Photos: The Spirit of Việt Nam at Madame Vo
From left to right: Madame Vo Chef Jimmy Ly, Song Cai Distillery’s Daniel Nguyen, The Cosmos’ Cassandra Lam, and District One Agency’s Dan Q. Dao
On Tuesday night, we celebrated the launch of our Vietnamese gin in the United States with a 3-course cocktail pairing dinner hosted by New York City’s critically-acclaimed Vietnamese restaurant Madame Vo. The event also included a showcase of our botanicals and panel on Vietnamese culture and identity curated by Vietcetera.
The night was a festive exploration of the shifting face of Vietnamese culture and identity with dozens of people gathered for an engaging discussion moderated by writer and District One founder Dan Q. Dao, The Cosmos founder Cassandra Lam, chef and Jimmy Ly, owner of Madame Vo and Madame Vo BBQ, and our own founder, Daniel Nguyen.
Each guest speaker had their own unique take on what the spirit of Vietnam meanr to them. For Lam, its perseverance — she told a moving story about how when fleeing from Vietnam by boat, her mother and her sisters were attacked by pirates. Facing little choice, they proceeded to swallow the gold they were carrying in hopes of recovering it later on. Lam said that this family anecdote encapsulates the fearless ingenuity of her people: “We will take the sh*t you will give us and turn it into gold and we will have a good time.”
For Jimmy Ly, the spirit of Vietnam boils down to tenacity in the face of adversity and Madame Vo, the fruit of him and his wife’s labor, embodies that ethos. “Vietnamese people in general are fighters — it’s embedded in our souls,” Ly said.
As one of the first high profile Vietnamese restaurants in New York City, Madame Vo has pushed the conversation about Vietnamese cuisine forward by showing that it has the potential to compete with other upscale, gourmet establishments.
“The whole mission of our restaurant was to spread the culture, spread our family recipes, and spread the cuisine with the greatest city in the world. We’re constantly pushing boundaries and we want to be able to introduce new different dishes that aren’t seen everyday with Vietnamese cuisine,” he said.
Ly gave Nguyen an enthusiastic introduction — “This guy is f*ucking doing it for the culture!” Taking the mic, our founder proposed that Vietnam’s spirit stems from its “boldness.”
“We’re not afraid to try something different and to carve a new path and pull everyone up with us. It’s not just unique to the Vietnamese spirit, but to any immigrant experience,” he said.
According to Nguyen, Vietnamese people need to coalesce to amplify our cultural products and ensure that they are being defined on their own terms. He cited how when he first introduced our gin to the American market, he struggled to categorize it because it didn’t fit cemented labels like Japanese whiskey.
Not only does he have to spend more time educating consumers, he has to put in more effort into getting our products legally recognized because they are largely unfamiliar to the American government. But over time, he’s leaned into the challenge of being a trailblazer and tackled it head on. By spreading the word about Vietnam’s rich terroir, world-class ingredients, and fascinating drinking traditions, he’s doing his part in uplifting Vietnam’s place in the global conversation.
“We have to pull each other up. We have to be proud of what we have and we have to own it and define it,” he said to a thunderous applause.
In addition to the lively conversation, there was of course, great food and drinks that showcased the range of Vietnamese cuisine. The first-ever Vietnamese gin was paired with Chef Jimmy’s delicious 3-course meal including 12-hour simmered bo kho, salad of pomelo and tiger prawn, and fried spring rolls.
After the panel discussion, guests indulged in the tasty food and continuously refilled their glasses of our premium gin. At a bustling restaurant in the East Village on a cold December night, the spirit of Việt Nam was definitely felt — and celebrated. See more photos from our event at Madame Vo.
