Justin Marx works on recipes in his test kitchen at Marx Foods in Lower Queen Anne. Photo by Ronald Holden

FOOD MATTERS, from Page 10

Anne celebrates its fifth anniversary this week.

Eric and Sophie Banh fled their native Vietnam while young teenagers. Now in Seattle, the siblings have started two Monsoon restaurants, two Baguette Box sandwich shops and, more recently, Ba Bar, which describes itself as “street food.”

The thing is, in Saigon, there was a French colonial class that imported wheat flour to make bread and pastries, and there was the local fare, based on rice flour and rice noodles. So Ba Bar’s new breakfast menu draws from both.

Karen Krol, shy but self-assured, has joined the Banhs as pastry chef, rolling out and baking up a steady stream of buns, quiches, brioches, jalousies and Danish pastries without rival.

New Yorker Sonny Baez stepped up to the not-normally-glamorous job of breakfast chef, with longtime Banh chef Dung Doan moving over from Monsoon to assist, while recent culinary grad Tony Le watches the ginger-and-lemongrass beef broth for the pho.

“Morning remedies” also available: mimosas and bloody Marys (with rum).

It’s open daily for breakfast at 7 a. m.

RONALD HOLDEN blogs about food, wine and travel at Cornichon.org.To comment on this story, write to