A young Vietnamese couple has overcome failure and now successfully runs a chain of three restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City which offer frog specialties after quitting their well-paid jobs in Singapore and starting from scratch in their homeland.

Nguyen Dong Phuong, 30, and his 28-year-old wife, Dao Thuy Linh, currently own a chain of three Ech Xanh (Green Frogs) restaurants in the southern metropolis.

They earn over VND1 billion (US$47,068) a year in revenue. The couple graduated from a university and a cooking school in the city state has received several franchise offers from local and foreign investors.

But their success has not come without a price.

Phuong said the two fell in love when they were working at the VivoCity shopping mall in Singapore as an assistant in a five-star restaurant and manager of a Japanese-owned electronics supermarket.

Sometime later, the couple decided to quit their jobs and start all over in their home country.

“Our jobs in Singapore were good but we yearned for changes and challenges and dreamed of running our own business. We finally decided to launch an eatery offering dishes from frog meat, which is Linh’s strength,” he added.

Their decision was met with intense objections from both their families.

Phuong and Linh, however, went ahead with their plan and launched their first eatery with savings of VND100 million ($4,707) in April 2009.

The shop, located on Le Thi Rieng Street in District 1, covered an area of 45m² and had two staffers, apart from Phuong and Linh.

The shop was open late in the afternoon into the night, as it was stifling hot during the day.

The couple and their two staffers would also hand out leaflets advertising their shop in local buildings and entertainment centers.

The two undertook most of the tasks at their shop, including doing the dishes and watching over clients’ bikes.

Phuong said he took on the spirit from his former Japanese employer, who worked the hardest at the company.

Their efforts and resourcefulness paid off, as the shop’s revenue rose steadily.

In 2010, Phuong and Linh made a bold decision: they took out loans to move their shop to a five-floor building on District 1’s Nguyen Cu Trinh Street and switched to a luxury restaurant model, which offers an assortment of Vietnamese and Thai delicacies apart from their signature frog dishes.

“It was our most awful period. We struggled to pay $2,000 each month in rent, staff salaries and interest on our debt, while the number of clients was so poor Linh would cry silently in the kitchen,” Phuong recalled.

After six months, the landlord agreed to reimburse their down payment if they managed to find another tenant who would agree to the same rent.

Everything was finally settled. They moved their shop to a smaller venue and switched back to the model of catering to average people.

“We started almost all over again, but drew out an invaluable lesson that we should focus on our hallmark frog dishes only, which aren’t suitable for luxury models,” Linh said.

Things gradually improved and they paid off their debts.

The two later opened a similar shop in Dong Nai Province’s Bien Hoa City, some 30 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City.

As they lived quite far away from the shop, they could hardly ensure the quality of their food or service. They had no choice but to close the shop.

Since 2011, the couple has made a remarkable recovery and developed their shop into a chain of three restaurants.

Their name usually comes up when frog delicacies are discussed. 

“We use three to four tons of raw frogs a month and have just built our own farm to ensure constant and quality supplies. Our restaurants make good money and more importantly, our families are now wholeheartedly supportive of our choice to open the restaurants,” they added.

Linh is often invited to join cooking programs on television as an instructor.

The husband and wife unanimously hope to build a friendly environment between owners, staffers and clients.

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