Photo by Cleveland Jennings @eatthecanvasllc
Audio By Carbonatix
The cafés in ordinary bookstores are usually unadventurous fixtures. If it’s not just a Starbucks outpost, it’s your usual blueberry scones, watery coffee, or an ultra-processed bagel with cream cheese “spread.” Books & Books in Coconut Grove, however, is no ordinary bookstore. With the help of a gregarious Aidan Friedson, masterful Phuoc Vo, and their Vietnamese food business, Banh, they are redefining bookstore bites.
Books & Books’ Grove café began selling homemade boba teas in October through Banh. In January, Friedson and Vo introduced the shop’s customers to the unctuous Vietnamese banh mi sandwich.
For those unfamiliar, the banh mi is comprised, depending on the region, of a light and crispy baguette, an introduction from the French colonial period in Vietnam, with pork, spread with housemade mayo and pâté (ground liver), toasted, and topped with pickled carrot and daikon radish, and bright green cilantro. The banh mi is undoubtedly a cousin to the Cubano, sharing love with flaky bread and the contrast between fatty meat and sharp vinegar-based additions.
And there’s no doubt that Banh in the Grove now serves the best in Miami.
From No-Frills Coffee Counter to Culinary Destination
Before Banh, the Main Highway cafe, compared to its Coral Gables location, was no-frills: Its booksellers would make you the everyday latte and coffee when asked. Last October, Friedson, the nephew of Books & Books owner Mitchell Kaplan, took over to help energize the small cafe.
“My uncle has this big thing about the synergy,” Friedson explains to New Times. “He always says, ‘Food and books create a synergy of a third space.’”
Banh photo
Aidan Friedson’s Path From Chopped Jr. to Coconut Grove
Friedson, a two-time Food Network Chopped Jr. winner, was born and raised in New York City. His cooking and entrepreneurial streak were apparent since childhood. He sold baked goods at his local Whole Foods when he was around ten years old. He later worked at the Coral Gables café in the summer as a teenager and later worked as a cook at Red Rooster in Harlem before attending the University of Miami for business. Noticing the lack of good, healthy food on campus, he started meal prepping.
His meals were so good that he began distributing them to friends, and it eventually led him to open his own business, dubbed “Reliabowls.” “I basically chose business school instead of culinary school because I wanted to focus on food and hospitality and learn by doing,” Friedson says. He rented a commercial kitchen and pushed the business through junior to senior year. Friedson then joined Miami’s Hospitality & Culinary Collective, a fateful career move that led him to meet his soon-to-be banh mi partner.
“It was a hard year in my life closing Reliabowls, so I ended up going back to the kitchen and working for [Executive Chef] Vo as a chef on the roster, and that relationship blossomed to me asking, ‘Hey, do you see yourself here?’”
Phuoc Vo photo
Meet the Chef Behind Banh’s Vietnamese Vision
It happened that Vo, the only child of his parents born outside of Vietnam, wanted to open a banh mi shop. “I said, ‘Perfect. That will be our business.’ I then started to roll out a business model.” Vo has worked as a sous-chef at the Ritz-Carlton in Santa Barbara, Marriott in Palm Springs, and at Disney.
The two then formed Banh last August and took over the Books & Books cafe, which specializes in Vietnamese coffee, boba tea, and banh mi. “We had one video go viral in October about our boba teas, and it steamrolled our business upward,” says Friedson.
Banh photo
Inside the Menu: Boba, Vietnamese Coffee, and Banh Mi
Banh offers four varieties. There is “The OG Viet Deli” ($19) with cha lua (a spreadable pork sausage), pork sausage, and pâté. Next is the “Don’t Cluck With Me” ($18), served with lemongrass chicken. Patrons can try “Lê Dunk” ($23), featuring short rib, with pho broth on the side for dunking. Last is “The Faux Real” ($18) with a char siu soy cutlet. Each is presented in a brown paper bag large enough to share.
Friedson explains that the pillowy baguettes are from La Provence Bakery in North Miami. Everything is prepared in a commercial kitchen and then assembled at the shop, with eight employees working to ensure every second is accounted for and the customer receives the freshest sandwich. “We sous vide, we pickle everything; it’s a high level of cooking.”
Screenshot via Instagram/@banhlovesyou
A New Kind of Third Space in Coconut Grove
The idea of reading something like Robert Caro’s The Power Broker with one hand while holding a messy banh mi in the other might seem awkward. Yet it somehow works. You can sit outside, enjoy a few pages of your book, take a bite of banh mi, and repeat on a crisp day across from CocoWalk. “You can order your banh mi and shop for books while you wait,” Friedson points out.
Friedson says business is growing each month, and the banh mi is here to stay. The next step is to expand their coffee menu and introduce the banh mi breakfast sandwich. He hopes to expand staff, open another shop, and collaborate with other restaurants. It is hard to miss Friedson at the cafe. He is happy to explain to you the concept and what you might like if you are unfamiliar with the cuisine, just as a bookseller might ask you what you like to read before suggesting a new book.
But he is the first to point out that Vo is the chef leading the front and creating the best banh mi in Miami. “I can’t stress the admiration for my business partner. He’s the expert. It’s his vision, and I’m the one helping to execute. I’m using my knowledge, but it’s him.”
Banh at Books & Books in the Grove. 3409 Main Hwy., Coconut Grove; 305-477-0866; banhlovesyou.com.
