Less than four months after opening its doors at 113 Harmony Crossing, Pho & More has already built a loyal following.
Following an official ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday hosted by the Eatonton-Putnam Chamber of Commerce, owners Marino and Summer Graf said the welcome they have received from the Lake Country community has exceeded expectations.
Pho & More is the Graf family's second location after opening its original restaurant in Conyers in late 2022. But Marino Graf said expanding to the Lake Oconee area represented more than a business opportunity — it gave the family a chance to put down roots.
“My wife kind of grew up in between Conyers and [the Lake Oconee area] because her parents have had three different nail salons here for over 20 years,” he said. “We came up here because our daughter was starting kindergarten at Lake Oconee Academy, and we realized there was even less variety of food here than there is now. We figured people would be interested in Vietnamese cuisine.”
That intuition proved correct. Graf said curiosity from neighboring business owners and shoppers was evident long before the restaurant opened.
“People kept stopping by and asking, ‘What is this going to be?’ ‘What kind of food are you serving?’ and ‘When are you opening?’” he recalled. “That really made us even more excited because people were ready here. They really wanted to try it.”
When Pho & More opened in March, the response surpassed anything the family expected.
“It was a full house every day for the first three weeks straight,” Graf said. “We were overwhelmed, but obviously in a good way. We just didn’t expect so much right from the start.”
Many customers assume the polished restaurant is part of a national chain, but Graf is quick to point out that Pho & More remains a family-owned and operated business.
“It’s literally just us three,” he said, referring to himself, his wife and his father-in-law, John Nguyen, who helped establish both restaurants. An uncle also works in the kitchen, while his sister-in-law helps on the dining room floor.
“So half of the staff is family,” he said with a laugh.
Although Graf, who graduated from college in Switzerland, jokes that he is “100% not Vietnamese,” he credits his wife's family for introducing him to the cuisine and culture that now define the restaurant.
“Every family gathering was Vietnamese food, so I quickly got used to it, and I started to love it,” he said. “And my father-in-law has been extremely helpful. He’s our real connection to Vietnam.”
That authenticity carries into the kitchen, where many menu items are made entirely from scratch. For first-time diners, Graf almost always recommends the restaurant's signature pho.
“The soup is probably the most authentic dish you'll see when you think of Vietnamese food,” he said. “Our beef and chicken bone broths take almost two full days to cook. That’s definitely our specialty.”
Even the restaurant's peanut sauce and sweet fish sauce are prepared in-house.
Graf said introducing customers to unfamiliar flavors has become one of the most rewarding parts of owning the restaurant.
“We’re really just a small family business that likes to bring new dishes to people who have never tried them before,” he said. “Some people come from New York or Seattle and tell us our pho tastes like home because they haven’t had it in years. That’s always awesome to hear.”
He also enjoys nudging hesitant diners to step outside their comfort zones.
“I do sometimes make people try certain things they might not want to at first,” he said. “But I’d say nine out of 10 times they end up enjoying it and want more.”
While Friday's ribbon cutting served as the Chamber's official welcome, Graf said the community embraced Pho & More long before the ceremonial scissors came out.
“The people here have been very welcoming,” he said. “They’re appreciative that we brought a different cuisine to Eatonton and the lake area. It’s already been a lot of fun, and we’re very happy to be here.”