Mui Tham and her brother Lung Tham run the day to day operations of Burien's newest Vietnamese restaurant in the space once occupied by the Wah Long Sports Bar. Bubble tea flavors have replaced bottles of liquor (top right) and a lighter Asian diner feel has replaced the dark bar motif.
Once known as a trouble-attracting bar in Burien with a track record of shootings on the premises and liquor board violations, the former Wah Long Sports Bar at the corner of Ambaum and 153rd St has become Pho Lui Restaurant – specializing in pho (Vietnamese noodle soup), teriyaki and banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches).
The business is still owned by the Tham family who ran Wah Long, but they have started 2012 anew. A bar once stocked with booze has been replaced with bubble tea flavors, pool sticks have become chop sticks, and the dark interior has been converted into a well-lit dining area.
Pho Lui is run by Jimmy Tham’s niece, Mui Tham, and nephew, Lung Tham and they opened just after the New Year.
“I heard that everybody kept complaining about the noise here and now that there is no bar … the noise is gone,” Lung said. “It’s just the pho, it’s a quiet place that anybody can come and enjoy.”
In a spur-of-the-moment review from a customer just finishing his meal, David Nguyen said, “The only pho that I eat is my Mom’s pho, but you know she can’t cook it every day. So when we have a hankering for pho usually it’s hard to find quality and consistency … so every time we have this fear: is it going to be good, is it going to be consistent? So far, this place is good and I’m hoping they stay this way because the test is if they can stay consistent.”
In June of 2011 a group of neighboring businesses and residents (38 in all) signed and sent a letter to the Burien City Council complaining about a myriad of problems at Wah Long including two shootouts in the parking lot, serving underage people, staying open past 2 a.m., allowing drug deals and excessive noise.
The letter asked Burien to request the Washington State Liquor Control Board not renew Wah Long’s liquor license and asked the city to remove their business license.
At the time, owner Jimmy Tham disputed any wrongdoing and said the shootings in his parking lot were beyond his control.
“Everywhere you go these types of things happen, who wants these kinds of things to happen?” he said.
In June Mike Martin, city manager for Burien, said, “they have not been good neighbors, we are unhappy with the way the establishment has been run and we expect that behavior to stop or change in the near future.”
And change it did.
Pho Liu is located at 15220 Ambaum Blvd. S.W. According to Lung they are open from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week. They do not have a website yet, but the phone number is (206) 244-1449.
