Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
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RET AILING TODA Y Souped-up PHOLICIOUS WANTS TO POPULARIZE VIETNAM'S PHO NOODLE SOUP DISH By Anna Robaton I Entrepreneur Cuong "Tony" Doan is out to bring pho to the American masses with a chain of eateries he calls Pholicious. He opened the first Pholicious at Westfield Brandon (Fla.) last year, and as of mid-March he had rolled out five more in malls from California to Ohio. Doan expects to have some 20 of these by the end of this year and an additional 40 next year, according to Katz & Associates, the Pearl River, N.Y.–based bro- kerage firm representing Pholi- cious. There are two formats: a 92 SCT / MAY 2012 N VIETNAM PHO IS UBIQUITOUS. Restaurateurs and street vendors alike hawk the savory rice noodle soup, which the Vietnamese eat several times a day, beginning with breakfast. In the U.S., however, a good bowl of pho (pronounced "fuh") can be hard to find, despite the popularity here of other types of Asian foods. Restaurants specializing in pho are often tucked away in urban store- fronts or in small centers ca- tering to Asian Americans. freestanding kiosk with counter seat- ing, measuring between 150 and 300 square feet, and an in-line food court unit that measures between 500 and 1,000 square feet. The chain also plans to open units at airports and in hospitals, office buildings and train stations. "Tony is not reinventing the wheel," said David Stockwell, a Katz associate broker. "He is just introduc- ing a product that Westerners aren't very aware of." The Pholicious broth recipe is an adaptation of one Doan's mother devel- oped years ago. Doan and his family left Vietnam and settled in Atlanta in 1979. After retiring from a career in law en- forcement, he decided to try his hand at