Ngọc Trần
Ngọc Trần
Ngọc Trần (she/her) is the driving force behind Shop Bao Ngoc, a small Vietnamese eatery in Brunswick that operates as much as a community space as it does a restaurant. It runs on a pay-what-you-can and pay-it-forward model – no one is turned away for lack of funds and there is a community fridge out the front, stocked with free meals for anyone who needs them. For Ngọc, cooking has always been a means of connection – with her own heritage and with others. The food she serves is grounded in nostalgia, recipes that carry family, migration and care within them, offered as a way to bring people together at the table. The shop is often listed as 'open when we feel like it' - it operates on a part-time model where Ngọc works the restaurant and catering around her other day jobs, using what would usually be her spare hours to prep, cook and host. It’s a deliberate choice: to keep the space human, responsive and rooted in community rather than profit. Shop Bao Ngoc is her values made tangible: food as connection and community as the priority.