Spirit of Việt Nam: Yen Vo, Owner of Madame Vo
Welcome to The Spirit of Vietnam, an original series in which we ask Vietnamese chefs, bartenders, and industry leaders to share what the “spirit” of Vietnam means to them — from culture to cocktails.
As owner of the critically acclaimed Vietnamese restaurant Madame Vo, Yen Vo and her husband, Chef Jimmy Ly are some of the most visible ambassadors of Vietnamese culture in NYC. Opened in 2017 at a time when good pho was hard to find in the city, Madame Vo is as much a love letter to centuries-old Vietnamese culinary tradition as it is the ideal downtown Manhattan restaurant for a dates and a night out on the town. Madame Vo is a bridge between past and present; Vietnam and New York City.
Yen Vo with Madame Vo’s Lotus Garden cocktail.
Born in a refugee camp in Thailand and raised in Mississippi, Vo cites her parents as representation of the Vietnamese spirit. “The spirit of Vietnam represents how strong Vietnamese people are,” she says. “My parents came to a whole another country. They didn’t speak the language. They didn’t know anything with no help and then they created this amazing life for their children,” Vo said.
Madame Vo (the woman and the restaurant) is now known for bringing widespread attention to modern Vietnamese culture, food, and ingredients. Since opening, the restaurant has been featured in the New York Times, Vice, Bloomberg, and many more leading publications.
In partnership with Sông Cái Distillery, Yen has created a cocktail using lychee and basil — nodding to the fresh fruits and herbs of her childhood. In 2019, building off their success, Vo and Ly founded Madame Vo BBQ, New York’s first-ever Vietnamese barbecue restaurant.
A family and community oriented business through and through, Ly and Vo kept Madame Vo open during the COVID-19 lockdown and delivered hundreds of free meals to frontline workers.
In this video, Vo shares what she believes to be the ethos of Vietnamese cuisine and how she used Song Cai’s floral gin to create a refreshing cocktail.
Lychee Garden
This distinctly Vietnamese cocktail is a riff on a traditional egg white sour revised with Southeast Asian ingredients like lychee, basil, and Vietnamese gin.