When Luke’s Bánh Mì opened in the CBD, the response was extraordinary. Queues ran down Little Bourke Street, and more than 1,200 bánh mì were sold that first day. In fact, customers were averaging two or three each, so the real number was far higher. I went to the preview and then couldn’t resist coming back the very next day just to see it all unfold. I even filmed the line, and for the first time ever, something I posted went viral. But the real story is bigger than one opening. Luke Vu is a third-generation Vietnamese baker whose journey began in his family’s bakery in Ho Chi Minh City, with memories of wood-fired bread and early morning deliveries on his bike. After moving to Melbourne and completing a university degree, Luke still couldn’t shake the pull of the bakery. The lure of bread, pâté and pickles was too strong, and he soon set up his own shop, first in Reservoir, then in Moonee Ponds and South Melbourne, where the bánh mì quickly became local fixtures. That history, and the hard work behind every detail, made the leap into the city all the more powerful.
Hi, Luke. It’s nice to see you again. I came to the preview of the launch, and then the next day I happened to be in the city, and I came back just to see how it was going. The CBD launch was huge. There were reports of 1,200 people. So you made more than 1,200 bánh mì in a day and the queues were down Little Bourke Street. What was that moment like for you?
It’s very emotional and exciting at the same time because we never expected to have that many people. We have lots of love and support from our customers. I think we worked really hard on everything from the product, and everything to put together to add that store and seeing how it turned out is really good. We are really proud of the team on that day because they worked really hard. They backed us up very well on that day.
They were really under the pump.
Yes, we worked from the opening until close.
I bet. Well, congratulations. It’s amazing. I was at the preview, as I said, and I had the crispy duck, which was a collaboration with Luv a Duck. Why did you want to open the city store with that collaboration?
I think it’s just a great way to introduce our bakery to the city people and duck is a premium meat that you don’t often in a bánh mì. So it was something exciting for the grand opening day of the store. And then we can see the alignment of Luv a Duck to our brand because we are both third generation businesses. So it made sense. It was actually a coincidence that we were working on a duck recipe and then Luv a Duck reached out and then we did a collaboration with them.
Oh, that’s nice coming together for sure. Now, you just mentioned that you are third generation Vietnamese baker. Can you tell me about your family’s baking history and how it has shaped you?
It was back in the 1980s. It started for my grandmother and then it passed through my dad and now I am here. It’s a part of my life, growing up in a working family, especially a bakery. From a very young age, before school, I helped with the deliveries on my bicycle. The store was a tiny little store down a side street in Vietnam.
Which city was that?
Ho Chi Minh City. I’m from the south
So you used to cycle around the streets of Hochi Min City? That’s impressive.
Now all my brothers in Vietnam, are running bakeries. We have a fourth generation coming through. My niece. She’s already started getting familiar with the bakery stuff.
The most important thing is the bread. It needs to be fresh. It needs to be crispy outside, and soft inside, but it shouldn’t be too hard to cut the top of your mouth. Then we have a spread; we have creamy pâté and buttery egg mayonnaise, to basically build a foundation of the bánh mì, and then we have tanginess of pickles, freshness of herbs, and then the rich flavourful protein, and then tie everything up with a flavourful sauce that brings everything together. That’s how I see a perfect bánh mì.
Luke Vu, Luke’s Bánh Mi
What are your earliest food memories? You said used to do the deliveries, but do you have any other food memories from the bakery days?
Yes, waking up before sunrise. In Vietnam, we lived in the same building as the bakery. The bakery was downstairs, and we lived upstairs. So we heard a lot of noises and especially during the morning rush, also the smell of the bread, the smell of the wood fire oven. I remember when my mum and my auntie, they opened a store for my auntie, selling bánh mì to the people around that area like what I’m doing now. We supplied bread and then my mum and my auntie cooked meat on the charcoal grills, it brings all the smells back to my memory.
So delicious. They are great memories. I can almost taste it. And then you arrived in Australia at 19 to study. When did the idea to open your own bánh mì shop here come about?
I worked part-time in bakeries when I was at uni. Even when I graduated from university and I was doing banking and accounting. I still had part-time, weekend jobs in bakeries. I like to work seven days. That kept building up and in 2019, I thought, now I think it’s time. I just started. I started a small bakery, a local bakery in Reservoir and I liked it. But I knew I needed something different from the rest.
It’s a good combination, banking and accounting, having that business side with the food side.
It’s always been a part of me. I’m still baking in local bakeries.
Now to the product. For you, what makes the perfect bánh mì?
The most important thing is the bread. It needs to be fresh. It needs to be crispy outside, and soft inside, but it shouldn’t be too hard to cut the top of your mouth. Then we have a spread; we have creamy pâté and buttery egg mayonnaise, to basically build a foundation of the bánh mì, and then we have tanginess of pickles, freshness of herbs, and then the rich flavourful protein, and then tie everything up with a flavourful sauce that brings everything together. That’s how I see a perfect bánh mì.
And your bánh mì are loaded. They’re very good value for money and so delicious. You’re known for making everything in house: the bread, the pâté, the sauces. Why is that level of detail important for you?
So it’s how we can keep our consistency. We don’t outsource anything. We make our own bread and we use our own recipe. And when I say my own recipe, it came from my mother. But with my twist in there too to fit the local taste. We know what the customer will like. I come from the south. So normally southern people have a very sweet tooth. But I can adjust that to suit the local taste.
And you’ve said quite famously, I think, that you want to open 15 venues in Melbourne by the end of next year. Why 15 and why now?
We’ve been building for a while, working on the foundation. We have built a strong foundation already. We spent six years to get to the point we are now. So I think it now is time for us to expand to the key areas of Melbourne metro and then in the west, in the north, that way, to where our customers are. And then with the 15 stores, it will increase our footprint. We want more customers to know abut our brand, how we do it and what we are, and they can see how good we are in that area. around, you know, that area. So 15 stores is reasonable for us.
And then how do you keep the heart and authenticity of Luke’s Bánh mì intact while you’re expanding at that pace?
We have built a very good system to check the quality of our products. We work on training and procedure to make sure that we have full control of all of our stores. We treat all our stores as a bakery, not a takeaway shop. It’s a bakery, so we make everything in house. We make everything with the help of the central kitchen to keep things consistent, but the cooking side of it needs to happen in store, so everything is fresh daily. We’re working on the way we develop the food for the customer, we think about how it’s going to stay fresh for a couple hours, and so the so all the protein is delivered daily, no frozen. That way we can control the freshness, and the authenticity of the products that we put out to the customer.
It’s so nice when things are baked or cooked on site for people to smell that. It’s so appealing. Looking to the future, Luke, will you expand beyond Melbourne, do you think?
Yes, we have a plan. Definitely Melbourne, we aim to have 30 stores by the end of 2027. And then we would like our first store in Sydney, a drive through by 2027 too.
Wow. Because I was telling some of my friends in New Zealand about the fun night I had at your CBD launch and I had photos on my Instagram and a lot of New Zealanders don’t know what Bánh mì is, especially in the South Island. So there’s an open field for you there in New Zealand.
Who knows? One day we have we would like to be in every city of Australia. We are really looking forward to it.
I love it. Good growth mindset. Now, I’m sure you’ve got lots of things to get on with today, given that you are taking over the world with your bánh mì. Thank you so much for your time. It’s lovely to talk to you.
11 Puckle Street, Moonee Ponds
234 Clarendon Street, South Melbourne
Ground floor, 518 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne CBD