Paper Lantern, Prosperity Bar built on family restaurant legacy

Nhi Tran was 19 when her family asked her to manage their restaurant while she studied university. The responsibility fell to her because her older siblings were already building careers elsewhere. It was a difficult ask, but family came first — in Vietnamese culture, the restaurant is where you live, where you belong.

Her parents, Nguyen Bui and Nguyen Tran, had arrived with a dream. Growing up, they talked about owning a pho shop someday. In 2005, when Calgary was booming, they made it real: they purchased the Orchid Room, a Vietnamese-fusion restaurant in Bankers Hall, where the entire family pitched in. Nhi's aunt and uncle, Huong Hong and Duong Tran, partnered with them. "My parents loved the restaurant business," Nhi recalls. "They loved everything about it. In Vietnamese culture, you hang out at your business all day — which they loved."

Nguyen Bui puts it plainly: "I like to cook, and I wanted people to come and enjoy good food. Yeah, we're happy when we see people ordering food they like. When we cook for people, they become like family."

The Orchid Room thrived for more than 13 years, fed by that philosophy. Customers became regulars; regulars became family. But the younger generation was raised in Canada, with different expectations. Eventually, Nhi and her sister took the reins.

Today, they own and operate Paper Lantern and Prosperity Bar in Calgary's Chinatown, carrying forward their parents' legacy of hospitality and genuine care. The same values that sustained the Orchid Room now shape these two venues — places where food and family remain inseparable. In Chinatown, the next generation continues what their parents started.