Nhuy Cafe

As I endeavor to persevere in the fight to find good eats in my neck of the woods I’ll admit that I was excited to see a new café open up across the street from the culinary atrocity known as the Silver Fork. Hoping to discover yet another take on Bánh mì, I was surprised as I walked up to the heavily tinted mirrors of the Nhuy Café that the back of my neck tensed up and I was afraid of what may be on the other side of the door. It reminded me of the first time I braved walking through the throng of drug dealers at midnight in front of old Deano’s on Madison only to enter and be greeted with a room full of blank stares that tell you that you don’t belong. This is lunchtime, this isn’t Deano’s, this place is in a mini-​mall for crying out loud, can’t a guy just get a sandwich?
The first thing that struck me was the group of old men chain smoking and playing touch screen computer games in the corner as Asian dancing with the stars blared from the TV hanging from the ceiling. Once she shook the disbelieve off of her face a demonstrative waitress, I think, no counter girl, I’m not sure what, bolted out from behind the cash register. I could see behind it a large cooler filled with bubble tea and other stuff. She reached me as I was half way between the door and the counter, I asked her for a menu. «Only Coffee!» she said in broken English. I asked again, «no menu?» Holding her ground between the counter and me she stated again, «only coffee». It wasn’t an offer of coffee, more an indirect way of telling me they had nothing I would be interested in; I do like coffee by the way. I looked at her, I looked at the fridge, I looked at the four chain smokers, who were all looking at me, their game scores quickly expiring. I turned back to the door and the counter girl was kind enough to walk me out as I left and shut the door behind me. I wonder what is cooking at the Silver Fork?