Spokes
01-13-2010, 11:53 AM
Springing up
Popular GTA chain Spring Rolls ventures west with Waterloo location
By Charlotte Prong Parkhill, Chronicle Staff
Jan 13, 2010
http://media.halton2.topscms.com/images/62/72/af479fa649cfbd0d5e14a0097065.jpeg
Thai Hua arrived in Canada 30 years ago, one of the first wave of “boat people” who left Vietnam.
With his sister, an uncle and his family, he fled Vietmam and crossed to Malaysia in a small boat. When they arrived offshore, they were relieved to see people coming out to meet them.
“We were naïve. We thought they were coming out to help us,” Thai said. Instead, they were pulled further out to sea and abandoned. With only one of their motors still working, the family limped back to shore a second time and sank their boat themselves. They were then beaten and robbed before being taken to a UN refugee camp. Six months later, they arrived in Canada. It was Halloween.
“We thought, ‘Wow! Party town,” Thai said. “And I have loved Canada since the beginning.”
This is the country where the Hua family started a thriving business, one that has been successful in Toronto for over a decade and recently set up shop in Waterloo.
Spring Rolls opened its 13th and 14th locations at Conestoga Mall just before Christmas. Spring Rolls Go is in the food court, and there is a separate dine-in location with an entrance off King Street.
The bar and lounge at the front of the restaurant has the feel of a contemporary Tokyo hotel. The sleek, modern furniture will be moved on weekends to make way for live jazz performances.
The separate dining room boasts an awe-inspiring design, with a massive 10-foot high chandelier draped from end-to-end down the centre of the room.
Family members and staff strung and hung the 150,000 individual crystals by hand. It’s indicative of the team effort put into the business, and the amount of dedication required from Thai’s position as president right down to the people who bus tables.
“This family is demanding but appreciative and respectful,” said Patti Hone, part of the Spring Rolls marketing team. “They hire people who know what they’re doing, and then they let them do it.”
Their motto is “Style without attitude, quality without the price.” The expansive menu focuses on Viet/Thai food but brother Hai Hua, the executive chef, travels frequently, returning with new regional food ideas from Korea, China and Singapore among other places.
There are a wide variety of appetizers including dim sum starting at $3.99 and several varieties of spring rolls. Lunch specials start at $8.99 and dinner specials at $10.99, with soup or salad. Some new items, such as the lobster and avocado salad and the sea bass with olive black bean sauce, are unique to the Waterloo location.
“There’s a little bit of everything,” Hone said. “I challenge anyone to come and not find something they like.”
Thai said the pan-Asian influences at the restaurant come from years working with his uncle as a grocery retailer, then opening his own Asian grocery store.
“When I first came to Toronto, I was only the third Asian kid at Oakdale Junior High,” he recalls. “We came at the right time. I was able to observe the growth of the Asian population and the influx of all the foods across all Asian cultures.”
Next door to his grocery store, brother Hai was running a restaurant, Pho 88. When the restaurant started to become popular with Caucasians, Thai took notice.
“They loved the food,” he said. “It’s fresh, it’s light, and it’s fast service.”
They came up with the idea for Spring Rolls, combining an upscale, Western front-of-house experience with authentic Asian food, “not Chinese-Canadian food,” and opened their first location in 1996.
When the Hua family started scouting for their first location outside the big city, Waterloo seemed a natural fit. Commuters and Toronto students are already familiar with the Spring Rolls brand, which has 12 locations across the GTA and Mississauga.
Thai said it’s important to expand the business organically. Today, 10 family members are involved. The Waterloo location, more than two years in the making, is run by the brother of a brother-in-law. The company logo even symbolizes the emphasis on family: two chopsticks represent the Hua parents, while seven grains of rice personify the kids.
“We’ve come a long way, but I think we can go further,” Thai said. “We’re very passionate about what we do. We live and breathe this restaurant.”
* * *
Spring Rolls
Conestoga Mall 519-888-0077
Winterlicious Menu: Three-course dinner for two, $39.95 Lunch and dinner specials daily Reservations available online at www.springrolls.ca .
http://www.waterloochronicle.ca/news/article/199576 (http://www.waterloochronicle.ca/news/article/199576)
Popular GTA chain Spring Rolls ventures west with Waterloo location
By Charlotte Prong Parkhill, Chronicle Staff
Jan 13, 2010
http://media.halton2.topscms.com/images/62/72/af479fa649cfbd0d5e14a0097065.jpeg
Thai Hua arrived in Canada 30 years ago, one of the first wave of “boat people” who left Vietnam.
With his sister, an uncle and his family, he fled Vietmam and crossed to Malaysia in a small boat. When they arrived offshore, they were relieved to see people coming out to meet them.
“We were naïve. We thought they were coming out to help us,” Thai said. Instead, they were pulled further out to sea and abandoned. With only one of their motors still working, the family limped back to shore a second time and sank their boat themselves. They were then beaten and robbed before being taken to a UN refugee camp. Six months later, they arrived in Canada. It was Halloween.
“We thought, ‘Wow! Party town,” Thai said. “And I have loved Canada since the beginning.”
This is the country where the Hua family started a thriving business, one that has been successful in Toronto for over a decade and recently set up shop in Waterloo.
Spring Rolls opened its 13th and 14th locations at Conestoga Mall just before Christmas. Spring Rolls Go is in the food court, and there is a separate dine-in location with an entrance off King Street.
The bar and lounge at the front of the restaurant has the feel of a contemporary Tokyo hotel. The sleek, modern furniture will be moved on weekends to make way for live jazz performances.
The separate dining room boasts an awe-inspiring design, with a massive 10-foot high chandelier draped from end-to-end down the centre of the room.
Family members and staff strung and hung the 150,000 individual crystals by hand. It’s indicative of the team effort put into the business, and the amount of dedication required from Thai’s position as president right down to the people who bus tables.
“This family is demanding but appreciative and respectful,” said Patti Hone, part of the Spring Rolls marketing team. “They hire people who know what they’re doing, and then they let them do it.”
Their motto is “Style without attitude, quality without the price.” The expansive menu focuses on Viet/Thai food but brother Hai Hua, the executive chef, travels frequently, returning with new regional food ideas from Korea, China and Singapore among other places.
There are a wide variety of appetizers including dim sum starting at $3.99 and several varieties of spring rolls. Lunch specials start at $8.99 and dinner specials at $10.99, with soup or salad. Some new items, such as the lobster and avocado salad and the sea bass with olive black bean sauce, are unique to the Waterloo location.
“There’s a little bit of everything,” Hone said. “I challenge anyone to come and not find something they like.”
Thai said the pan-Asian influences at the restaurant come from years working with his uncle as a grocery retailer, then opening his own Asian grocery store.
“When I first came to Toronto, I was only the third Asian kid at Oakdale Junior High,” he recalls. “We came at the right time. I was able to observe the growth of the Asian population and the influx of all the foods across all Asian cultures.”
Next door to his grocery store, brother Hai was running a restaurant, Pho 88. When the restaurant started to become popular with Caucasians, Thai took notice.
“They loved the food,” he said. “It’s fresh, it’s light, and it’s fast service.”
They came up with the idea for Spring Rolls, combining an upscale, Western front-of-house experience with authentic Asian food, “not Chinese-Canadian food,” and opened their first location in 1996.
When the Hua family started scouting for their first location outside the big city, Waterloo seemed a natural fit. Commuters and Toronto students are already familiar with the Spring Rolls brand, which has 12 locations across the GTA and Mississauga.
Thai said it’s important to expand the business organically. Today, 10 family members are involved. The Waterloo location, more than two years in the making, is run by the brother of a brother-in-law. The company logo even symbolizes the emphasis on family: two chopsticks represent the Hua parents, while seven grains of rice personify the kids.
“We’ve come a long way, but I think we can go further,” Thai said. “We’re very passionate about what we do. We live and breathe this restaurant.”
* * *
Spring Rolls
Conestoga Mall 519-888-0077
Winterlicious Menu: Three-course dinner for two, $39.95 Lunch and dinner specials daily Reservations available online at www.springrolls.ca .
http://www.waterloochronicle.ca/news/article/199576 (http://www.waterloochronicle.ca/news/article/199576)