Phuong Nguyen, her husband Phi-Hung Nguyen, and their seven children arrived in Seattle from Vietnam in 1975. Phi-Hung, a former university professor in art and sculpture, enrolled in a program to help him find a new job, and Phuong enrolled in a restaurant management program. By 1978, Phi-Hung was working at a professional level in graphics design, Phuong had opened a restaurant, and their oldest two children were in college. All the children helped in the restaurant as school schedules permitted.

Here, Phuong Nguyen cooks in the family restaurant, Saigon-Over-the-Counter, while her daughter Thien Huong helps pours a drink from a thermos. The restaurant, in the Pike Place complex, was designed and built by the family.

Caption information source: “New Americans: ‘We Work and We Learn’”, by Don Carter, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 25, 1978, pages B1, B2.