Kitchen Lessons: Hanoi House's Sara Leveen
The veteran co-owner on what she has learned running this East Village favorite.
Sara Leveen is the co-owner and operator of the critically-acclaimed Vietnamese restaurant Hanoi House in New York’s East Village. Previously, she spent more than 15 years working for restaurateur Stephen Starr and his restaurant group, including leadership roles during the company’s expansion into New York, which included the openings of Buddakan and Morimoto in 2006. Sara took some time last week to tell us some of the things she’s learned running a busy, buzzy restaurant for nearly a decade, from lessons about finding the right partners to the importance of details and the right playlist.
“Stay connected to your people as much as you can. Everything from meeting a prospective employee before they’re hired to checking in a month later to see how they’re acclimating and enjoying work. I learned this from Stephen [Starr]. He interviewed every server, bartender, and host candidate. He probably had 15 or 20 restaurants at the time.”
“You cannot expect what you don’t inspect. If you need the underside of the bar well wiped, the floor fan turned on, and hot water poured down the drains to prevent fruit flies, you have to check it yourself.”
“Don’t waste time trying to do something that someone else can do better and faster. If you can learn from them while that’s taking place, then everybody wins.”
“Bring on partners who have significant skill sets that you do not. When you're looking for someone that you're going to be shoulder to shoulder with through the blood, sweat, and tears of doing an opening, where you work several months, sometimes a year straight, without days off, you really want to make sure that you're aligned in the vision and the goals with that person. It is really about being able to trust the person.”
“Don’t do it for the money. You need to be motivated by the idea of employing and taking care of people and changing their lives, giving them a place that they can go to be seen, to feel safe, to learn.”
“High turnover is one of the worst things that you can have in terms of quality of operations. It is expensive, but it also means less trained, less knowledgeable, less fulfilled staff doing a job.”
“Sometimes the things that are the hardest to do are also the most rewarding. The item we became most popular for was not what we intended to be, which is the pho. It was one of many dishes that we believed paid homage to the city of Hanoi. We did it right, and it landed. People were drawn to it, and it became our identity. But it’s very labor-intensive and time-consuming. ”
“Don’t do something that may save you money simply because you can get away with it. That means no shortcuts. Doing the right thing.
“Restaurant jobs are not easy. They are not glorious. There’s a lot of dirty work, heavy lifting, and risk that lies beneath the surface you may not see as a diner. When we ask someone to do a job that requires them to work in those circumstances, it’s on us to balance that with treating them well, feeding them well, paying them well, and making them feel like they’re part of a family, not just someone hired to do a dirty job.”
“Value is what drives the business overall. But value is... not just the price you pay for something and what you’re receiving on the plate; it is all the aspects of the service and dining experience that contribute to that value. Coming into contact with multiple people who are focused on your happiness adds to the feeling that money is well spent.”
“Nothing matters more than maintaining food quality and consistency. There are countless ways to adapt to a changing market and evolving tastes. Keep your head down and grind towards that goal, and the noise disappears.”
“Managing staff is a delicate balance. You have to create a comfortable environment where people can be themselves and forge strong friendships with their coworkers, while also demanding respect and workplace focus that reinforces that we are a business. Truthfully, I’m still working on that skill.”
“Make sure there are no stray pieces of cilantro. This is Ben’s specialty. [Ben is Sara’s business partner and spouse]. He does so many thoughtful little things that no one ever sees or notices. He expedites a couple of shifts a week. He's the last person to see the food before it goes to the dining room, and it just always looks better with him.”
“Keep that energy super high. As the restaurant builds up on a Friday or Saturday night, when we have more large parties, the music gets louder. You’re keeping that energy super high. On a Monday at 6 o’clock, it’s significantly lower, but the music itself is always audible. You can always say, “ Hey, wait, what is the song? I can hear the lyrics. We have a playlist we started in 2017. It’s a lovely hybrid of hip hop and reggae.”