At 57 Thợ Nhuộm Street in Hanoi, a sticky-rice shop uses the narrow passage behind a house as its kitchen. Pavement seating fits about fifteen people. The shop is busiest around 8 a.m.; many customers take food away, and at times the wait is long. Assembly after ordering can take about a minute, but the confined space creates the queue.
The business was founded in 1988 by a woman named Thu and is now run by her daughter Phượng with other family members. Cooking begins at 4 a.m. Each morning they prepare four or five steamers of sticky rice and twenty kilograms of meat. Rice was once steamed to order, but rising demand forced the family to prepare it in advance. The shop opens only from 6 to 10 a.m., with portions priced from 25,000 to 45,000 dong. Its bottleneck is not only cooking speed; it also comes from preserving a family recipe at the address that made it known.