Jenny Nguyen Transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everyone. You are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe. And I'm your host, Kerry Diamond. I'm the founder and editor of Cherry Bombe Magazine and each week, I talk to the most interesting women in and around the world of food. Today's guest is Jenny Nguyen, owner and founder of The Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon. The Sports Bra, which opened on April 1st, 2022, yes, April Fool's Day, but it was no joke, is the country's first sports bar dedicated to women sports.
Jenny, who is a chef, was tired of being shut down in sports bars when she and her friends wanted to watch women sports, so she took matters into her own hands. Jenny is such an example of change in action, and I'm so honored to interview her today. She is a fascinating humble human being. And The Sports Bra idea is, in my opinion, nothing short of brilliant. Wouldn't it be great to see a Sports Bra in every city? Jenny, bring it to New York, we are ready. Anyway, I know you'll love this conversation, so stay tuned. This interview was recorded at Newsstand Studios at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.
Thank you to Whole Foods Market for supporting this episode of Radio Cherry Bombe. Whole Foods Market also supported our recent Jubilee conference here in New York City and introduced everyone to a new brand it carries called Matriark Foods, founded by Anna Hammond. Matriark Foods is boldly changing food systems by upcycling farm surplus and fresh cut remnants into beautiful pasta sauces, available in gentle marinara, tomato basil, and spicy arabiatta. Matriark sauces are made with U.S. grown tomatoes that are either too ripe, too big, or too small for certain specs, or have a minor blemish. This creates extra revenue for farmers while keeping usable tomatoes out of the landfill. Matriark pasta sauces are vegan, non-GMO, and have no added sugar, used with your favorite pasta or turn into a shakshuka or a chana masala like Samah Dada of Dada Eats did at our recent Jubilee conference. Brands like Matriark Foods are so important today because one-third of all food produced is lost or wasted globally. We can all do better. And Matriark and whole foods are leading the way. To learn more, visit matriarkfoods.com and look for Matriark pasta sauces at your favorite local Whole Foods market in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. If you buy some, DM me and let me know what you make.
Now let's check in with today's guest. Jenny Nguyen, welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe.
Jenny Nguyen:
Thank you so much for having me.
Kerry Diamond:
My first question for you is, how did you come up with the brilliant idea for a sports bar dedicated to female sports?
Jenny Nguyen:
I think that there was an aha moment, for sure. But prior to that, it was just a long experience of disappointment after disappointment going into your traditional sports bars or restaurants, specifically to watch a women's game. As soon as I was old enough to drink, basically, I've been a basketball fan and player my whole life. My friends, all of us, that's what we enjoy. That's what we go out to do. For years and years and years, we would go out and it was constantly anything from an inconvenience of coming in and having to ask to have a channel changed to a feeling of being unsafe because some of those spaces feel very not meant for us.
And when I say us, I mean people who look like me, people of color, folks who are queer, trans, non-binary, just not the status quo. There were times where group of us would come in and we'd all sit down at a huge table, order drinks and food and be like, "Hey, can you change that channel?" They'd be like, "No, there's too many people watching this." And then we'd be stuck there. And then there's been other times where, for example, I would never have gone to a sports bar by myself. It didn't feel comfortable for me.
And I would do things like buddy system to the restroom, those kinds of things. And then safety is a part of it. The convenience of watching women's sports in public is another part of it. And then another thing is a lot of my friends are vegan, vegetarian. I'm gluten dairy free as much as I can be. I slip up every now and again for fun. I feel like a lot of the sports bars just aren't catering to everyone. We'd get in there and the only thing we could eat was fries or something.
I think there was this universal experience for most women's sports fans when it comes to going out and going to a sports bar and trying to make a celebration of it. But the aha moment came in 2018 when a group of friends and I, it was probably over a dozen of us. We went to go watch the NCAA women's basketball finals, and that's the biggest game of the year. There's not too much men's sports that are really big happening right then. We go into this sports bar thinking, “Oh yeah, it's definitely going to be on.”
And we go in and there's 30 plus TVs in this whole place, and not a single TV has it on, but there's just a smattering of folks in there. We're like, okay, it's not a problem. We pushed some tables together. We asked the server if they can change channel. They're like, "Oh, absolutely, no problem." And so she proceeds to change a channel, but it's on, I feel like, the smallest TV in the whole place and in the corner, but it's fine. I think we're just used to it. And so we just order food and drinks and we proceed to have a really great time. It was Notre Dame against Mississippi State.
And I remember that the game prior, the final four game, Arike Ogunbowale hit a last second shot to put Notre Dame into the championship game. And so Notre Dame's down by 20, I want to say like 23, with just a few minutes left in the fourth quarter. And we're all just yelling at the TV. We don't have any skin in the game. We're just so wanting the game to be competitive. And so there's this huge divide and we're just like, "What is happening?" Suddenly, Notre Dame makes this gigantic comeback.
It was like 57, 57 or something like that, and there's just three seconds or a little less than three seconds left. Inbounds play, and Arike gets it again and launches a three pointer right at the buzzer. We just lose it. And I remember I was jumping up and down, I take my hat off and I throw it across the bar. I couldn't even help myself. And as I watch it coast across the bar, I realize that no one else in the entire bar is watching our game. Everybody's staring what is happening over in that corner. We're high-fiving and hugging and we just have a celebration.
So anyway, we're all leaving the bar and we're in the parking lot hugging each other saying goodbye. And I was just like, "That's the best game I've ever seen." And my friend goes, "It would have been so much better if the sound had been on." And that's when I had that kind of aha moment because I had not realized that we'd watched this spectacular game with no sound. To me, it was like I had gotten so used to watching women's sports as a secondary. Right then completely out of frustration, I didn't mean anything by it when I said it, I was just like, "The only way we're ever going to watch a women's sports game in its full glory is if we had our own place." I just spit it out. Obviously, it didn't mean anything. And-
Kerry Diamond:
You had never had that idea before.
Jenny Nguyen:
I mean, I think we joked about whatever in the past, but that's the moment that I remember because it stuck. I think I was driving home or driving somewhere the next day. But within a couple days I was just like, mm, if we had our own place, what would we call it? And the very first thing that came to mind was The Sports Bra. As soon as I thought it, I couldn't unthink it at the very conceptualization of the idea, it was just going to be a traditional sports bar. All we would change is the channel. And so I thought, sports bar, all you're switching is two letters.
And to me, it was the tiniest change makes the biggest difference. The R and the A switch around, you have sports bar, Sports Bra, and everything changes. I just thought it was hilarious. And then a couple days later, I was like, ooh, I have a motto for it. We support women. I giggled to myself. And then I told my girlfriend and she just thought it was hilarious, and that was it. For years, my girlfriend and I, it was like an inside joke for us. We would go out to a sports bar and we'd want a burger on a gluten-free bun, and they don't have it. And I'd be like, "Oh, at the Sports Bra, they'd have gluten-free buns." And there was a gymnastics championship, and I was just like, "Ah, at the Sports Bra, we'd play gymnastics." And so it was just like this constant running joke. And that's-
Kerry Diamond:
Then it was your girlfriend who finally called you on it, right?
Jenny Nguyen:
Yeah, yeah. I mean, what happened was in 2020, so I had been a chef for about 15 years. And I went to Vietnam with my parents in 2015 and that trip shifted my worldview to the point where I got back and I put in my notice at work and was like, I don't know what my next steps are, but I know it's not this. I was unemployed for over five years before opening The Sports Bra last year. And while I was unemployed, I have a pretty low maintenance lifestyle. I was able to trim up and I have a home in Northeast Portland that I rented out, and I just made enough to make ends meet with just renting it out. For five years, I was just hanging out, retired lifestyle.
Kerry Diamond:
Can you tell us how you became a chef since we are a food show?
Jenny Nguyen:
Sure. This is a funny story. I picked up a basketball when I was five or six years old, and that was my passion. I grew up playing basketball. It was really what I felt like was my identity at the time.
Kerry Diamond:
What was your position, Jenny? I used to play basketball in high school.
Jenny Nguyen:
Oh yeah, I was a point guard.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, you're a point guard. Okay.
Jenny Nguyen:
Yeah, at 5'3" there's only maybe one thing you can do.
Kerry Diamond:
I was only center when they were desperate and the real center had felled out and was a week forward at other times.
Jenny Nguyen:
Oh my gosh, you must have some height then.
Kerry Diamond:
5'10", yeah.
Jenny Nguyen:
Ah, in my dreams. Yeah, so, 5'3". Basketball was my life. I would sleep with a basketball. I'd watch movies spinning a basketball on my finger, like the works. I got a small scholarship to a community college. And two weeks before my very first freshman game, I blew out my ACL. I was 19.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, Jenny, that's the worst story.
Jenny Nguyen:
It was devastating. I went through a really deep depression because everything that I had associated my identity with was embedded in basketball. I was going to go to college and my parents would ask me, "What are you going to do?" And I was just like, "I want to play basketball." And they were like, "No. I mean, what do you want to do with your life?" I was like, "I want to play basketball." And-
Kerry Diamond:
And you played varsity ball all four years of high school, which is a big deal.
Jenny Nguyen:
I did. I did play varsity ball, yeah. And I mean, it's not like I was that great, you know what I mean? I-
Kerry Diamond:
No, but still just to not be relegated to JV [junior varsity] freshman and sophomore year.
Jenny Nguyen:
Sure. I was definitely varsity four years. I mean, I was good, but nothing like W or anything. But I blew up my ACL when I was 19. I went through a really deep depression. I came out to my parents when I was 17, so I was still dealing with coming out. And I basically moved away to college to leave everything behind. I went away to college, clean slate. And while I was up there, I had enrolled in college and my parents really wanted me to be a doctor. Of course, I'm first generation Vietnamese American. I'm an only child. They had poured everything into me.
And they were like, "We want you to be a doctor." And I didn't have any ambitions of my own, so I was like, "Sure, whatever. I don't care." I was signed up pre-med. And so I was doing these really difficult classes. I was playing intramural ball, I was healed up, but things were really stressful, obviously. And this girl that I was dating at the time, I had basically just started ... I'd lost 15 pounds going in to college, and it was because I didn't realize, but my mom made pretty much every meal growing up. We had dinner at the dinner table every night together.
And I didn't realize until I went away to college that was very uncommon. The college dorm food was awful. I lost a bunch of weight, and then I called mom and I was like, "Mom, I need some of the recipes." Because I was homesick for food. I wasn't homesick for home. It was the food that I missed. My dorm room shared a wall with the communal kitchen. It was in the communal kitchen I started cooking the food that I missed from home.
The very first dish I asked my mom for was tikka, which is traditionally like a clay pot stewed pork shoulder with fish sauce, a caramel sauce, a coconut milk, and it all gets simmered together. And then you hard-boil eggs separately. And when they're just soft, you peel them and you throw them into the stew and you finish it. The whites of the eggs are brown all the way through, and then you eat it all with rice. And I would always break open the egg and take the yolk out and then crush it up with the rice and then eat it all together. That's my favorite dish my mom makes.
And so that was the very first one I asked her for. But my girlfriend at the time, she realized, she goes, "Jenny, the only time I ever see you truly happy and truly yourself is either on the basketball court or in the kitchen." And I hadn't realized it. I had just used it as a way to not miss home and then also not starve to death. When she said that, I started to think about it and then I started to cook for other people. I started to do five to six to seven course meals for 20 people in the dorms. It was ridiculous. I just loved it. I would lose hours in there, like six, seven hours and-
Kerry Diamond:
Sounds like you were running a restaurant out of the dorm.
Jenny Nguyen:
It was a pleasure. I did all the research. It was so much fun. By the end of my sophomore year, I called at my parents and I told them that I didn't want to be a doctor, that I wanted to be a chef. I think my dad wanted to hang up on me. It was just an enormous disappointment. They said things like, "We didn't flee a war torn country or almost die in the ocean so that you could be a butler or a servant." It was really, really rough. My dad gave me some of the best advice he could have given me at the time, and I think it was to scare me. I think he was hoping it would scare me. He said, "I want you to get the worst job you can think of in your field, do it for a year. And if you still want that to be your life, go for it." I have to call-
Kerry Diamond:
That's incredible advice. I've never heard that advice before.
Jenny Nguyen:
Yeah. And I was like, okay, I'm going to do it. I went to college in Bellingham, which is a small town, Northern Washington, like 40 minutes from Vancouver, B.C. There's one shopping mall and there's one Red Robin. I went to the Red Robin. They had this position called the fryer boy. I don't think it was technically called the fryer boy position, but they called it the fryer boy job there. And they said nobody lasts more than four months. And I was just like, "I want it. Give me that job."
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. Tell us what a Red Robin is because I don't think we have them here in New York City.
Jenny Nguyen:
Oh. Okay, got it. Red Robin is a chain or a franchise. It's "a gourmet burger joint." I guess I was almost going to say another local place, but you're not going to know either. But it's a very extremely fast-paced, fast casual burger joint.
Kerry Diamond:
Great burgers?
Jenny Nguyen:
I mean, it's very, very popular, especially in a college town. The point being one mall, one Red Robin, extremely busy, and I ran the fryers. And it was eight fryers, two baskets each, so 16 baskets, no timers, all verbal calls.
Kerry Diamond:
Ah.
Jenny Nguyen:
Yeah, it was intense. I remember there were times where I would come home and I'd take my work shirt off and I could literally stand it on the table-
Kerry Diamond:
Oh.
Jenny Nguyen:
... because it was just full of grease. I loved it. It was just like the adrenaline rush, everything. I was hooked. And I was at that Red Robin for over a year, but I didn't stay in the fryer boy position for very long. I was hooked. I moved up pretty quick.
Kerry Diamond:
They were right. No one stays in that job for very long.
Jenny Nguyen:
Yeah, but they meant they quit because-
Kerry Diamond:
They meant they leave, right?
Jenny Nguyen:
Yeah, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
What did they have you do next?
Jenny Nguyen:
Prep, then salad. And they wanted me to go to hot side, and I was like, "No, I'm going to stay over on the salad side." I ended up becoming one less than the lead in less a little over a year, like a year and three months or something before I moved back to Portland.
Kerry Diamond:
Did you wind up with a corporate job with them eventually? Did I read that-
Jenny Nguyen:
I did. I did wind up with a corporate job, but with another company called Bon Appétit. Bon Appétit-
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, sure. They do tons of famous cafeterias around the U.S.
Jenny Nguyen:
Exactly, exactly. Which is super ironic because they do colleges and universities, but it's very good.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay, so you have that job. And then from there, you go to Reed College?
Jenny Nguyen:
Oh man, Red Robin. And then my parents were like, "Okay, you still want to stick with this graduate college first." I graduate college. I moved back to Portland, go to culinary school. And while I'm going to culinary school, I have two other jobs at fine dining places here in town. And one of them was Lucy's Table, which was a pretty well-known restaurant in Northwest Portland. And I was there for several years. The lifestyle caught me. My girlfriend at the time, she was just like, "Either the job goes or I do."
That's when I looked for a corporate job because I knew that moving to days and more corporate environment would probably be safer for me. That's how I got into Bon Appétit. And so with Bon Appétit, I started at Adidas headquarters, which is here in Northeast Portland. And then from Adidas, I went to Lewis & Clark College. And from Lewis & Clark College, I went to Reed College, where I eventually became the executive chef.
Kerry Diamond:
Wow. You've had such an ... I mean, people tend to think of chef jobs as a fancy restaurant job, but you've had such an interesting chef career. I mean, there are so many ways you can be a chef today.
Jenny Nguyen:
Totally. And I mean, it was mostly because I had a really great girlfriend who saw me spiraling into a lot of substance abuse situations and those kinds of things.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh. Well, I'm glad she had your back.
Jenny Nguyen:
I seem to date just the right people at just the right times that push me. It's really great. I've had some really amazing girlfriends, and this is also an ex-girlfriend. But she was, in 2020, the pandemic happened and then there was just tons of turmoil with social justice movements. The world was turned upside down. And I went from a very comfortable, relaxed retirement lifestyle, and nothing in my life was being impacted, but it made me feel guilty. I was just like, “God, what am I doing with my life?” I haven't contributed anything. I've just been sitting on my hunches.
And it started to make me think what my priorities were. I think along with millions of other people, everybody got the chance to reevaluate their place in the world and their priorities. That's what I was doing. I was just like, I feel like I have something to offer, I have something to give, but I wasn't sure what it was. The only things I knew was basketball and cooking. I started to think, “oh, do I want to help at soup kitchens, travel the world, and help at war torn countries, building kitchens or something?” I'm not sure.
And so I started to talk to my girlfriend at the time about that, and she goes, "Hey, you know how we always joke about The Sports Bra?" And I was like, "Yeah." She goes, "Why don't you do that?" And literally, when she said it, I laughed in her face because it had just been this fantasy world where it's just a place where me and my friends hang out. That was it. And the idea that The Sports Bra was meaningful in a time when it just felt like everything felt hopeless, I started to turn it around in my head over and over. And the more I thought about it, it was like an onion where you peel back the layers and it was just like, there's more to this than just changing the channel. There's more to it than just putting women's sports on TV. And plus, on top of that, Portland was the whipping boy of the media. I mean, two or three times a week-
Kerry Diamond:
Portland went through a lot during those-
Jenny Nguyen:
Yeah. I mean, every major city went through a lot. But I think we were highlighted so much in a negative fashion. Two, three times a week, we would get calls from family that live all over the place and they'd be like, "Are you guys safe? Are you guys okay?" And we're just like, "Yeah, how about you?"
Kerry Diamond:
I do remember reading more about Portland in the Times, for example, than some other cities.
Jenny Nguyen:
Exactly. We were living here and it was still beautiful, and there's beautiful people doing beautiful things. And there was just this camaraderie and community and all this stuff, but you didn't hear about any of that. And Portland's my hometown. I was born and raised here. It felt like, okay, at the very least, that maybe The Sports Bra could bring a little bit of positivity back to the city. And the more I talked about it with her, the more we just turned this idea over and over. It got to the point where I was going to bed thinking about it and waking up thinking about The Bra.
I was really scared. I remember being like, “God, I haven't worked in over five years.” And I know people had asked me when I was a chef, "Jenny, when are you going to open your own restaurant?" I was like, "I would never do that." I can only imagine what kind of dedication and hours and just blood, sweat, and tears that would take. I don't love anything that much. I was just like, "I'm never opening my own place. I want to clock in and clock out." And people would just laugh, and it was the truth.
I was talking to my girlfriend about it and I was just like, "My life is going to change dramatically if I open a place. And is that what I want?" And I just was borderline. I mean, I thought it was a great idea, but I also had no idea how the world would respond to something like that. There was a turning point in the thought process. I remember exactly when it was. My girlfriend and I, we met 12 years ago playing basketball.
We were sitting around and we were talking about, if we were little and our parents took us to a place like The Sports Bra, how much of an impact it would've had on us as children, even if we were 7 or 9 or 13 or even 17, going into a space like that and feeling represented and feeling like you belong. There was never a moment like that for either of us. And right then, I was just like, oh god, I think I got to do this. I think that if even one kid goes in there and sees their future up on the screen, it'd be worth it. And then that was the turning point for me. It pushed me over the edge of, will it be worth it for me to give up this total slacker lifestyle?
Kerry Diamond:
That's incredible, Jenny.
Jenny Nguyen:
Yeah, it was wild. It was wild to think about that. And then I was just like, we're going to make this an all ages place. Why not?
Kerry Diamond:
Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. Cherry Bombe is participating in Taste of Santa Barbara, the week long culinary celebration taking place, May 15th through 21st. We'll be at Mattei's Tavern in Los Olivos on Saturday, May 20th, for a special networking event and wine tasting. Tickets are $100 and include all food and drink, a copy of the new issue of Cherry Bombe magazine and a copy of the delicious new mystery novel, Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge. Head to cherrybombe.com or sbce.events for tickets and more information. We'll put those links in our show notes. We would love to see you at Taste of Santa Barbara. Now, back to our guest.
The Sports Bra is a family friendly establishment.
Jenny Nguyen:
It is.
Kerry Diamond:
You made it clear, you're not sitting on a pile of money. You're living very modestly. How does one go about raising money for something like The Sports Bra?
Jenny Nguyen:
I mean, so it's funny. About a year prior to me thinking about opening The Sports Bra, I got my very first credit card. This is going to be a long convoluted story. My mom and everyone I know was just like, "Jenny, you need a credit card. Stop paying for things with a debit card." And I was like, "I don't understand why. I don't want to have a credit card." And so, finally, my mom's just like, "Get a credit card." I didn't know how to do it, and there was a lot of information out there. I'd saw a commercial on TV for NerdWallet. I went to NerdWallet.
And literally, it was like layman's terms. I was like, oh my god, I understand this. I got a credit card. It felt really easy. Fast forward to when I'm thinking about starting my own business, I was like, I have no idea how to do that. I started to Google things. Everyone had something different to say, and I was just like, I wonder if NerdWallet has something. Put in the NerdWallet, and I'm like, how to start a business? And there's like a 10-step how to start a business on NerdWallet, and that is literally what I use.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh my god. That is the best.
Jenny Nguyen:
That is literally the template. I feel like I should be a-
Kerry Diamond:
That is the best story.
Jenny Nguyen:
Right? A spokesperson for NerdWallet. NerdWallet, if you're out there.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. If anybody out there knows anyone from NerdWallet, I feel like this commercial just wrote itself, so thank you.
Jenny Nguyen:
Yeah. I started with NerdWallet and they basically was just like, write a business plan and then these are in this order, these are how you can finance your business. And the first one was traditional lenders. That's what I did. I reached out to three of the biggest banks and applied for loans, and then I applied for two SBA loans. And then one by one, I got declined by everybody.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh.
Jenny Nguyen:
But what's interesting is that every single time I got declined, I got a personal email saying that they thought that the idea was brilliant and that they wished me the best of luck. But they all said the exact same thing, which was, this was in November of 2021, they said that we're in the midst of a pandemic. And literally, dozens of restaurants in Portland were closing every day at this time, November of 2021. Opening a restaurant during a pandemic, banks did not like that. They were pouring money into PPP [paycheck protection program]. The second one was that I had never done anything like this before, completely inexperienced. And then the third one, probably the biggest one, is that is a concept that has literally never been done, extremely risky for a bank. And so-
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah, so went to NerdWallet, say, to do next.
Jenny Nguyen:
NerdWallet said next, basically beg your friends and family. I put together a pitch deck, very scrappy pitch deck, and I started to pitch to my friends and family. And I was able to scrape up enough money between that and then I emptied out my savings account. And I felt like I had enough to at least look for a space to lease. And while I did that, I also applied for some local grants and loans from a couple CDFIs and community oriented things. There's a ton of red tape, so I didn't want to sit on my haunches. I started looking and I thought the look was going to take a lot longer. And I found the perfect location in about a month, which wasn't enough time to get any funding from anybody.
Kerry Diamond:
Wow. And that's the place you're at now.
Jenny Nguyen:
That's correct.
Kerry Diamond:
Wow. You found it that fast.
Jenny Nguyen:
I found it real quick.
Kerry Diamond:
When did the Kickstarter idea pop in your head?
Jenny Nguyen:
I thought that I was going to have more time, obviously, to find a place. And so when I had applied for all these loans, they were like, "This could take about four months." I was like, "Okay, that's perfect." And then I found the spot I wanted in a month. I was just like, do I risk it with what I have? If I did, I would have about two-and-a-half months' worth of funds to keep the doors open. And I was just like, you know what, let's give it a shot. And so I signed the lease. And then right when I signed the lease, I decided to put together Kickstarter.
I found a friend of mine who does photography, and she's done a little bit of short clips of videos. And I asked her if she could do a Kickstarter video, she was like, "I've never done anything like this." I was like, "That's fine, neither have I. You're going to be better at than me." She agreed to it, and then we put together a Kickstarter. We launched it on Valentine's Day of 2022. I did some calculations and I calculated that I need about $49,000 to feel comfortable keeping the doors open for about six months. I Googled other Kickstarters for restaurants in Portland, and the average was about $7,000, was the ask.
Kerry Diamond:
That's not very much.
Jenny Nguyen:
That's not very much. And I go, oh my god. I was like, I can't ask $49,000 to a bunch of strangers. I was like, I'm going to ask for 30. 30 is a much more reasonable number. I tell my girlfriend, "I'm going to ask for 30." Because Kickstarter is one of those things where you get all or nothing. You either make your goal. And if you don't make your goal, you get zip. And-
Kerry Diamond:
Can I go back one second?
Jenny Nguyen:
Sure.
Kerry Diamond:
You're thinking you need this amount of money to stay open for X number of months. Are you not imagining that you're going to be filled with customers?
Jenny Nguyen:
No, absolutely not. All the research I-
Kerry Diamond:
You're doing the worst case scenario planning.
Jenny Nguyen:
Worst case scenario. All the research I'd done was start skeleton crew. You're going to build a clientele slowly, plan on not making anything for a little while. That's what I was planning on. I told my girlfriend I was going to ask for 30, and she goes, and this is a piece of advice that will stay with me for the rest of my life, she goes, "I think you should ask for what you need." I told her I was scared, and she was just like, "I think people will show up for this." And so that's what I did. I took a risk and I just asked for all of it.
Kerry Diamond:
Ask for what you need is advice that lots of us should apply to all areas of our lives.
Jenny Nguyen:
Yeah. And I think as women, we tend to take what we can get. I think it was huge for me, and I've definitely been doing that a lot more. I signed the lease in December of 2021. I got the keys February 1st, 2022, launched the Kickstarter on the 14th. I'm in there. It's been a couple days since the Kickstarter launched, and it's been a couple thousand. And all the names on there, I recognize like 25 bucks here and there from people I know. And then I get a phone call, it's Brooke [Jackson-Glidden] from Eater PDX. I'm a fans of Eater, so I know who she is. And I'm like, "Oh, hey."
And she's like, "Yeah, I'm calling because I just got ..." I just told her about it and she was just like, "Wow." And she was blown away, and she goes, "I think I might have a story here." And I was just like, "Oh, cool." She goes, "Okay, yeah. It might go to print soon or whatever." And I was just like, "Okay."
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. I have to interrupt and ask, you really didn't think there would be much media interest in this?
Jenny Nguyen:
Have a habit of just severely underestimating everything. I feel like that's just the plain truth about me.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, also, just I guess to your credit, A, you're very modest, B, you were the first doing this. I mean, now in retrospect, we're all like, oh my god, that's genius, Jenny's brilliant. But when you're the first, it's got to be daunting.
Jenny Nguyen:
Yeah. I mean, I looked it up and I was surprised. I thought I was going to be the first in Oregon or something because I hadn't heard of it. I looked it up and I kept looking, and I kept digging and digging. And I couldn't believe that there wasn't someone else already doing it. And so, I was like, okay, yeah, this is the first. But then when I finally told my parents about the Sports Bra, the very first thing my dad said was like, "There's probably a reason nobody's done it." And I don't know if I've mentioned it, but my parents were adamantly against the project.
At this point, as you can tell, at this point, I've disappointed my parents so many times that at the age of ... What was I? Like 41. I was just telling them to inform them that's what I was going to do next, and I knew that they would hate it. My dad's like, "There's probably a reason why nobody's done it." And that idea buried itself in my brain. I was just like, I don't know, I don't know. I literally didn't know. And everyone I talked to is a friend or family member who loves me, and I feel like if I said I wanted to open a cat café, they'd be like, "Jenny, that's the best idea. I think you'd do great."
Kerry Diamond:
Wait, that is the best idea, Jenny. Cat café, come on. I'm in on that one. Make me your partner on that one.
Jenny Nguyen:
I don't know. I didn't know how the public would react. I know how people I loved would react, except for my parents. My parents were not on board. But I talked to Brooke, she was like, "Okay, we might have a story here." I was like, "Okay, cool." I hung up and immediately forgot about it, and then I'm working, we're doing a build out because my goal had always been to open on April 1st in homage to that 2018 game, which was on April 1st. It's February. I'm like, “Okay, we need to crank.” And so I'm cranking, I'm in there by myself.
And I get a text from my mom and she's like, “Have you looked at your Kickstarter?” And I go, “No.” And she goes, “Look at it.” And right then, I get a text from Brooke, and she goes, we just published. I look at the ... I open it up and it's like a graph that's flat because I asked for 49,000 and we'd gotten maybe 2,000 by day three, and it went to straight up and down. I feel like from the moment that article came out until this moment right now that we're having, The Sports Bra hasn't looked back since that moment.
I think right then was the moment that I felt like my idea might go somewhere. I was like, maybe I am onto something or maybe this can be successful. Because up until then, I was just like ... I mean, let's say up until about four months ago, I was like, I have no idea. I woke up scared every day that this whole thing's going to fall in its face. But that moment was just like, oh, wow. And then comments and emails and everything started to pour in from all over. There were people trying to donate to Kickstarter from Portugal, and they couldn't get the money to transfer.
It was insane. And that same day, after that article went out, the news reporters started to get a hold of it and started coming up and showing up at the store. And we started doing interviews and it was lights out after that. And so-
Kerry Diamond:
Wow. What was going through in your mind?
Jenny Nguyen:
I mean, it was shock. I mean, it was shock and relief. Because, again, an idea lives in your brain and you ... Of course, I think it's the best idea ever, but who knows? You release it out into the world and people are like, that's lame or whatever. All of these messages from people saying that they've been waiting their whole lives for a place like this or finally or it's about time. I called my grandma who played in college and they only played half court, and we both cried. Or there was just hundreds and hundreds of messages that spanned everything from thank you to this changes everything. I was in a lot of shock, really. But we were able to reach our Kickstarter goal in less than 10 days. I think on the ninth day, we reached the 49,000. And I had it up for 30 days.
Kerry Diamond:
I remember we started watching. I forget how it came to my attention, probably Instagram. I remember when you hit 100,000 and I didn't even know you, and we were cheering. We were like, "Jenny hit 100,000." We're so excited. I have to ask though, with that many people reaching out to you, I mean, it's a wonderful thing and it is a gift, but it's also a gift you've given all of us. In a sense, you become a sponge for so many people's dreams, desires, frustrations, all of that. How did you handle that and how have you taken care of yourself through that?
Jenny Nguyen:
That's a great question. That's a great question. It was very overwhelming at the beginning, extremely overwhelming. I'm not sure I can really remember the first couple months after we opened the doors. Because I mean, those are messages online, let alone the hundreds of ... I mean, I think we saw thousands of people the first week we were open. It was nuts. We would open the doors to a line and we would close the doors to a line. People waited four hours and would walk in and cheer and cry and want a hug and take picture and do all the things, and happily. It was a lot. And I think I'm very much an introvert. There were days where I would just go home and I would just crawl under the blanket and cry just from being overwhelmed.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay, so The Sports Bra's one-year anniversary is April 1st, like you mentioned.
Jenny Nguyen:
Yeah, coming right up.
Kerry Diamond:
I didn't realize that was the anniversary of the game. I thought either you had no choice but to open that day or you were saying to the world, you think this is an April Fool's joke, and it is not.
Jenny Nguyen:
I mean, that was my backup plan, but the goal since day one was always to try to aim for April 1st.
Kerry Diamond:
Cool. And that's right in between March Madness, Final Four, that whole situation. Our anniversary this year is going to be the same. Does Arike know how big an inspiration she was for The Sports Bra?
Jenny Nguyen:
I don't know if she personally knows, but I've definitely told the story a lot of times.
Kerry Diamond:
Has she come by yet?
Jenny Nguyen:
She has not.
Kerry Diamond:
Not yet.
Jenny Nguyen:
She has not.
Kerry Diamond:
Not yet.
Jenny Nguyen:
Not yet.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell me, in the first year, what have some of the highlights been?
Jenny Nguyen:
Oh my gosh, there's been so many. I feel like there's big ones that are obvious, like events, and then there's small ones that I keep in my chest. But some of the ones that stand out are Serena's [Williams] last match we showed, and that was extremely powerful. It felt like that moment was not happening anywhere else on the planet, but at The Bra.
Kerry Diamond:
Can I tell you a funny story about that?
Jenny Nguyen:
Sure. Yeah, please.
Kerry Diamond:
I was at the U.S. Open that night and I had gotten tickets from Kerrygold. Thank you, Kerrygold. I had never been to the U.S. Open before. It was obviously just such an incredible night and such a dramatic evening. And it crossed my mind, I wonder what it's like at The Sports Bra tonight. And I almost thought to myself-
Jenny Nguyen:
Oh my gosh.
Kerry Diamond:
... I would rather be watching this at The Sports Bra than in-person. I can't even tell you why I had that thought, but I was feeling the vibes from Portland, Oregon.
Jenny Nguyen:
There was a lot of vibes. We'd advertised it so people got there early. It's like, you know what, let's just fit as many people as we can in here. Because people were stopping on the street blocking up the sidewalk. We just crammed everybody in. We had to swing the front door open so people could stand from the sidewalk and look in. There were people cupping their hands over the windows to watch from outside. I tell you, during the volleying, we could have dropped a penny and everybody would hear it.
But then when Serena would score a point, it felt like my eyeballs were shaking inside my skull. It was just so passionate and loud. When I started to feel like the end was coming, I ran downstairs real quick and I grabbed a couple boxes of Kleenex that my mom always keeps down there. And I knew that I would need them, but I wasn't sure if anyone else would. It was very clear that by the end of the match, those boxes were being passed around. It was a moment, people were hugging and high ... Strangers hugging and high-fiving, taking videos, calling people.
I really felt, I wasn't sure this moment was happening anywhere else, not even at the U.S. Open. There was this camaraderie that brought everybody together and we all lived. And when Serena mentioned her family and Venus [Williams], oh my gosh, everybody's just sobbing. It was nuts. It was like this communal, and we just had a big hug around everybody. That was definitely a highlight.
Kerry Diamond:
Jenny, I have to ask, you mentioned that there were Kleenex in the basement that your mom kept there. Have your parents turned around?
Jenny Nguyen:
Oh my gosh, I could not tell you how much of a turnaround. They're my biggest fans. Mom comes to work with me every day. She's there every single day. She's there on days that I'm not there sometimes. I want to say something about my folks. I feel like I've disappointed them in every major thing in my ... When I came out to them, there was a lot there. When I told them I wanted to be a chef, there was a lot there. When I told them I wanted to open The Sports Bra, there was a lot there. But out of all of it, it's fear. They were afraid they wanted me to have an easy life.
They came to America to give their kid an easy life, and they felt like all these choices I was making was just going to make my life harder. It was fear-based. And as soon as they realized that The Sports Bra could be successful, the fear went away. They are like 1000% on board now. There was a moment early on, maybe two months after we opened the doors, I was having dinner with my parents, and I remember I was standing up scooping rice and just passing the rice bowls around for the family.
And my dad goes, "If somebody lit The Sports Bra on fire or if you died in a car accident today, you've already succeeded. The Sports Bra has already succeeded." He was like, "You've already changed everything." And when he said that, it felt like an entire weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Because for a while, it felt like all of this stuff was pouring in from people and I just started to build up this idea that I was carrying everyone's hopes and dreams, and it's very daunting. And so when my dad said that, I was like, hah.
And then he said he was proud of me, which I feel like is one of those moments everybody wants to hear. Since that moment, I've just been living the dream. Every day is a blessing. People ask me what my hopes and dreams are for The Bra in the future. And I can dream and I can hope, but it doesn't weigh on me. There's not like this incredible pressure to do something great because every day, the place has surprised me already and it's very organic. From probably the moment we opened the doors, it far exceeded my wildest dreams. Every day feels like bonus, which is such a blessing for me.
Kerry Diamond:
Jenny, that's so beautiful. I'm so happy to hear that.
Jenny Nguyen:
I mean, so my parents are 100% on board.
Kerry Diamond:
Yay.
Jenny Nguyen:
Mom works every day. Dad comes in about-
Kerry Diamond:
What your mom's name?
Jenny Nguyen:
... once a week. So, Tu.
Kerry Diamond:
Tu. If we see Tu there, we can all say hi.
Jenny Nguyen:
Yeah. Everyone at The Bra calls her mom though, mom and dad.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, okay. Your supportive women goes so beyond just what you show on the TV screens at The Sports Bra, you're also working with some female fueled food and drink brands and incorporating them into your menu. Can you tell us about some of these folks?
Jenny Nguyen:
For sure, yeah. I mean, one of the very first businesses we reached out to is Freeland Spirits. They are one of the only women owned and operated distilleries in the history of the United States, and they're right here in Northwest Portland. I've been a fan of Freeland for a while as far as just drinking. I was just like, ah, I wonder if they'd be interested. I reached out to them and they were like, "Yes." They actually had never been a featured distillery on any restaurant's menu. And so I was like, "Yeah, let's do it." And also, I don't know anything. I love drinking, but I don't know how to make a cocktail to save my life. I was like, "Can you guys help me develop the first run of the menu, the cocktail menu?" And they're like, "Absolutely." And so-
Kerry Diamond:
And we should give a shout out to ... I think it's Molly Troupe, is their master distiller.
Jenny Nguyen:
Molly Troupe, yup, and Jill Kuehler is the owner. Fabulous folks. And what I didn't know until I learned later, but I'll go full circle, I also worked with a woman named Cory Carman, who is a rancher out in Eastern Oregon. She's a third generation rancher and she has 100% grass-fed beef. And so I reached out to her and I was just like, I used her when I was a chef for Bon Appétit, for only VIP events because it's a little spendy. And she was just like, "I love it. I love this idea." She was able to work with me to make it so that it was priced that we could do it. And so all of the beef at The Bra is from Cory Carman. And what I found out later was Cory grows the grain used for Freeland Spirits.
Kerry Diamond:
Get out.
Jenny Nguyen:
They're buddies, and I didn't know that prior. And so-
Kerry Diamond:
I love that.
Jenny Nguyen:
I was just like, “Oh my gosh, I'm in with the ladies now.” All of our beef is from Cory, Freeland Spirits is our signature cocktail distillery. And then we also feature other women owned and/or operated distilleries. One is Aimsir Distilling. There's Vinn, which is an Asian woman who is part of Portland's Distillery Row, very unique, just a bunch. And then at the beginning, it was like pulling teeth, trying to figure out where these women owned and operated businesses were. And then by the time some time elapsed, the word got out, and then they came out of the woodworks. And it turns out there are hordes of women in the food and beverage industries that just-
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, really?
Jenny Nguyen:
... tons and tons that are underrepresented, underfunded. People don't talk about them, people don't see them. And I remember, so the liquor license went out, and so all these beer reps are coming through dropping off cards. And I would just send them all away with homework. I was like, “Listen, come back and tell me who is owned, operated, or has a woman in the brew house. Come back with that list and we can talk.” And you just saw their eyes glaze over.
Kerry Diamond:
We've established you are a chef, so you obviously put some thought into the menu. Sports bars are not known for their excellent food. Tell us some of your menu highlights.
Jenny Nguyen:
Sure, yeah. I mean, when I went to write the business plan, literally, the only thing I knew how to do out of the entire 45-page document was write a menu. That was the first thing I did, and it took me 20 minutes. I just wrote down everything I love to eat. Literally, I was like, it's my place, I'm going to make a menu that I love. Real quick, I just jotted down a menu. The highlights for me, mom's baby back ribs, and it is word for word my mom's tikka recipe, which is that recipe, the very first recipe I made in college, and my favorite dish.
Word for word, my mom's recipe, except that we subbed out baby back ribs instead of pork shoulder. And then because it's finger food, we love that. And then I omitted the eggs. That's definitely a showstopper, it is delicious. And then the smash burger is what I eat the most of there. It's super simple. It's Cory Carman's grass-fed beef, third pound fresh, just pressed flat. We get our bread from Dos Romanos, which is the most delicious brioche bun. And then it's mayo on top and bottom bun and a pile of pickles. That's exactly how I like my burgers.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah, any cheese?
Jenny Nguyen:
No.
Kerry Diamond:
No cheese?
Jenny Nguyen:
Not for me.
Kerry Diamond:
Can you get cheese?
Jenny Nguyen:
I mean, people add cheese all the time.
Kerry Diamond:
And gluten-free bun?
Jenny Nguyen:
I do have gluten-free buns, but I will splurge for that Dos Romanos brioche.
Kerry Diamond:
Sounds like it's worth the splurge.
Jenny Nguyen:
It's very good.
Kerry Diamond:
Who is Aunt Tina and what are her chicken wings all about?
Jenny Nguyen:
Oh my gosh, this is a funny story. Aunt Tina Gungap, Aunt Tina is her American name, but Gungap. She is my uncle's wife. She has these famous wings, she'll take them to potlucks. It doesn't matter what kind of potluck, if you're having a Mexican potluck, she'll show up with these wings. They're air fryer wings. And I was just like, oh, we can totally do these. I had her write down the recipe word for word. She took pictures. Everything was very thorough. And I was like, "Okay, let's do it."
And so I put it on the menu and then I brought in a couple chef friends of mine to R&D [research and develop], everything. And then we narrowed down recipes and everything. We R&D'd my Aunt Tina's wings and it killed the fryer. As soon as we dropped these wings into the fryer, the fryer oil turned black and the fries, everything tasted like garlic because she uses a quarter cup of minced garlic. And I was like, oh my-
Kerry Diamond:
Wait, a quarter cup?
Jenny Nguyen:
Yeah, for this batch. And I was just like, okay.
Kerry Diamond:
I love garlic, and that's a lot of garlic.
Jenny Nguyen:
It's delicious. It's very garlicy, but it's just so you can't eat just one. And I was just like, oh, no, I really want these to be ... We had to finagle the recipe. We scrapped her recipe and just made something else up that has the garlic punch. And we used a dry rub and then there's like a toss with the wet stuff after a whole situation. We had to R&D a brand new recipe. Anyway, I'd already had the menus printed with her name on it and everything. And I knew before we opened, I'd have to get her blessing. I have her and my mom come in to try these wings.
And so we put them in front of her and she's eating, and I'm just about to ask her, and she puts her hand up, "Wait a second, I'm not done." I'm like, oh my god, she hates them. I come back later, she's licking her fingers and she looks at me dead in the eye and she goes, "These are better than mine." And I feel like she's lying, but it was definitely a sign off. Aunt Tina's wings, they were approved by her, but they are not her secret recipe.
Kerry Diamond:
We might never get our hands on that until you do The Sports Bra cookbook maybe, right?
Jenny Nguyen:
That's right. That's right.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell us about how The Sports Bra is decorated.
Jenny Nguyen:
Oh my gosh. Okay, yeah. I feel like The Sports Bra's larger than life to a lot of folks. It's a really small ... It's like a tavern size. We have 40 seats. On a super busy day, we'll probably double that number. But it's one large room, 16 foot ceilings, huge windows on the frontend, which is the narrow side. And along the left side, when you walk in as a banquette and above the banquette, we have what we call the trophy wall. My dad and uncle hung these shelves. And my dad, the entire time, was like, "This isn't going to look good." And I was like, "I have a plan."
So anyway, there's tons of trophies on the shelf. And then below there, we have Jerseys, posters, art, just everything dedicated to girls and women in sports. And I would say about 95% of everything on the walls and hanging is donated. Every day, I was getting six, seven packages from who knows where. And I'd open them and there'd be like an autographed pair of shoes or there was an Olympian who sent an autographed cover of Sports Illustrated from like 1984. It's becoming like a women's sports museum of sorts. Along the left side, we have the trophy wall, and then along the right side is the bar. We have 21 taps, which is a lot of beer for a restaurant that size. And every single thing on our tap list is either owned, operated, and/or made with a woman in the brew house.
Kerry Diamond:
That's awesome.
Jenny Nguyen:
Actually, it sounds like it would be difficult to do, but it's actually very easy. We have rotated probably over 100 breweries through our tap list. It's fantastic. And a lot of times people come in and they're like, "I had no idea." We had 10 Barrel, which is a gigantic brand, and they're master brewer as a woman. And people didn't know that. It's also a way for us to highlight different stories.
Kerry Diamond:
And I saw you do flights too, so folks can come in and try a few different beers if they want.
Jenny Nguyen:
Exactly.
Kerry Diamond:
I want to ask, you are so much more than a sports bar, obviously. We talked about how you've become this repository of everyone's hopes and dreams. But at the same time, you've created something incredibly political. Do you stop and think about that side of it?
Jenny Nguyen:
I don't, and it wasn't really part of the plan. But again, I feel like everything with The Bra has been super organic. And for me, I always tell people, I'm too lazy to be anything but myself. To be authentic is really important to me. And I think that people really resonate with that for like, if I make a mistake, I'll say I made a mistake, I'm imperfect in so many different ways. And I think that people can really respect that. And in that imperfection, there's a lot of intersectionality of just who I am as a person and also all these things I also am as part of my identity, which I hadn't thought about at all when I was opening The Sports Bra.
Now I have Vietnamese women and teenagers and girls coming up to me telling me that they aspire to be like me. And that was something I had never thought, I had never thought about myself as a woman, Asian business owner. I just thought about the sports aspect. And so even I'm learning about how just my existence has a lot of intersectionality and that when I created a space that I wanted to be in, I was creating a space that people like me want to be in. And that is a very diverse swath of people, it turns out. We have people who've never watched a lick of sports in their entire life, want to be at The Sports Bra, because they feel like they belong there.
Kerry Diamond:
You mentioned at the beginning one of your goals was to create a culture where women, queer, and binary folk felt safe. Do you feel you've accomplished that?
Jenny Nguyen:
I do. I do. And it's bittersweet, but I've had people come in and say, it's the safest they've ever felt in a way. In a way, I'm like, yes, that's what we wanted. And then on the other hand, it's like, God, why aren't more places doing this? And to me, it felt easy. You just had to put intentionality behind every decision.
Kerry Diamond:
We also mentioned you made it a family friendly space. How does that work exactly?
Jenny Nguyen:
Yeah, so I contacted the OLCC [Oregon liquor and cannabis commission} and I was just like, “What would it take?” And it's great. Basically, they just wanted it to be very visually a difference between what's 21 and over. There's high stools and seats at the bar, and those are all 21 and over. It's very clear. They wanted a physical delineation. And then every other seat is under 21 until 10:00 p.m., which is Oregon law. And we close at 11:00 anyway, so it's perfect.
Kerry Diamond:
There you go. I know you said that just every day at The Sports Bra is amazing. You are very content with where The Sports Bra is right now. Has just all of this changed your mind about what The Sports Bra could and should be?
Jenny Nguyen:
I mean, when I wrote my business plan, I wrote that best case scenario, I could see the Bra in a dozen major cities across the U.S. And that was my dream scenario. I think shortly after opening, I realized that I just was not dreaming big enough. And I still have this text that one of my bartenders sent to me, maybe a month or two months into our opening, it was a day off, and she sends this text and I read it in my car and I'm just like, I had to pull over and cried. I literally read the text about her dream and I started crying.
And she said that she had dreamt that she was 75 years old or something and she was traveling somewhere else. And she went into The Sports Bra and there was this young whippersnapper who went to go see her. And she told the server, she was just like, "Hey, I opened up the very first Sports Bra in Portland, Oregon." And the server laughed at her thinking that she was senile or something, and that was her dream that decades later she was visiting somewhere and it was a Sports Bra. And that dream had never occurred to me that there would be a lasting business. We're getting people from London, Paris, Melbourne, Rio, Toronto, everywhere, real investors, and people really, really wanting to open something real there.
Kerry Diamond:
I know at the Sports Bra day to day, you're surrounded by amazing people. Beyond that, are you putting together a counsel to navigate the next chapter?
Jenny Nguyen:
Yeah, there is slowly a super team that's happening.
Kerry Diamond:
Great.
Jenny Nguyen:
And it is, again, very organic. I'm not of the mindset of big business. And so when certain folks come out of, let's say, the WNBA and they're like, we want to work with you, or Nike or any other big brands, I just get what is happening. But it's been really cool to just see who's out there, who is just saying words, and who is legitimately wanting to prop up this idea. And money talks, basically, when it comes to expansion and all of that stuff. It's going to take a lot of investment and a lot of work, promotions, all of that stuff.
And so there are people who, I think, are full of it and then there are people who are die hard. And that's the list of folks that is growing. It's fascinating to me that I can look on my phone and be like, okay, these folks said that I can tap their shoulder when I'm ready. And that feels amazing and also unbelievable.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, this makes me so happy, and I want to see a Sports Bra every city around the world, not just the 12 cities that you put in your original business plan. But I usually don't think in terms like this, but I also hope that you are filthy rich one day, not because-
Jenny Nguyen:
Oh my gosh.
Kerry Diamond:
... I want to curse you and have you become a billionaire one day or something like that. But I know you would do amazing things with that money.
Jenny Nguyen:
I don't know. I really hadn't thought about it. In fact, I have some women that mentor me now who are just like, "Jenny, you give away too much." Because we try to do a lot with the community. Honestly, nobody opens a bar to make money. The margins are so freaking narrow. When I opened, I knew that's not a driving force for me. And I am privileged enough to know that if everything went south, I could live with my parents. I could live in their basement. They'd actually be thrilled about it and I would be unhappy. But if it came down to it, I have a backup plan, live with my parents. That's a huge privilege. And so mommy-
Kerry Diamond:
Only you who has come up with the idea of the century would say her backup plan is to live in her parents' basement. You have just told us everything we need to know about you, Jenny.
Jenny Nguyen:
You're too kind. You are too kind. I have women in my life that are just like, "Jenny, too many women do this for charity. You need to do this for profit and just be fine with that." A man would never be like, oh, I have all this money, I got to give it away. I'm like, "Well, that's true." Why am I doing this?
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah, but look where that's got us.
Jenny Nguyen:
That's true.
Kerry Diamond:
Alright. I'm going to give you your time back in just a minute or two. We are going to do a speed round, which we do with all of our guests.
Jenny Nguyen:
That's great.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's move on to that. What is one of your-
Jenny Nguyen:
That's great.
Kerry Diamond:
... favorite books on food? Could be a cookbook, a memoir, anything like that.
Jenny Nguyen:
Oh my gosh, you know what? I'm the worst. As a chef, I didn't watch any cooking shows and I didn't read anything about cooking. Because I was like, I live this day to day, why would I want it to do it on my relaxed time? But pictures, Ottolenghi, the photos, and I'm sure the recipes, I don't know, I didn't read them, but I look at them and I'm inspired to eat vegetables, which I think is saying something.
Kerry Diamond:
He's also one of the nicest guys in the world. He's like you.
Jenny Nguyen:
Oh, cool.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. Favorite kitchen tool.
Jenny Nguyen:
Oh, that's cool. Thank you. Favorite kitchen tool, I mean, does a tilt skillet count? Oh my god. I would do everything out of a tilt skillet. I love it so much. It's a like a gigantic pot, but it's flat. You can do anything in it. You can sauté, poach, fry, but it's huge. If you make fried rice in there, it's going to be delicious. Perfect.
Kerry Diamond:
I think you might be the first one to have done a chef's kiss on Radio Cherry Bombe.
Jenny Nguyen:
Oh, what?
Kerry Diamond:
One thing that's always in your fridge.
Jenny Nguyen:
Oh, ketchup. I love ketchup.
Kerry Diamond:
Favorite childhood food.
Jenny Nguyen:
Oh my gosh, and it's still as an adult, my favorite is ice cream, 100%. And I'm lactose intolerant, so that's just saying a lot, I guess.
Kerry Diamond:
Are you vanilla base or chocolate base?
Jenny Nguyen:
Probably vanilla base, but it has to have chocolate in it.
Kerry Diamond:
Got It. And next question is snack food of choice, is that the same answer, ice cream?
Jenny Nguyen:
No. When I think snack food, I want crunchy shrimp chips. Shrimp chips, for sure.
Kerry Diamond:
Footwear of choice in the kitchen.
Jenny Nguyen:
I feel like I just wear sneakers now because I'm not even cooking. But when I was cooking, I was Birkenstocks.
Kerry Diamond:
Any motto or mantra that gets you through the day?
Jenny Nguyen:
I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is from Finding Nemo, keep on swimming. Just keep on swimming.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay, last question. If you had to be stuck on a desert island with one food celebrity, who would it be and why?
Jenny Nguyen:
Oh, you know what? I'm going to go with Carrie Baird. I mean, she was my bestie in a culinary school. She came in third on Top Chef season 13. I don't know if she counts as a celebrity chef, but she's a celebrity to me. And we were homies. I wouldn't mind being stuck on an island with her.
Kerry Diamond:
What is she up to today?
Jenny Nguyen:
She runs a couple things up in Colorado, Denver, Colorado. She's with Tap & Burger as, I think, their executive culinary director or something huge.
Kerry Diamond:
Very Cool. We will check her out. Well, Jenny, thank you for what you've given the world. We're so floored by you and this gift you've given us. Can't thank you enough.
Jenny Nguyen:
It literally is my pleasure.
Kerry Diamond:
And, Jenny, you're the Bombe.
Jenny Nguyen:
Oh my gosh. Thank you. That's hilarious. I love it.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. Be sure to sign up for the Cherry Bombe newsletter over at cherrybombe.com, so you can stay on top of all Cherry Bombe happenings, podcasts, and events. Radio Cherry Bombe is a production of The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. Our theme song is by the band Tralala. Thank you to Joseph Hazan, studio engineer for Newsstand Studios. Special thanks to our friends at CityVox. Our producer is Catherine Baker, and our associate producer is Jenna Sadhu. Thanks to you for listening. You're the Bombe.