There’s an optimism associated with the word “skyline” — at least according to business partners Vincent Tran and Kiet Trinh. It’s why they landed on the name for their first venture as restaurateurs.
“There’s something about that word,” Tran, 24, told Billy Penn. “It just gave off a positive energy.”
Despite its name, Pho Skyline is a ground-floor venue, a cozy 34-seat set-up at the former Sabrina’s Café on 910 Christian Street. The restaurant opened last week, with a menu that runs the gamut from banh mi to rice crepes, and with over 20 options for pho.
“What we focus on with our food is mainly to create traditional dishes,” Tran said, “with real Vietnamese authentic flavors.”
Toppings for the beef-broth-and-noodle bowls include brisket, rare steak, beef balls, and a veggie and tofu combination, but heading the list is filet mignon; one of the restaurant’s specialties, Tran said.
The thinly sliced meat cuts can also be ordered over broken rice or bún (rice noodle) platters, as well as in a BBQ filet mignon banh mi. It’s a Skyline special that can’t be found elsewhere, Tran claimed, and one of the restaurant’s few breaks from traditional Vietnamese cuisine, along with a house sauce, a mixture of soy and oyster sauces and coconut milk used for the tofu banh mi.
Besides pho, there are several wonton, chicken, and pork soups, and a specialty noodle selection featuring Vietnamese crab, fried ham, pig’s feet, and fermented fish.
Skyline’s rice cakes and rice crepes are made daily — ten of each — and often sell out before midday, Tran said. The crepes are filled with minced pork and mushroom, and served with a choice of BBQ shrimp, pork rolls, grilled pork, or tofu.
Summer rolls, wontons, steamed chicken, and lotus salads make up the appetizers. Beverages include sea salt iced coffee, bubble milk tea (with house-made boba), smoothies, and an egg soda — a traditional combination of egg yolk, condensed milk, and club soda — as well as salty or fresh lemonade, and durian and pennywort juices.
It’s a carefully thought-out selection, Tran explained, informed by a decade’s worth of cross-generational experience.
Sponsored by an uncle based in Philly, Tran’s family left Ho Chi Minh city for the US in 2007. As a teenager, he found work running tables and making drinks at Viet Huong, now Pho Today, in Wing Phat Plaza on 11th and Washington.
It’s where he met future partner Trinh, eight years his senior and also from Ho Chi Minh City, who was working in the kitchen. The two became fast friends, eventually going into business with Trinh’s mom, Nhan Tran, who had cooked at numerous local Vietnamese restaurants, most recently Hello Vietnam in Northern Liberties.
Launched in 2020, their online catering service Bet Viet Phila was a hit, the younger Tran said, with customers consistently “asking us when are we going to have our own [sit-down] restaurant,” – a goal the trio already had in mind.
In early 2023 they traveled through Vietnam, brushing up on culinary techniques and taking note of what would work best with ingredients available in Philadelphia.
“Things get imported here, but they get imported frozen,” Tran explained. “And sometimes it’s hard to make the food come out to a specific flavor because of that.”
With a menu coming together, they returned to Philly, continuing to run the catering service while using their industry contacts to build a directory of product-specific suppliers for the few essentials that would have to be imported.
A week in, Tran said the current challenge is getting accustomed to the new space, fine-tuning the workflow and adding finishing touches to the dining area. Still blank, two chalkboards left over from Sabrina’s will be used for artwork and to list weekend-only specials the three are still developing.
Having lived for years around the corner from the restaurant, Tran said he’s happy to have finally realized his goal of owning a business in the Italian Market.
“We’ve come from small beginnings,” he said. “But we’re just hoping to serve authentic Vietnamese food for the local community, and for everyone in Philly.”
910 Christian St. | 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., daily | $2-$17 | BYO | (215) 918-7979
