• Our Story

  • Our Story

  • Our Story

The Concept

Basil & Sprout serves up traditional Vietnamese home style cooking cuisine to the heart of Pensacola. Using only the freshest produce with the highest quality of ingredients all made in-house to provide an authentic Vietnamese bold flavor and taste.

Experience our French baguette sandwiches– best known as “Bánh Mì,” baked fresh daily and shipped directly from our vendor’s bakery located in New Orleans, LA, with the finest choice of meats and pickled vegetables, pulled together with our house made French inspired aioli, known as Vietnamese mayo.

Or indulge yourself with our selections of hand rolled spring rolls or egg rolls paired with our signature house made dipping sauces. Hungry for more, warm yourself with our savory, deep rich, spiced flavor, 12 hour slowly simmered bone marrow broth, cooked to perfection with carefully sliced assorted quality meats in a bowl of “Phở” (beef noodle soup). And lastly, cool yourself with either our signature blend of Vietnamese coffee also known as “Café Sữa Dá” (iced coffee) or our imported blend of specialty teas, topped with our honey boba or various “sinkers.”

Our menu and restaurant is crafted and designed to reflect the street vendor atmosphere experience as you would encounter while traveling through Vietnam. Our recipes and entrees are homemade and cooked to perfection and always made-to-order to ensure quality and freshness, leaving you satisfied from your very first and to your last bite.

Our Story

This love story began back in 2004 when Hurricane Ivan devastated Pensacola. Charley Nguyen, a native of Houston, TX, was assigned the task to tarp or blue roof a residence, which belongs to Jenny Tran’s parents. Charley finished tarping the roof and went even further by providing fuel daily and a generator to power the house. As with every good deed, there will always be a reward. However, Charley was never rewarded but instead was given an opportunity.

Jenny asked, “Besides construction, what else do you do?” Charley’s response was generically simple, “I can cook!” Again, now, this was not a task to Charley but simply an opportunity to show off his passion for cooking. Preparation and cooking began for grilled quail marinade with light soy sauce and Asian five spices, topped with raspberry caramelized fish sauce, and a pot of good ole phở. Charley was given a scorecard of “A” for effort, “F” for grilled quail, and “A+” for phở. When introduced to the pot of phở, Jenny’s response and encouragement forever paved the road and journey for this restaurant business endeavor 17 years later in Pensacola. Just like our Shakespearean love story of “love at first sight,” Jenny’s response to Charley’s pot of phở was simply “love at first bite.”

With support and encouragement from Jenny and business partners, the inspiration and concept for the first Basil & Sprout came to birth over a dinner gathering with family and friends. Our mission is to share and embrace cultural diversity in Pensacola and its community, especially our Vietnamese culture. Food is such an important part of Vietnamese culture as most of Vietnamese cooking is highly influenced by French cuisine. With a shared vision in mind, Basil & Sprout is not only excited to showcase our bold-flavored menu offerings but to additionally, pay homage to our Grandmas and Moms by passing along generational recipes given for the success of Basil & Sprout. Food is LOVE!

As it is illuminated on our walls and the very well known Bessie Stanley, “live,” “laugh,” “love,” Basil & Sprout wants to elevate and embrace diversity within Pensacola and its community through Vietnamese food. Will it be “your love at first bite?”