had more and more people coming to taste the Vietnamese dishes.
Forty years is a long time for a restaurant to be open. What do you think is the reason for your success?
LT: Family is very important to us and we wanted to create an environment and atmosphere where people could feel loved and welcomed. When I cook, I put all my love into food, as I learned to do from my mother and my family who taught me. We also really enjoy welcoming people and taking care of people. Taking care of our guests and watching over the arrival of their families over the years means everything to us. Some of them have been in business for 40 years. They were children, and now they have children.
ST: They know us and we know them. Sometimes we sit and chat with them as if they were family. A lot of people who come here call me “Dad”, we are so close. We truly believe we owe a lot to the people of St. Louis. They have helped our family in many ways. We worked hard and did our best, but we believe we owe our success to the people of this community.
What keeps you going after all these years? I know you haven’t slowed down.
LT: No way. I still work six days a week, sometimes 14 hours a day. It’s hard work, but I love what I do and I hope my health stays strong so I can continue doing it for a long time. The support we receive from our community is what keeps me going. Seeing people come every day and making them happy is what makes it worth it.
How do you plan to celebrate your 40th birthday?
ST: Time flies so quickly and now that I’m retired from Jamco, I can be there all the time to help and spend time with our customers. We’re still thinking about what we’ll do to celebrate, but we really want to do something for the people who have supported us for so many years. When we think about the struggle to get here, and then our ability to get there, even though we didn’t know which path our life would take, it makes us very grateful.
LT: We are so honored and happy that our customers always support us. We are also grateful to our employees who have helped us over the years and that our children – Linda, Qui and Sara – are all still involved in the business. There was no model for what we did, but it worked, so we want to do something to let St. Louis know how much we appreciate them.