Ninja Bistro slaying Tri-Cities food scene

Asian fusion cuisine lovers beware: The newest addition to the Tri-City food truck scene sold out on its first day.

Never fear, Ninja Bistro will be a regular lunchtime feature at John Dam Plaza in downtown Richland.

Ninja Bistro is the brainchild of David Phongsa, a Pasco High School graduate who spent a decade in the fashion industry in Los Angeles before deciding to return to the Tri-Cities and try his hand at street food.

Phongsa didn't launch Bistro Ninja overnight. With a background in corporate fashion, men's apparel, to be specific., he knew he first needed to learn more about running a business.

A lot of planning ensured his first day in business this week went according to the script.

He went through the FUSE SPC Launch program and soaked up the wisdom of his mentor at Mid-Columbia Tri-Cities SCORE, which pairs aspiring entrepreneurs with seasoned executives.

He took Small Business Administration classes in Seattle and Spokane, participated in the Tri-City Chamber of Commerce's Business Development University series and signed on with Pasco Specialty Kitchen, the commercial kitchen and restaurant incubator.

And, although he worked his way through college as a waiter, he'd never worked in a mobile food truck.

So he volunteered to work in Dovetail Joint, a popular Tri-City mobile food truck, to get a real world view of what awaited — an experience he called an eye opener.

"I didn't want to be one of those guys going in blindly," Phongsa explained. "I'm a planner."

Before launching, he turned to an old classmate from Columbia Basin College, Kris Lapp, founder of i3 Global, a Kennewick media company. The firm helped with branding and the business' distinctive ninja logo, featuring its initials across the ninja headband.

Lapp highlighted Ninja Bistro on his well-read Facebook blog, #LappDaddyApproved.

Phongsa said creating the menu was the most challenging aspect.

He wanted to draw on his Laotian heritage and the dishes he grew to love in LA.

He wanted to bring his favorites to the Tri-Cities, though not everything lent itself to being precooked at a commercial kitchen, then served from a food truck.

"My family was my guinea pig," he said.

Phongsa estimates he invested $50,000 to launch Ninja Bistro, using a combination of personal funds and loans.

To start, the menu includes small bites such as pork egg rolls, Spam musubi, cream cheese wontons and chicken skewers and entrees such as island tacos, a kimchi quesadilla, Hawaiian sliders, yakisoba and yellow curry.

It's all accompanied by a choice of sauces: Chili garlic, chili oil, pineapple habanero, salsa verde and sweet chili

In time, he plans to sell his sauces, salsas and other items through the business and envisions a day when Ninja Bistro will have its own brick-and-mortar restaurant.

He's inspired by Fresh Out the Box, an Asian fusion food truck that opened a physical outlet at Marineland Village in Kennewick almost a year ago.

"I love what they've done'," he said.

Ninja Bistro is at John Dam Plaza daily from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. It will be at Kennewick's Sunset at Southridge Friday night summer series and at Pasco's Volunteer Park on Wednesday evenings.

Phongsa said the food truck operates most of the year with winter closures. Keep up to date through its Facebook page, facebook.com/ninjabistro/

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This story was originally published June 26, 2018 at 12:58 PM.