Every few minutes a bell rings in the kitchen at Tan Dinh, the long-running Vietnamese restaurant in Gretna. It signals another order up. By now my response is pretty much Pavlovian. At the sound, I find fresh anticipation for the meal I am awaiting.
On my most recent visit, what that bell triggered was much stronger than usual. In a way it had been building for a while, coupled with a dose of anxiety.
Tan Dinh had been closed for more than two months. A combination of factors were in play, starting with health issues within the restaurant family.
The family gave assurance that Tan Dinh would be back. But after the tumult of the past two-plus years I have learned to take nothing for granted, especially when it concerns a small, family-run restaurant.
These are precisely the type that are the most valuable in our food culture and also the most susceptible to changes that can roil industries, individuals and families. The hits keep coming with the Catty Shack taco joint in Gentilly, Live Oak Cafe up on Oak Street in Casa Borrega in Central City all closing for good in the past week alone.
So it was with a sense of relief that I pulled up for a late lunch one afternoon, solo, and ordered enough food for three people, just to get a taste of old favorites.
The bell kept ringing in the kitchen and my meal arrived dish by dish - the garlic butter chicken wings, short ribs with pickled cabbage and just the right blend of spice and sour funk , and the pho, so aromatic and restorative and evocative in a way that only soup can be.
I started thinking about my own history with this restaurant. I was startled to realize I’ve been eating at Tan Dinh for almost 20 years now, through countless changes here and in my own life, with so many different people along the way.
Our restaurants are still navigating their own ways through these times. One meal gave me a fresh dose of gratitude that they are making it happen. It really rang my bell.
