A LITTLE BIT OF HANOI
Location:
Hours of Business:
Phone:
Web Address:
#100-560 Johnson Street
Monday – Saturday 11:00am - 5:30 pm, Sunday 11:30am - 5:30pm
388-6830
N/A
Chosen for:
High-quality, well-priced Vietnamese crafts
Products handmade by owner's 4 family generations
Warmth of owner
Sixteen people congregated in a light drizzle on May 3rd - once again, almost half were first-time Grapeviners. Founders led them into Market Square, stopping dead at the entry of A Little Bit of Hanoi. The door was locked and bolted! This was a Grapevine first! But as we discussed going for coffee, Sarala spotted the proprietor walking towards us.
Luanne Dang didn't realize the crowd had gathered for her shop until she'd unlocked the door and wrested the large pink "Cyclo" - a Vietnamese tricycle-taxi - out and onto the sidewalk. When we presented her with our purple balloons and best-of-the-bunch explanation, she started hugging people. "You make me surprised!" she said again and again. "You make me happy!" More hugs were given.
Owner Luanne Dang displays some of her wares.
Photos by Barbara McDonell and
Jeffrey Godine
The small shop carries high-quality items made in the Nam Dinh province of Vietnam by four generations of Luanne's family. From grandparents to parents, and now down to Luanne's own two sons, family members have inherited a craft tradition that can be traced back to the early 19th century. With a 200-year old passion for silk and lacquer, their products range from small colourful pillows and scarves to duvets, and from exquisite purses to beautiful art - either a French form adapted by Vietnamese artists using their traditional medium of lacquer, or oil and acrylic paintings of the most promising senior students from the Hanoi School of Fine Arts.
Luanne's husband and co-owner James Green was initially recruited by a Canadian company operating in Vietnam. After a year he partnered with two Australians to open the first true western-style restaurant in Hanoi, serving steak, ribs and pizza. Because James lost 20 kilograms during his first year in Vietnam he took his dress clothes for alterations at a small tailoring shop near his restaurant. Luanne was the owner's niece so she occasionally worked there. James invited her out for coffee. She refused. But he persisted for several months, eventually proposing and being accepted.
The small shop is stocked with handmade crafts
by four generations of Luanne's family.
The couple married in 1997 and James brought Luanne to his hometown of Victoria. While they tried to figure out what Luanne would do for work in Canada, she suffered from culture shock and missed her own family and country. Considering a plan to open a shop selling her family's wares, they returned to Hanoi in the hopes of gaining approval from her grandmother, the family matriarch. Although Luanne was very concerned about language challenges and the prospect of dealing with a completely different culture, her grandmother reminded her that that her great grandfather had had an ambition to establish a trading arm for the clan ... an ambition that died when his country became war-torn. Grandma enthusiastically embraced the idea of furthering Great Grandpa's dream, saying, "Foreigners only know of Vietnam as a land of war and ugly conflict. You must show them our true face. Show them the beautiful things we can do with our hands when we have peace." Consequently, A Little Bit of Hanoi opened for business in April, 2005. To everyone's delight and surprise, Luanne quickly adapted to running the business and her innate charm surmounted her limited English.
The exquisite purses are made with locally-sourced
Mother of Pearl and buffalo horn.
For me, the store's standouts were its large lacquered pictures and exquisite purses. The pictures range from a ten-inch square to three by four feet. Priced from $35 to $570, created in red with shiny embellishments of gold, green, and framed in flat black, these would make a gorgeously bold statement in your home. Because the Vietnamese are a poor but industrious people, they are not prone to waste. The purse designers therefore utilize Mother of Pearl from a coastal shellfish industry and buffalo horn from a food industry by-product, producing distinctive hand-stitched bags with an aura of luxury.
Choose also hand-beaded silk bags that are limited edition works of art - or a wonderful slouchy cotton shoulder bag. If you've got a young woman on your gift list, make big brownie points by bringing her here to choose from the varied $35 selection. Other offerings include beautiful silk duvet covers in the $150 range. Don't miss the silk runners and throws, the lacquered dishes and bowls, unique chopsticks, and dramatic vases in surprising shapes.
The gorgeous lacquered art would make a bold statement in your home.
Luanne's extended family creates bamboo and ceramic items. The shop's bamboo bark table runners and placements have been one of its best sellers. The subtle simplicity of these unique creations belies the time-consuming production process which can take up to three months. Each piece has unique colour variations that change according to lighting conditions. Not only are they attractive for your table, but they are durable and easy to clean.
Grapevine member Marjorie has a daughter living in Hanoi and Marjorie commented that the shop's silks compared in price to those she saw in the Bangkok markets. Luanne pointed out that although many "silks" today are actually made with polyester, this shop sells only 100% natural hand-loomed silks. Sarala said that when she visited Vietnam last year she bought a lacquered bowl. Although it looked lovely it wasn't until she used it that she discovered it wasn't food-safe. Buyers at A Little Bit of Hanoi know the source so they can trust that the product is safe to eat from.
After everyone else had gone, Luanne gave me several more hugs as she confided, "What The Grapevine did here today would never have happened in my country. Today I learned something I didn't know about Canada. You all touched my heart."