Pastry shop purveyors play to strengths and pivot to Vietnamese plates

But it wasn't the original plan for the Dean Street venture for owners Lien Van Lao and Victor Quan.

Since May, the Wodonga couple has started the transition to Bami House in the Botanical building at the western end of Dean Street after purchasing pastry shop Sweet Surrender before Christmas in 2023.

The store formerly housed Geoffrey Michael Patissier and sits alongside Stean Nicholls Real Estate, with Eye Clinic Albury-Wodonga on the second level.

While it was a risk to suddenly change the business, Mrs Lao was glad they did.

"We realised we were not as good at making Australian food, so we decided to do what we feel we're good at," she said.

"We wanted to start it as a small, family business, but it was really hard because we didn't know a lot about making cakes and Australian food."

The shop specialises in banh mi, Vietnamese baguettes made with meat, vegetables and homemade sauce.

Bami House offers the baguettes, which are baked fresh in store daily, with traditional crackled pork, pork sausage, chicken, lemongrass beef and tofu.

Other items on the menu include vegetarian and chicken spring rolls, rice paper rolls, bao buns and mixed noodle salad bowls.

Mrs Lao, who has had experience in Chinese, Thai and Japanese restaurants, said the three key priorities for Bami House were to "always make the food fresh, make sure it is tasty and at a good price".

"We feel more confident with Vietnamese food. We started by introducing things like spring rolls and then after a couple of weeks we started making rice paper rolls," she said.

"We've had daily customers who have given us honest feedback with what we need to improve, so now we feel more confident. Their feedback really motivates us.

"We're taking it slowly and learning every day, but thankfully so many people have been coming back."

Mr Quan said he had noticed a major shift in the customer base since the Vietnamese food offering started.

"When we started, not many young people were coming to buy our food, but after we changed to Vietnamese food, a lot of young people have been here and introduced their friends," he said.

"We're happy to introduce Vietnamese food to everyone in Albury and Wodonga. Most of the customers came from the eye clinic or the offices around, but now they come from all around and we're really happy with that.

"We haven't had any advertisements, but people are coming back, which is a good sign.

"We still do some sandwiches and cakes, but our biggest seller is the Vietnamese food.

"We wanted to provide the authentic taste. We know there's a couple of Vietnamese shops around here, but we've tried to make it more authentic to introduce it to the locals."

Mr Quan said while dine-in was available, most customers enjoyed the convenience of a takeaway option.

"It's easy to grab and go for most people who want something quick for lunch or breakfast," he said.

Bami House is open Monday to Friday from 7am to 4pm.