Business Spotlight: Bánh by Lauren
Blog by Courtney Adams, Photos by Kat St. Martin
42 Market St. @banhbylauren
Sometimes, you try food that’s so nuanced, so exceptional, so beautiful to behold that it begs the question, what have I been missing? In this case, the answer is: Bánh by Lauren. For husband and wife owners Garland Wong and Lauren Tran, the love and care that have gone into Bánh by Lauren is a testament to the magic that can happen when one is given the space to fulfill their destiny.
“Chinatown means a lot to the both of us in different ways,” shared Lauren. “It’s where Garland and I met. I was visiting New York City to go to the U.S. Open to watch tennis. We have mutual friends who invited me to hang out and I walked around Chinatown and the Lower East Side with Garland. We ended up at Ice & Vice and the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. He bet me that I couldn’t eat six scoops in twelve minutes,” added Lauren with laughter. “But, I won and finished them in nine!”
It turns out that this bet would have dividends years into the future. Lauren and Garland continued a long-distance relationship. “That was in 2015,” shared Lauren. Three years later, I moved to New York City and began pastry school at The International Culinary Center.” For Garland, their Chinatown connection proved particularly meaningful--a true full-circle moment with all of the trappings of serendipity. “I grew up in Brooklyn,” he said. “But, I was in Chinatown every weekend, either for classes or sports activities. It was truly a second-home to me.” Their first apartment together was even in Chinatown when Lauren moved to NYC from Seattle.
In the solid footing of Chinatown, their journey cruised along, with the two of them in the command of the driver’s seat. Lauren’s success in pastry school led her to the elite kitchen of Gramercy Tavern. She loved working at Gramercy Tavern and even shared she never imagined pivoting to where she is now. “It was a dream but I never imagined opening the brick and mortar of our bakery this soon! It really was a timing thing.”
Of course, some of life’s detours take us down roads we never thought possible. When the COVID pandemic began, Lauren lost her job. “When the lockdown began, we saw first-hand how devastating it was to Chinatown. I started making these pastry boxes of six to eight different items in October of 2020. At first, it was to keep me busy. But I began trying out new Vietnamese recipes which I had never made before! In Seattle, Vietnamese desserts were very easy to buy and find. But that wasn’t the case in NYC. So I made these Vietnamese desserts and gave them to our friends. And through these boxes, I really began seeing it as an opportunity for me to keep exploring ways to showcase Vietnamese desserts and flavors.”
These pastry boxes were a segue into a successful and popular pop-up business. “When we set-out to make this a business, we decided to donate 10% of every week’s boxes to a local non-profit in Chinatown. We began to think that it would be really cool if we had a bakery. And once we actually started solidifying plans to do so, we knew that if we were going to have a business, it was important for it to be in Chinatown,” said Garland. “When we first started, we weren’t trying to start a business. We were doing something so Lauren could keep baking and so we could give back to Chinatown. As the popularity of the boxes kept growing, we decided we had to try and open our own shop.”
“Bánh by Lauren is a Vietnamese-American and French bakery and cafe. I attended pastry school for French pastry and am using those skills while also showcasing Southeast Asian flavors and making traditional Vietnamese desserts too,” shared Lauren. I couldn’t help but notice the awe in her descriptions here, as though she were a woman who was surprising herself by her own accomplishments. But, for those of us who’ve consumed anything associated with Bánh by Lauren, none of this is surprising at all. “For me, I was coming into this realization that I could be someone who showcases Vietnamese desserts in NYC. It was never the vision I saw in my head when I thought about my future when I started pastry but I am so glad it is now because this feels so much more personal.”
What began as a personal means of fulfillment during lockdown has evolved. “Though we began making pastry boxes and doing pop-ups in 2020, we just opened our shop last year in June of 2024,” explained Lauren. Things have moved about as quickly as you’d want to reach for another Bánh by Lauren macaron. “We’ve had some really loyal customers who have been with us since the beginning,” Lauren added with a smile. “We also have very organically gotten some press too. Recently, New York Times Cooking did a feature on us for our pop-ups. We’re so lucky to have gotten a bit of a following as a result of that, too.”
‘Some press’ is putting it mildly. Yes, NYT Cooking did indeed spotlight Lauren’s pastry pop-ups. But, in less than a year since Bánh by Lauren’s opening, it’s been featured in The Infatuation, Eater, and quite notably, it’s been listed as one of the top 22 bakeries in the United States by The New York Times. Lauren and Garland are devoted to their guests’ entire experience; so, these accolades aren’t only deserved, they track. Case in point? Their coffee. Bánh by Lauren is a destination for great coffee in and of itself (their egg coffees are, to me, a version of self-care). “When Garland and I were talking about opening a bakery, we knew we wanted a coffee program that would be just as strong as the pastries. We love coffee and wanted to do both really well,” explained Lauren.
A delicious dessert just hits different when it’s chased by a sip of that perfectly brewed cup of coffee. Lauren continued, “We put a lot of energy into both our pastry and our coffee; and, this has always been the priority. My friend Ryan Rhodes and I worked together at Canlis, a fine dining restaurant in Seattle. He’s worked in coffee for many years, and he just makes amazing, amazing coffee. He helped us not only come up with our personal versions of Vietnamese coffee drinks, but also with sourcing quality coffee that really shines in our products. We use Heart Roasters from Portland, Oregon and Necessary Coffee from Pennsylvania. We also work with Christina from Favor Coffee. We love supporting local small Asian-American and female business owners.”
When pondering their most popular items, Lauren shared, “For sure the Pandan Coconut Chiffon Cake. It’s probably my signature item. The other items would have to be the Bánh Bò Nướng (Honeycomb rice cake); and, believe it or not, the hat that we sell that says ‘Not Too Sweet.’ It flies. We are always ordering more of them! It encompasses a lot because for many Asian cultures, you’ll hear some elders say ‘not too sweet’ when requesting desserts. As I’ve gotten older, I feel like my palette has shifted towards my parents’ in that I don’t want a dessert that’s too sweet anymore. So, for us, this hat is a sign that we have tailored our items to be not too sweet.”
And with a coffee program as robust as theirs, it’s impossible to leave their drinks off of this list. “The Lime Drip coffee is probably one of our best sellers. This is Ryan’s drink that he came up with that is iced coffee that tastes like a coffee limeade,” Garland explains. A sip of this drink is just the right hint of dissociation--caffeine to ground you, citrus zest to transport you elsewhere. “Cà phê muối is another popular item that originates from Central Vietnam; and our version has a salted cream foam on top. To round out this list is probably a tie between the pandan latte and black sesame latte. For both of these drinks, we make the syrup and the paste. I think that makes the biggest difference because we can control the sugar level.” When asked about his favorite drink, Garland simply stated, “I really like our drip coffee. It’s my go-to. I think the whole menu is really strong and you can’t really go wrong. It just has to do with what you’re feeling at that moment.” Like yours truly, Lauren also loves their cà phê trứng (egg coffee). “I just can’t have too much of it because it is pretty decadent! It’s a drink that’s kind of hard to find. And, I am really proud of this because it took a long time to come up with and we stepped it up. We essentially make a sabayon where the eggs are safely cooked; and, this custard gets shaken and piped over a double shot of espresso.” She had me at “sabayon.” I can’t help it. Ask any Italian; and, we’ll tell you that stuff is a love language on its own!
“There’s a lot of intentionality in everything we do. That’s what I hope people see when they visit Bánh by Lauren. I never thought I would be showcasing Vietnamese culture in this way through Vietnamese desserts,” said Lauren, passionately adding, “But I am so proud to help move the needle. When we first started, we would say, ‘imagine if the best macarons and coffees were in Chinatown?!’ We just want to be a part of making Chinatown thrive; and the diversity of our clientele has been so amazing to see.” Similarly, Garland added, “Serving the community has been the biggest thing for me. I spent all my weekends here as a kid. I’ve been a part of The United East Athletics Association since I was a kid and getting them to perform a lion dance when we opened the bakery–having them celebrate with us was such a full-circle moment for me.” Garland’s happiness is palpable here. “Serving the neighborhood and building community is something we hope to continue doing well so we can do so even more in the future.”
For Garland, the best way to support Chinatown’s small business begins emotionally. “Have an open mind. Come and experience it. See what it’s about. Try something you haven’t necessarily heard about that isn’t part of a social media trend. Just try something new.” Agreeing, Lauren added, “For small businesses, everyone is just trying their best. Costs are increasing and places may be short-staffed. If you have that open understanding the intention is there to serve you to the best of one’s ability, that can change a lot because giving businesses some grace can be so helpful.” And, speaking of emotionality, having supportive relationships has been invaluable to Lauren and Garland. “Having close friends who have restaurants and other business owners in our network has been so helpful,” shared Garland. “We have that space where we can ask those hard questions. There’s just a million little things. Having friends who’ve already done it has been really helpful.”
To punctuate it all, Lauren added, “We absolutely owe so much to our staff. They’re incredible…” She trailed off in search of the right words. But, one of the benefits of doing business with your spouse is that they can finish your thoughts sometimes. “I think,” added Garland, “that what you’re trying to say is how appreciative you are of our team and how far they’ve come. While the name of the business is Bánh by Lauren, there’s a lot of people who work really hard to make Bánh by Lauren what it is.”
I’m not a historian. I’m one of many who is the product of a society where Eurocentric taste gets the privilege of expertise, the top rung of that culinary pedestal. Trying food as good as Bánh by Lauren is a reminder of all that gets missed when the same narrator reads every story, when only one destiny is given the keys to a castle big enough for everyone. But, for Lauren and Garland, Bánh by Lauren seems like a collection of actionable steps of reclamation where suddenly, somehow, charged with all the fuel needed from home, the detours can become your road. Sure, you can’t change history. But, with every sip and every bite, Bánh by Lauren is proof it can be rewritten when people are given their own pens to write it.
