Kevin Tran

Melissa, thanks so much for coming in. It was a great pleasure to finally meet you. kevin

Just a couple of announcement if y'all don't mind: RiceSticks will be having our official Grand Opening next Thursday August 26. Portions of the whole day's sales will benefit the local Community Action Center. They have been a source of aid for emergency assistance to families in the community for many years. We will also feature traditional Vietnamese dragon dancers in the evening. If you're in Atlanta, come enjoy a great meal and help out a good cause. Also, exclusively, RiceSticks is now offering a special dinner spring roll menu containing 8 different and new types of rolls including calamari, octopus, eel, carmelized pork, surf & turf, flank steak, California, and vegetarian. Not available anywhere else in town.

Tutor, short answer is yes. Here's the long answer. If I were to compare Vietnamese food to one of the more common Asian cuisines, I'd say that we are most like Thai food without all the chili peppers. We have a concentration on flavors such as lemongrass, ginger, garlic, mint, and others. The hot spice of chilis are usually reserved for sauces and dips. Of course, by request, we can always spice a dish up with some fresh Thai chilis though. Hope to see you soon.

Hey everyone, I run a brand new upscale-casual Vietnamese restaurant in Sandy Springs, GA (northside Atlanta) called RiceSticks. GiftedGourmet kindly invited me eGullet a few weeks ago and I've been lurking since. I'm running a special for the entire month of August that will be advertised in Access Atlanta Thursday 8/5. I wanted to give you all here at eGullet a heads up on the special and invite you to try us out. For all of August, we will have a 2 for 1 lunch entree special. Vietnamese cuisine is the lightest of all Asian cuisine. A concentration is put on the use of lots of fresh herbs. If interested, email me at kevin@ricesticks.com and I will email you further information. It will be my pleasure to answer any questions you may have about the restaurant or Vietnamese cuisine in general. Thanks alot. Kevin Tran

I think you are exactly right about the Atlantan palate, Gifted. Atlanta may be the unofficial capitol of the South, but you'd be hard-pressed to find someone that actually grew up in the area. Most residents have migrated to Atlanta over the past 15 years because of the job growth. The diversity in Atlanta is on par with any other metro area. The market is there for any type of cuisine. The failure of a great unique restaurants may not have anything to do with the cuisine, which many place the blame (eg. Atlanta being a steak-and-potatoes town re: Blais demise). A restaurant is a business and every one is different in the way they click with their customer base. I know nothing about this French restaurant. I hope they don't rely on their fame alone. Kevin

Thanks for the kind words. I truly think RiceSticks not only adds something unique to Sandy Springs, but all of Atlanta. I'm glad you enjoyed it Milt. And thanks for inviting me to the forum, Gifted. I'll have to get use to finding myself around in here. Kevin Tran RiceSticks Contemporary Vietnamese Cuisine