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East Austin Filipino and Vietnamese food truck Fil N’ Viet is closing this month. Its last day of service at Camp East at 2903 East 12th Street in the Rosewood neighborhood will be on Saturday, September 16.
Co-owners and couple Kevin Truong and Rosie Mina-Truong decided to shutter their food truck because they will be doing something new and because it’s been hard working the truck by themselves, according to the press release. “We’ve loved having Fil ‘n Viet be owner-operated, but it’s been taxing on our work life balance running the food trailer, especially in the summer heat,” Mina-Truong shares in the statement. Further details about what exactly the new thing is aren’t available at this time.
Fil N’ Viet served Filipino and Vietnamese fusion dishes, such as the popular sinigang chicken wings made with a tamarind spice mix or the VFC chicken wings marinated in a fish caramel sauce. There was also crispy sisig with rice, the tortang talong (a Filipino-style egg omlet) and crispy adobo rice bowls. Drinks included a pineapple calamnasi lemonade and Vietnamese iced coffee in ube and pandan flavors.
Truong (who is Vietnamese) had been a chef at the Fairmont Austin hotel and no-longer-open fine-dining restaurant Counter 3.Five.VII. And Mina-Truong (who is Filipino) had been cooking her mother’s dishes at their home. They had started a to-go and delivery food service showcasing a blend of cuisines from their backgrounds in September 2020 after Truong was laid off because of the pandemic. That blossomed into the physical food truck in March 2021. Originally, they operated in an empty lot further east on 12th Street and relocated into food truck park-slash-wine bar and shop Camp East later in December 2021.
Camp East has been undergoing changes since it opened in 2021. There had been fantastic bakery Dō’s Tiny Bread Shed, which closed in November 2022. And the venue will become home to the relocated Sammataro truck sometime later this year. The pizza truck is actually taking over Fil N’ Viet’s physical parking spot.
