Joe Penland, a friend of Oishii owner Thanh Nguyen, just called. He is the unofficial “Marketing Director” for Oishii. Which means, basically, that he’s just being a good friend who does PR work for free. (“I’m retired and I’m old, but I do it because I love Thanh.”)
Back on December 30, 2012, tragedy struck Oishii. A fire erupted in Nguyen’s newly-renovated restaurant. The sad part about the fire was that Nguyen had just remodeled his restaurant six weeks before the fire. “Fortunately, most of the front end that he [Nguyen] had totally redone remains somehow intact,” says Penland.
“The roof has now been repaired, and now they’re beginning to work on the interior. It will take two months to rebuild the interior. He’s looking at June/July to reopen.”
