DES MOINES, Iowa — Brenda Tran grew up in Vietnam during the time of the Vietnam War.
Her father fled with the American Navy to San Diego, California in 1974, leaving Tran and the rest of her family behind.
Two years later, Tran immigrated to the United States, and arrived in Des Moines where she has lived most of her life.
Tran has lived within one mile of the Merle Hay Mall in Des Moines since, and has called it her "second home."
As a young adult, Tran worked as a Vietnamese interpreter at Broadlawns Hospital for 18 years. In the meantime, she married her husband in 1995 and had her first child in 2003.
Brenda always wanted to bring her Vietnamese cooking over some way to the United States, and in 2010, she finally opened her business: the "Vietnam Café" at the Merle Hay Mall.
But first, she had to get her father's blessing.
In Vietnamese culture, it’s tradition to receive permission from your parents — no matter your age — before you do something, so Brenda had to get her father’s blessing to open the Vietnam Café.
Her father passed away a couple weeks before the grand opening of her business, but since she wanted to pursue her dream so desperately, she went on with the opening date of Sept. 1, 2010.
"I said, ‘OK, I need to do that in order to send my kids to Catholic school,'" Tran explained.
She said she started her business to help fund her children's educations, but to also help fund her retirement.
However, the first three years of working the Vietnam Café wasn't easy.
"I still work 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week," Tran said. "Starting a business in Merle Hay Mall is not easy. It’s really tough.”
To help her business better flourish, Tran decided to later take out a $100,000 SPA to help fund her café, and she has had to pay $800 a month since.
Then at the beginning of 2023, Tran signed a new lease to keep her business inside the Merle Hay Mall.
She signed a 5-year lease six months ago, with a 50% rent increase, but customers have decreased drastically at the same time, Brenda said.
However, the loan and new lease put her in a hole financially.
So she wanted to do something about it.
Tran started a GoFundMe page in hopes of raising $15,000 to pay the $10,000 she owed the mall. On the GoFundMe page, she stated that she was hosting a buffet at the end of July to keep her café open.
If she didn't raise her goal, she said it was likely the mall would close her down.
Luckily for Tran, hundreds of Iowans came out to support both her and her business.
“Every single one are here," she said. "It doesn’t matter how long the wait. It was an hour wait, and they al here… I don’t think it’s about my food. It’s about me. I think they are all here to help me. To support me. To stay on my business.”
And after the buffet, Tran hit her $15,0000 goal, meaning she can keep her café in the mall.
“I don’t want to give up my dream," Tran said. "When I start something, I want to continue to fulfill my dream.”
Her dream? Staying open as long as possible at the Merle Hay Mall.
“The only way I feel like I survive is to turn to my lovely customer … and I can’t believe it,” she said.