Story by Jennifer Tran
Photography by Dustin Duong
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — David Thach’s first memory of Dragon Court was of the restaurant being built. His father, one of its three original investors, worked on its construction while Thach watched as a 4-year-old.
Over time, Thach saw forest green chairs and large, family-style tables fill the open space. Now, employees roll around carts full of dim sum and Asian desserts under muted lighting.
Now a manager for Dragon Court, he pauses and looks toward the customers, deep in thought.
“I think it’s a little bittersweet — yeah, it is bittersweet,” he said. “I have my attachments to this place. I also have my gripes about this place, but, at the same time, it was a learning experience.”
Dragon Court is a place jam-packed with memories. Weddings, Lunar New Year celebrations — at the core, the Asian community in the greater Charlotte area finds itself with a recollection of a time spent there with friends and family.
The restaurant is closing at the end of December 2022.
Photo by Dustin Duong
The Asian Corner Mall, the shopping center that contains the restaurant, was purchased by Beauxwright, a Charlotte-based real estate developer. The company plans to repurpose the space and build apartment complexes where the expansive parking lot is now.
While larger cities have established Chinatowns and Little Tokyos, Charlotte never developed a centralized area for its Asian diasporas. The Asian Corner Mall, in turn, acted as such.
There is a collective mourning, almost, of the Vietnamese, Laos, Cambodian and other ethnic communities that frequent the shopping center. Visitors from cities such as Hickory and Concord come here for a sense of community. Shoppers who enter the International Supermarket expect specialized merchandise, often spices or vegetables. Hungry customers looking for Charlotte’s well-known bánh mi restaurant, Le’s Sandwiches & Café, typically find themselves walking into the red-roofed entrance next to the grocery store, passing by office spaces and dried up fountains.
Here lies a story of a centerpiece for the Asian community — a memorial, a remembrance, a goodbye.
A story of residuals
Strings of firecrackers pop and snap outside of the Asian Corner Mall, filling the air with the pungent scent of smoke. Red and yellow dragon dancers perform under the sunset while surrounded by a growing crowd of onlookers.
Photo by Dustin Duong
At its prime from 1999 to the late-2000s, the Asian Corner Mall bustled with activity as members of different ethnic groups in the Asian community gathered for events like Tết, the Vietnamese New Year. DVD, clothing and jewelry stores lined the corridor while people gathered at the fountain, a calm amid the chatter of excited voices.
This is a remnant of a bygone time — when red banners draped across aisles of the shopping center and warmth seeped into the space from the skylight above.
My Gieu, one of the three former owners of the Asian Corner Mall, said her parents started out with a smaller grocery store on Central Avenue. After finishing college, her parents and sisters decided to expand and buy the building for the shopping center, which opened in 1999. The Asian Corner Mall is under her and her sisters’ names.
Beauxwright offered to buy the property, which they agreed to following a settlement of $8.5 million, though they have purchased more space over time. After working on the family business for more than three decades, Gieu and her sisters decided to let it rest.
Photo by Dustin Duong
“We’re all very sad,” she said. “Even the customers are sad. All my customers come beg me, ‘please, don’t close.’ And I say, ‘I know, but I’m tired because none of the kids want to take over.’”
Gieu said the International Supermarket has become a family. Some kids growing up shopping at her store have children of their own. It is a humbling experience, knowing that so many lifelong customers supported their business.
“I feel like part of their life, too,” she said. “They wake up every day, ‘OK, let’s go to the Asian Corner Mall, let’s buy this, buy that.’ They grew up, so it’s kind of important for a lot of peoples’ lives. It’s a part of your life. That’s why a lot of people are going to miss it.”
The tradition continues
Next to the International Supermarket, there is a red-roofed entrance with the words “ASIAN CORNER MALL NC NAILS ACADEMY” centered with the front doors.
A sense of intangibility lingers in the air as customers walk down the hallway. Remnants of the shopping center’s heyday are present, with faded yellow paint and floor tiles hiding value underneath. As a beacon of community for the southeast Asian community, there are stories entrenched in each green square tile on the floor, which children used to hop along while their parents chatted on the benches.
Turning the corner, Le’s Sandwiches appears in view, its neon “SANDWICHES” and “OPEN” signs on the glass-enclosed walls.
Tuan Nguyen says he jokes — but it isn’t really a joke since it’s figuratively true — that Le’s Sandwiches is a hole in the wall.
“You walk in and it feels like a destination almost, because there are places like this in Vietnam,” Nguyen said. “It’s run down, but there’s good food in these places.”
Nguyen’s parents opened the restaurant in 2004. His mother left her job at a nail salon to sell bánh mi, running a food cart on South Boulevard and saving up money for a standalone store.
Though he grew up working in the restaurant, Nguyen didn’t devote himself to the job until around five to six years ago when his parents were planning on retirement.
“I felt that we were losing part of Charlotte,” he said. “So I quit my corporate job, try to take over, try to learn the business, and this is where I’m at right now.”
As the successor for Le’s Sandwiches, Nguyen has large shoes to fill. His father came to the United States with no money. He worked multiple jobs before Le’s Sandwiches was established, and even then, the business was a means of survival — to push through adversity with little to fall back on.
The importance of the Asian Corner Mall was shown to him when he visited Vietnam 15 years ago, where he felt surrounded by community and family. The Asian Corner Mall is a reflection of his time in Vietnam, with similar smells and the familiar sound of people chatting.
“I got to go back to my childhood all the time, just because there wasn’t a Vietnamese community,” he said. “And then again, there were pockets, but with Charlotte growing a lot — even the neighboring cities and stuff — the Vietnamese community started gathering more. But it’s like a central place for the community.”
Beauxwright and Nguyen’s parents agreed to have Le’s Sandwiches remain in the Asian Corner Mall until April 2023 while construction on another building across the parking lot is being completed. Once finished, the restaurant will move to the new location, which Beauxwright plans on having as a central hub for food trucks and bars.
There are new and old customers Nguyen will need to learn — faces, orders, rituals. Clientele will change once the apartment complex is built. The International Supermarket channels many of its customers to Le’s Sandwiches, Nguyen said, and without the grocery store, the restaurant may not have existed as it currently does.
“And that’s one thing we’re kind of scared of: Change,” he said.
The end of an era
For Thach, Gieu and Nguyen, they all remember a golden version of the Asian Corner Mall, one bustling with people and rich with sentimental value. They remember pageants, music and the kindness that community can offer.
“It’s important to keep that in our memory,” Nguyen said. “It’s something we’re losing with a lot of the kids growing up here. Like for me, I’m lucky to go back to Vietnam, experience that. Some kids don’t. And I saw how important it was to keep up with tradition and culture.”
Almost every Sunday, Nguyen will bring his oldest son to the restaurant, where he’ll sit at the register and watch two generations of Nguyens at work. His son is proud of his Vietnamese heritage, he said, and having him visit Vietnam was important in implanting culture in his memory.
Photo by Dustin Duong
“It’s great that Tuan wants to have that memory and keep the tradition,” Gieu said. “But unfortunately, none of our kids does, none of my sisters’ kids does. They see how mom, dad work so hard.”
Similarly, the Asian Corner Mall itself has been through wear and tear, just like the businesses and people it holds. The rose-tinted glasses are off, revealing stores that have been closed for years.
But, it is a labor of love all the same.
