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Last winter, longtime Fort Worth restaurateur and dumpling purveyor Hao Tran had just agreed to a lease on a substantially larger location in White Settlement.
Fast forward nearly a year, construction is due to start in January on Hao’s Duong DeVille, named for a Cadillac her father bought when she and her two siblings were children.
Her target opening is late spring. Construction will take about five months, according to Tran and her landlord Will Churchill, who owns the shopping center at Loop 820 and White Settlement Road with his sister, Corrie Fletcher.
Tran is still noodling on whether to retain Hao’s Grocery & Café at 120 St. Louis Ave. on Fort Worth’s Near Southside.
To keep her smaller shop, Tran says she needs to make it more economically viable: cooking classes and private events, such as prix-fixe dinners, pay the bills.
Produce and other grocery items line shelves around Hao’s Grocery & Café in Fort Worth on Nov. 17, 2025. Owner Hao Tran plans to open a restaurant in the next year. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report/CatchLight Local/Report for America)
“The retail doesn’t cover the rent,” she said in early November, noting she’d already booked three events for the following month. “That’s the only way I can sustain business here.”
Tran regards the opportunity to build a 3,601-square-foot restaurant at the new shopping center as a godsend. “It literally dropped in my lap,” she said.
Tran juggles the business with her full-time career as a Trimble Technical High School teacher. She taught science at the campus for 25 years including culinary courses in the last two.
Tran opened the cafe seven years ago after spending years cooking for pop-ups.
She estimated she surpassed 1 million dumplings sold in early 2025. She runs her shop four days a week and fills out her schedule with the classes and events.
Now at 57, and after a few unsuccessful attempts to expand, Tran thought she was done with that idea.
“I was going to retire (from teaching) and work through this until I didn’t want to do it anymore,” she said over bowls of pho one recent Sunday evening.
Hao Tran is the owner of Hao’s Grocery & Café in Fort Worth on Nov. 17, 2025. Tran has been working toward opening a restaurant in White Settlement where she will serve Vietnamese food. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report/CatchLight Local/Report for America)
Unknown to her, Tran and her shop were on the radar of Churchill and Fletcher — the twin great grandchildren of the Fort Worth auto dealer Frank Kent. The siblings had purchased real estate at Loop 820 south of White Settlement Road and were renovating and repositioning the multiple commercial buildings on the site.
The duo’s prime target: a restaurant to broaden the offerings along the west side border of Fort Worth. Nearby Parker County is enjoying explosive growth with developments including the Walsh housing community and the UTA West campus. West Fort Worth’s high-end neighborhoods of Montserrat and Montrachet also bring potential customers.
The twins’ pursuit of Tran was similar to other efforts they’ve launched in commercial real estate where they first purchased sites, identified tenants they wanted, and then pursued deals. Melt Ice Creams on West Magnolia Avenue and Heim Barbecue are two such businesses they championed.
In Tran’s case, Churchill and Fletcher offered to finish out the new restaurant space at their expense.
Hao Tran walks around the future location of her restaurant in White Settlement on Nov. 17, 2025. Tran has been running Hao’s Grocery & Café in Fort Worth and working as a teacher while strategizing the restaurant. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report/CatchLight Local/Report for America)
“From our perspective, she’s a great lady with an immense amount of talent,” Churchill said. “To do a project that is worthy, it’s going to take a significant amount of capital. We felt it was important to take the burden of that responsibility on ourselves.
“It allows her to execute without having debt hanging over her head every day,” he said. “If she was a normal office tenant, we don’t do anything close to that.”
“It is a gift,” Tran says. “I have to work the business. Use it well.”
Churchill and Fletcher had some delays on their originally envisioned timeframe. Over the past year, the two also sold the family’s auto businesses; repositioned their Fort Brewery business; and began construction of a Weatherford location of Heim Barbecue.
The extra time was welcomed by Tran, who’s had plenty of time to consider her strategy. “I wasn’t in a rush,” she said.
Hao Tran looks at floor plan renderings of her future restaurant in White Settlement on Nov. 17, 2025. Tran has been running Hao’s Grocery & Café in Fort Worth and working as a teacher while strategizing the restaurant. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report/CatchLight Local/Report for America)
Her Near Southside shop has three employees, not including Tran, and virtually no seating other than a small private dining room.
She estimates the new restaurant will need 15 to 25 staffers as the space will seat 124 inside and another 34 on the patio, she said.
The new restaurant will have a full bar, a change from her BYOB cafe. There will also be a television.
“We’re not going to be a sports bar,” she said. “It’ll be a place where friends and community can gather and sit and have a drink at 10 o’clock on Tuesday night.”
The cafe is open from noon to 8 p.m. Thursday through Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, with events and classes on other days.
At the new place, Tran wants to start with Thursday to Sunday dinner service, then expand to other weekdays and times. Even if the hours aren’t yet set, she knows she wants a late dining room.
“That area needs it,” she said. “It needs a late-night place that’s got great food and great vibes.”
She said she’s asked longtime vendor and friend Thai “Luu” Vo, a Fort Worth vegan food truck operator, to become her chef de cuisine.
In preparation for the next stage of her life, Tran sold her home and moved into a garage apartment two years ago.
“I got rid of 80% of my personal belongings,” she said. “I’m living very feng shui.”
Scott Nishimura is a senior editor for the Documenters program at the Fort Worth Report. Reach him at scott.nishimura@fortworthreport.org.At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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