Amid busy urban centres, retro-style cafés and eateries inspired by the subsidy period, decorated with nostalgic objects, are increasingly becoming a trend and popular destinations not only for older generations, but also for young people.
In central Ha Long Ward, a subsidy-era eatery has become a distinctive highlight, offering diners a sense of stepping back 40–50 years. The setting features old wooden tables and chairs, vintage cabinets, Rang Dong thermos flasks, black-and-white televisions, as well as state-run shop counters and period slogans displayed on the walls. Dining items also reflect the era, including wooden trays, enamel bowls, cast-iron pots, large chopsticks and clay pots.
The owner of this unique space is Pham Thi Minh Thu, a Gen Z entrepreneur. Many of the items on display have been collected from her family and relatives in rural areas or sourced from second-hand shops. Each object carries its own story from the time it belonged to.
Beyond décor, the menu also reflects the past, featuring simple, home-style dishes such as crab soup with pickled eggplant, sweet potato leaves with fermented crab sauce, and stir-fried potatoes with pork fat. Drinks are equally modest, including corn juice, pennywort juice, arrowroot drink, lemonade and sweetened mineral water... Together, they evoke a sense of familiarity and shared memory.
For those who lived through the subsidy period, the space offers an opportunity to revisit their youth. For younger generations born after the country’s reform era, it provides a more vivid understanding of the lives of their parents and grandparents - not through books, but through lived experience.
By Xuan Hoa
