Sweet Beginnings in SODO: Anh Ơi Bake Shop’s New Chapter
Join us in welcoming Anh Ơi Bake Shop to SODO! Having recently moved his operations to Airport Way S, Vince Vu’s cookies are taking off and finding their way to people’s hearts with an important mission: cookies that taste like belonging, wherever home is for you.
We chatted with Vince about his thriving business and asked him about his move to SODO. Check out his insights in our Q&A below.
What influenced your decision to move to SODO? What are your thoughts on the neighborhood so far?
I came to SODO because it’s where work feels honest – a place of pallets, paint-stained floors, and people building things that weren’t here before. There’s something comforting about a neighborhood that doesn’t pretend to be polished, only purposeful. Being here feels like standing shoulder-to-shoulder with other makers trying their best with what they have. It’s already teaching me how to be braver with the dream.
Tell us about the origins of Anh Ơi Bake Shop. What’s your story?
Anh Ơi started as my way of reconciling two kitchens, two childhoods, and two versions of myself: the Vietnamese flavors that shaped me and the American desserts that held me when I didn’t know where I belonged. In Vietnamese, “anh ơi” is what you say when you urgently, lovingly need someone’s attention: “hey, you – please look at me, please come back.” It’s intimate, vulnerable, the kind of phrase you use when you trust the person will turn toward you. Naming the bakery Anh Ơi is my way of calling both sides of my heritage back to me, hoping they’ll finally meet in the middle.
You recently participated in Seattle Restaurant Week. How did that impact your business, and what else is coming up that you’re excited about?
Seattle Restaurant Week felt like a small spotlight. Suddenly more people discovered us, and it reminded me how far a story can travel. It arrived at the perfect moment, just as we moved into SODO and finally have the space to expand our ecommerce business even further. I’m excited to grow our wholesale partnerships across Seattle, placing Anh Ơi cookies in more cafés and corners of the city that feel like home. Mostly, I’m grateful to finally have room to keep up with all the people who’ve been waiting.
With flavors like Fried Banana, Strawberry Corn Milk, and even Thai Tea Persimmon, your cookies are unique and certainly attracting attention. What is it about your cookies that appeal to people, and what are you most proud of when you think about the progress you’ve made?
People tell me the cookies taste like something they forgot they missed – a sweetness tied to memory, to childhood, to the ache of being from more than one place. The flavors are familiar enough to feel safe, strange enough to feel true. I’m proud that something I once baked alone at midnight now has a home in other people’s kitchens and stories. Mostly, I’m proud I didn’t give up before any of this could happen.
Learn more about Anh Ơi Bake Shop at www.ohanhoi.com