Angel Vuong is the founder of Cyclo Eatery, which will be hosting a pop-up restaurant at the Collins bar on Sunday, Aug. 30. Photo courtesy of Angel Vuong.
This Sunday, Aug. 30, the doors of the Collins bar will open to hungry crowds clamoring for a taste of pop-up restaurant Cyclo’s secret menu. It will be the Vietnamese restaurant’s second residency at the Collins this summer, but for Cyclo founder Angel Vuong, the idea for the project originated several months ago in San Francisco.
Vuong was living the culinary dream, surrounded by the sights, sounds and smells of a city fit for a foodie. “It feels likes it’s the food capital of the world,” she said.
As she waited in line for two hours to try a plate at a new pop-up restaurant, Vuong realized that her passion was more than a passing desire. Since her time in school for printmaking, she had found an impossible-to-ignore tug to use her hands and senses.
“I have always loved cooking, baking and experimenting. It’s a product of being in the studio all time,” she said.
Vuong decided to leave her place in line behind and work in the kitchen, where the real wheels of change were being chopped, sautéed, stewed and boiled to success.
“I saw the new, young women entrepreneurs and thought, hey, I could do that,” she said.
In May, Vuong moved back to her native Birmingham and quickly became part of a whole new kind of growing food movement. Vuong formed Cyclo, a celebration of the Vietnamese cuisine she grew up cooking with her mother.
Birmingham is now a proud foodie city in its own right, but Vietnamese street food, like the fresh bánh mì Vuong is known for, is new to the table. Her “Heart of Dixie” dish piles pickled carrots, cucumber, cilantro and jalapeños on juicy ginger-lemongrass tofu between a toasty baguette. “The Birmingham” features pork shoulder braised until tender in Good People brew, with homemade pate perched on top.
The Collins Bar is a favorite among the city’s hip, foodie set. The tiny bar makes up for what it lacks in space with character and a sense that the patrons touting expertly mixed cocktails are burgeoning movers and shakers.
With a laissez faire vibe, the Collins could easily be in San Francisco, but a giant periodic table of elements behind the bar, each element harkening to a favorite spot in Birmingham, brings it back home.
In July, Vuong partnered with the Collins for a pop-up, serving tender rice dishes and crispy spring rolls. A month later, the city is already hungry for more.
“I had been looking to a solution to my Sunday problem, which was
that while the bar was open, the kitchen was not and it was a lost opportunity to attract people and keep the ones that do come in on Sunday,” Collins general manager Feizal Valli said. “I had gone to the Woodlawn Market a few weeks prior and noticed that the only vendor that had sold out was Cyclo, and it stuck in my mind. When by chance Angel from Cyclo was sitting in front of me one random Saturday and we got to talking, it seemed like a perfect fit.”
While cooking for crowds is part of what makes the pop-up fun, Vuong says that is only the beginning.
“It doesn’t come down just to food. This allows me to work with the community. I get a lot of joy from that,” she said.
The Collins Bar will host the Cyclo pop-up restaurant on Sunday. Photo by Sam Prickett.
Heritage is as important to Vuong as her passion for giving back to the city. On the day of the pop-up, she will work side by side with her mother in the kitchen. Since her childhood in Homewood, Vuong says she has learned her kitchen smarts from her mother.
“My mother is my foundation that inspires me,” she said.
In another nod to the importance of her heritage flavoring the food, Vuong chose the name Cyclo for a reason.
“Cyclo is the Vietnamese version of [the] rickshaw used as a form of transportation. The driver served as the eyes and ears of the community,” she says. “He or she became the mouthpiece for the community. It was important for me to become part of the community. I was concerned with coming back as a bystander. I thought, if I’m going to be coming back, I want to be involved.”
Although the menu this month is hush-hush, Vuong’s vegan doughnuts are no secret. From Vietnamese coffee to a tangy ginger-infused pastry to coconut, the doughnuts have a following all their own.
“I haven’t seen Angel’s menu yet, but I’m hoping that the vegan coffee doughnut makes a return,” says Valli.
With sweet vegan offerings and a healthy balance of vegetarian and meat-lover’s fare, Vuong says her personal vegetarian eating habits inspired her to introduce more veggie friendly options to this staunchly meat-and-potato city.
“It’s important to me to introduce vegetarian dishes to the city since it’s something I feel like it’s lacking,” she said. “I want people to know it’s an option.”
While the actual event menu will only be revealed the day of, it’s well known that this pop-up is the place for foodies to have Sunday dinner. Diners can pair their plate with a drink created for the evening by the Collins and inspired by Vuong’s cooking.
“When the doors open and the event starts and I see the line, it reminds me of those two-hour lines in San Francisco, and I know it’s going to be okay,” she said.
The Cyclo pop-up restaurant will be at the Collins bar this Sunday, Aug. 30, starting at 6 p.m. For more information, visit facebook.com/cycloeatery.
Hungry for more? On September 13, a partnership between two chefs from Century Restaurant, called Vittles, will be doing a pop up at the Collins featuring a savory menu complete with charcuterie and elevated barbecue.
