Longtime (and formerly late-night) Midtown Vietnamese mainstay Van Loc has announced it will be shutting down soon after 28 years in business. The restaurant’s owners have posted a note (shown at right) letting customers know of its plans, but have not announced a closing date. The freestanding restaurant building and its parking lot sit on the southern portion of the Midtown block at 3010 Milam St., between Rosalie St. and Anita, a block north of Elgin St.
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- Van Loc Restaurant [Van Loc]
Photos: Swamplot inbox (note); Allyn West/OffCite (others)
Making Vermicelli History
Wow, I’ve been lunching there for over 20 of those years. It’s my favorite in town. I will miss it.
One of my favorite vietnamese places. It is sitting on some pretty expensive real estate.
NO. Nonononononono. I’m so insanely sad about this.
THIS CAN’T BE!
That sucks. Van Loc served as my initiation to Vietnamese food. Walking in there for the first time as an 18-year-old UH student and a new Houstonian may actually have been one of those ‘butterfly flapping its wings’ moments in my adult life. Oh well, I’ll still have my memories.
Thien An and Kim Tai will have to pick up the slack.
This place is my cheaper and never-crowded alternative to Mai’s. However, there are quite a few Vietnamese restaurants in this little part of Midtown. I’ve often wondered how many of these could co-exist so close to each other.
ugh! where am I going to get garlic tofu now?
I noticed this week they hand-wrote new prices on many dishes. I guess they didn’t want to invest in new menus. I wonder if they will sell me their ChaGio recipe, IMO the best in the country.
Ugh…must be the future home of a craft beer bar.
I hope the owners of Van Loc also own the block and are cashing out for a nice retirement. I’ll miss that place.
Can anyone say “High Fashion”? They own the balance of the block, will probably build new parking/High Fashion fabric center, demolish existing fabric store for more development. Odds? I too preferred their
Viet food over Mai.
The best fried garlic tofu in town, it will be greatly missed.
Great. Just what midtown abomination is gonna take residence once the doors of Van Local is closed? Howl at the Moon 2?
Simply Pho I’m sure has contributed to the closing.