By Savannah Guyer
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A taste of Vietnam is now within reach of the Iowa City community.
While Pho Zaika, or I Heart Pho, has been open for a year in Coralville, Tyler Phan, a co-owner and cook, made the executive decision to expand his business to Iowa City.
The second Pho Zaika opened on Jan. 28 in the Old Capitol Town Center. Phan said that within the first few hours of opening, the place was packed wall-to-wall with eager customers.
Travis Gaule, also a co-owner of Pho Zaika, said the Iowa City location had more than 300 customers in its first day. Since then, it has had anywhere from 200 to 300 customers daily.
“It’s a pretty consistent crowd that comes, and we run out of food most days,” he said.
Phan said he wanted to be closer to the University of Iowa and its students.
“I know that a lot of them don’t have a car and that most of them walk everywhere, so I wanted it to be easier for them to get to me,” he said.
Phan said the location in Iowa City is where he will spend most of his time at for now, but he hopes he will be able to transition between the two stores evenly.
“I wanted the location in the mall for a long time; I didn’t want any other business to have it,” he said. “The mall manager wanted people who had experience, and I had lots of experience, and that’s why I was the one who got the place. I was, and am, very happy with it.”
Phan also said that I Heart Pho is on OrderUp — an online franchise that enables people to order food from any chain or individual restaurant — and he’s excited about students using it because he knows how much they like it.
“I really want people to keep supporting me because I’d like to see my business grow. When I mature, I will do something similar in this area but in a new way, and I want to have my people with me,” Phan said. “I really love my customers, and everyone knows it.”
Thomas and Sarah Livesay, a married couple, said they have had very different experiences with pho — a type of Vietnamese soup that is laden with rice noodles, herbs, spices, and meat.
Sarah Livesay, who lived in South Korea for a year, has only had Pho Zaika one or two times but said she really enjoys it.
“Pho is comfort food,” she said, “There’s something extremely comforting about sitting down and having a big bowl of soup.”
Thomas Livesay, who tagged along with his wife to undergo his first encounter with Vietnamese cuisine at Pho Zaika’s, said that he likes the taste so far.
“I think that opening a new store in Iowa City is a very good marketing move for them,” he said.