‘Fare Games’ a big win for Kalamazoo neighborhood

Over the course of the past year, the Kalamazoo County Land Bank led an effort to revitalize a historic, but blighted building in the Edison neighborhood, just southeast of downtown Kalamazoo. This competition, called Fare Games, identified a pair of local food entrepreneurs as the winner of the reduced rent and prize package of goods and services meant to help them launch their new venture, called Pho on the Block, in the vacant space. Their Vietnamese restaurant concept came to life alongside the renovation work done to the building, and they opened the restaurant to great fanfare on May 5, 2017. The grand opening was attended by about 500 people, and the restaurant (the only Vietnamese restaurant in the city) has clearly struck upon something that attracts both neighborhood residents as well as people from around the region. The owners, Reggie Kaur and Nancy Tien, have been overwhelmed by the support of the neighborhood, who are thrilled to have a vibrant new restaurant in a formerly vacant space.

Read more about Pho on the Block here.