In the 1970s, Vietnamese food was unfamiliar to most Americans. In Seattle, this began to change with the opening of several small Vietnamese restaurants. One of these, Café Loc, was located at 407 Broad Street, near Seattle Center. By 1978, the restaurant was doing well.

Owner-cook Minh Chanh Huynh and her husband Phuoc Huynh had met in their native Vietnam, where Minh Chanh was a lawyer. They decided to leave their wartime country and settled in Seattle where they opened a restaurant and had their first child, Loc, known as Louie, who became very popular with customers.

In this image, Minh Chanh Huynh and Phuoc Huynh stand in the seating area of Café Loc. Phuoc holds baby Loc (Louie).

Caption information source: “The tasty temptations of Vietnamese cuisine”, by Don Carter and Paul O’Connor, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 24, 1978, pages C1, C3.
Caption information source: “Loc is a blessing, but he’s also Louie”, by Don Carter, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 24, 1978, pages C3, C7.