LA Times Article by Jenn Harris
Fans of banh mi, the Vietnamese baguette sandwich, know to head to Little Saigon or Buu Dien in Chinatown for a bread torpedo loaded with the stuff pork dreams are made of, cilantro, pickled carrots and jalapeño. But Banh Oui in Silver Lake, a stand tucked into a corner of the Hi Tech Automotive auto repair shop, is where you’ll want to head next.
It’s a tiny red shack with two chefs serving chicken liver pâté-smeared baguettes stuffed with braised pork belly; shrimp toast covered in a maze of kewpie mayonnaise; and chicken wings and ribs doused with sticky Vietnamese caramel.
Bahn Oui is the passion project-turned-full-time-everything of chefs Casey Felton and Armen Piskoulian. The two met at the Tasting Kitchen in Venice, where Felton prepared fish and Piskoulian was the pasta guru. Felton previously worked at Providence and Red Medicine; Piskoulian cooked at Michael’s in Santa Monica. The two ended up in Australia, where they fell in love with the banh mi sandwich. They came back to the U.S. to work at Scarpetta, then decided to open their own business.
