House Special

Oversized photographs hang along the wall inside Yaletown's House Special Vietnamese Restaurant; the brightly coloured images vividly capture the life and times of three generations of family life. As chef and co-owner Patrick Do gives a tour of his sleek Vietnamese eatery, he chuckles at the image of himself as a young boy of four sitting on a Molson Canadian box. “This photo was taken at my parents first Vancouver restaurant...I guess I found ways to amuse myself,” he recalls with a grin. “My sister and I spent a lot of time at both our parents’ restaurants: Green Lemongrass and Broken Rice.”

Today, Patrick's sister Victoria Do serves as House Special's co-owner and general manager, and she has her own childhood memories from those early years in her parents' restaurants. “My earliest recollections are from when I was six years old," she says of the family-owned eateries. "Apparently, there are even photos of us strapped to our uncle Hing while he washed dishes.”