Revolution Taco to close in Rittenhouse, replaced by a Vietnamese Cajun restaurant

After 10 years in Rittenhouse, Revolution Taco, a fast-casual restaurant whose menu blends global influences from chorizo to Peking duck to Korean BBQ beef, plans to close early next month.

Owner Carolyn Nguyen, 41, grew the business from Street Food Philly and Taco Mondo, two stalwarts of Philly’s new age food truck scene, which had its heyday from 2012 to 2016. The two trucks, which Nguyen co-owned and operated, vended regularly on 33rd Street at Drexel University’s campus — a street once referred to as Philly’s “Food Truck Mecca” — and at the now-defunct Night Markets, once run by The Food Trust.

Revolution Taco’s Jan. 6. closure isn’t goodbye for Nguyen, who has leased the space at 2015 Walnut St. for another three years. Rather, Nguyen is returning to her roots: For the first time in her two decades of working as a chef in Philadelphia, Nguyen will be cooking the Cajun Vietnamese food of her Louisiana youth.

Also for the first time, her name will be on the door of her business. She aims to open Carolyn’s Modern Vietnamese within weeks of Revolution Taco’s closure. “It will combine my Vietnamese heritage, my Cajun upbringing, and the global flavors that I’ve come to love and enjoy to cook through my career,” said Nguyen.

“Growing up, we always had seafood boils when crabs and crawfish were in season. They were a major part of my childhood. We ate boudin — a stuffed rice sausage with pork — lots of curries, and a lot of chicken. My family had a little chicken farm just for our relatives, with around 20 to 30 chickens,” said Nguyen. “As a child I had so much curry chicken, but I’ll modify it a little [for the new restaurant], along with thịt kho, a braised pork with egg that I’ll use pork belly for. And there will be slow-cooked grits.”

Nguyen speaks both English and Vietnamese with a soft but distinct Southern twang. She was born and raised in Amelia, Louisiana. “It’s a very small town with a population of around 2,000 people. When I lived there, around a third of the population consisted of Vietnamese people,” she said.

Nguyen came to Philly in 2007, intending a visit to her sister here to be a stopover on her way to New York. But she never left and ended up attending the Arts Institute for culinary school. After graduating, she worked for Susanna Foo in Center City, and then at Nectar and Maia with Patrick and Terence Feury. When Terence went to work for Ellen Yin at Fork, she followed as a line cook from 2013 to 2014 and worked closely with Andrew Wood (now the chef at Le Virtù). “He was a big part of my cooking journey,” she said.

During a catering stint in the early 2010s, “I was watching a lot of Food Network and The Great Food Truck Race and I knew I wanted to open one.” Together with a former business partner, she leased the truck that would become Street Food Philly. The menu was a conglomeration of many influences, featuring everything from tacos to the handmade pastas Nguyen mastered at Fork.

These experiences will feed the menu at Carolyn’s Modern Vietnamese, where Nguyen is planning on making a curry duck with handmade gnocchi.

To cook from her roots is something Nguyen has long wanted to do, “but I never felt the timing was right. Then a lot happened in my personal life and I was just like, the timing is never going to be perfect, it’s now or never.”

And yet, perhaps Nguyen’s timing is perfect. Philly is having a moment where chefs, especially Southeast Asian ones in their 30s and early 40s, are reflecting on their childhoods. With restaurants like Manong, Baby’s Kusina, and Rice and Sambal retelling their chef-owners’ American upbringings — mingled with Southeast Asian flavors and ingredients — Philadelphia is primed for Nguyen’s story. And the Mid-Atlantic as a region may be on the cusp of a much deeper exploration of Cajun Vietnamese flavors, as chef Kevin Tien has done in D.C. with Moon Rabbit.

Nguyen returned to Louisiana last month after a many-year absence and spoke to her family about her plans. “The excitement, enthusiasm, and support from family and relatives,” coupled with Ellen Yin’s encouragement, solidified her resolve to make a change to her Rittenhouse business.

Minimal work is required to revamp Revolution Taco’s existing space. The upstairs dining room will receive a paint job and new decor, and the front counter and dining area will be reconfigured for table service. Some Revolution Taco staff will remain at Carolyn’s Modern Vietnamese, and others will be offered positions at Revolution Taco’s kiosk at the Comcast Center’s concourse, which will continue to operate as Revolution Taco Express.

“Revolution Taco has been my home for the past 10 years. But I’m looking forward to being more creative with the food and being vulnerable with the way I cook, not knowing how people will receive it,” she said.