Where we are eating now.

East Side Banh Mi

Serving up the classic Vietnamese sandwich and more.

By William Harwood | March 29, 2021

Husband and wife Chad Newton and Gracie Nguyen

East Side Banh Mi is the brainchild of chefs Gracie Nguyen and Chad Newton, a wife and husband team with multiple decades of cooking industry experience between them. (Appropriately enough, they met in a San Francisco kitchen over twenty years ago.) However, since its grand opening in August of 2020, East Side Banh Mi represents the couple’s first foray into a venture of their very own.

Meaning “bread” in Vietnamese, Banh Mi is a distinctive style of sandwich that originated on the streets of Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, in the early 1950s during the final years of French colonialism. As a relatively recent street food, there are many variations on the Banh Mi theme -- a good number of which are to be found inside East Side Banh Mi itself -- but the basic components involve slicing lengthwise a fresh baguette with a crispy crust in order to use its chewy interior as a soft and airy landing strip for the buttered mayo, savory meat, crunchy cucumbers, pickled veggies and fresh sprigs of herbs like cilantro.

“That’s what’s cool about this project for us,” says Chef Chad. “We’ve always had partners or investors. This is the first time we’re doing a family business. It’s really nice this way.”

Photo 1: Pork Banh Mi

Photo 2: Mama Nguyen

Photo 3: get your Banh Mi to go

And family also includes Gracie’s mom, Ngoc Anh Nguyen or ‘Mama Nguyen’ as she’s popularly known. Once each quarter, Chefs Gracie and Chad fly Mama Nguyen up from Houston in order to put their recipes to the ultimate taste test -- the Mama Meter. The results speak for themselves; the family dream team at East Side Banh Mi serves up some seriously savory sandwiches and flavor-packed bowls. They can also accommodate all diets. I myself enjoyed the extraordinary Xiu Mai, Impossible “Meatballs” (vegan), roasted and smashed upon the in-house baked baguette. Trust me, not even a crumb was left.

But Chefs Gracie and Chad do not keep all the creative takes on Banh Mi to themselves. Instead, they have invited a smorgasbord of some of Nashville’s most well-known chefs to develop their own versions as well. This is the Nashville Banh Mi Project, a culinary collaboration that supports the greater community with a dollar from each sandwich sold going to support the nonprofit Nashville Food Project. Thousands of dollars have been raised so far! One such recent example of a guest chef is Philip Krajeck of Rolf & Daughters. His version of Banh Mi, eponymously known as “The Philip Krajeck,” involves seared, Bear Creek Farm meatloaf, black garlic glaze, garlic crunch mayo, cucumber, pickled veggies, cilantro, jalapenos, maggi and black pepper seasoning and all atop one of Chef Gracie’s freshly baked baguettes.