The sisters behind a pair of Vietnamese eateries in Aurora are teaming up to launch a restaurant on Federal Boulevard this week, in the same property where their parents had served customers for three decades.
Re Tre (stylized Rễ Tre) is the follow-up to Dan Da and Banh & Butter Bakery Cafe for An, Thao and Thoa Nguyen, sisters and part of a large family of Denver restaurateurs. They’ll be serving brunch through dinner every day but Monday, starting Friday, July 3.
The restaurant will dive further into classic Vietnamese cuisine, said An Nguyen, co-owner and executive chef at Dan Da and Re Tre. A section of the new spot, 630 S. Federal Blvd., is devoted to a daytime cafe and bakery run by her sister, Thoa, who fuses Vietnamese and French influences at Banh & Butter next door to Dan Da.
The sisters — they total five — are familiar with the Re Tre property: It’s where their parents, Thai Nguyen and Ha Pham, ran New Saigon Restaurant for 30 years, from 1987 to 2017. The couple remained owners of the property after they sold New Saigon to new operators. It closed for good in 2024.
An said her parents asked if she was interested in opening a new restaurant in the space, but she declined initially so she could concentrate on Dan Da, which opened in 2024, and because she was disheartened by what she felt was an aging food scene on Federal. Thao, her co-owner at Dan Da, proposed another collaboration.
“We were able to revitalize East Colfax by opening up Dan Da next to Banh & Butter,” An, 44, said. “I have no doubts that we can also revitalize the Federal area in some way or form.”
Re Tre translates to “bamboo root” in Vietnamese, and their roots are where the Nguyens are headed. The restaurant will share some similarities with the “Vietnamese comfort food” of Dan Da, but An said she expects to dive further into traditional cuisine. For brunch, that means “what Vietnamese people eat when they wake up in the morning,” including a steak-and-eggs dish, she said. For dinner, there’s an emphasis on seafood and fishy flavors. One dish has two fermented fish sauces in it, she said.
The new restaurant is located next to New Saigon Bakery and Deli, which is run by another Nguyen sister, Thu. Thu’s shop sells Vietnamese pastries and treats, while Thoa’s cafe inside of Re Tre will focus on French pastries (the croissant kind), espressos and coffee flights.
Starting a new restaurant is a risky endeavor, An said, considering how much the cost of food and labor have risen in Denver.
“I think it’s going to be difficult. Times are not like when my mom and dad were running the business,” she said. “We’re taking a risk, but we’re putting it aside. At this point, that doesn’t matter to us. We want to see that area come alive again.”
Re Tre opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 8 p.m. most days and 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
