Eva Altizer, Staff Writer

Hache Hotpot started, at first, as a desire for broth-based food at Denison. 

“It’s pretty unique – there’s nothing near that here on campus. Broth-based food isn’t as popular here,” said Han Nguyen, ‘28, a data analytics and dance double major from Ho Chi Mihn, Vietnam, one of the three co-founders of Hache Hotpot. 

While Han Nguyen had the idea for a hotpot business, she knew that she would need the help of a “salesperson.” 

Quoc Khanh Nguyen ‘28, also known as Chester on campus, an applied math and philosophy, politics, and economics double major from Da Nang, Vietnam, is not afraid to walk up to people and is, according to Han Nguyen, a good salesperson. 

Once Chester Nguyen was on board – they were thinking about names for their hotpot business, and he said, “what about Hache?” 

And thus, Hache Hotpot was born. 

Initially Denison’s entrepreneurship center for student business, the Red Frame lab, was hesitant giving advice on Hache Hotpot. 

According to Han Nguyen, the Red Frame Lab was concerned about their ambitions – food based student businesses are complex, and it will likely take two or three years for Han Nguyen and Chester Nguyen to finish creating it. 

They still acquired the funding from the Red Frame Lab and got to work. 

The two were able to get the food-related connection they needed from Grow Restaurants’ CEO Chris Crader, 47, who is a mentor to them. Grow Restaurants includes businesses such as Harvest Pizzeria and Station, a coffeehouse, both in Granville. 

“I meet with Hache on a semi-regular basis,” Crader said. “Specifically, as it relates to starting, exploring, optimizing, and growing food-service related businesses. My goal is to help them explore possibilities, boundaries, and ask the right questions while letting their own experience answer the questions that arise.”

Hache Hotpot went on to experiment with pop-ups with the Denison Asian Student Union and an event with housing advisors in Shorney Hall. Then, they found their third co-founder, Ai Khanh Vu, also known as Kaitlyn. 

“She was like, ‘I really like working in the kitchen. I think I could be helpful with cooking and stuff.’ And so, so we brought her on, and that’s how the trio came to be,” Chester Nguyen said. 

Chester Nguyen described the main key to their success being advocacy. 

“It’s not like a classroom environment where there’s a teacher there, or someone can go make sure that everything’s like in place, or [that] things are planned around, like a provost watching over you. It was like, if you don’t make sure that things are ordered, if you don’t tell people that you need spreadsheets and stuff, they’re not going to do it. And you kind of have to bother them to do it,” Chester Nguyen said. 

“The biggest insight I got from Chris,” Chester Nguyen said, “[was when] he told us during one of our meetings with him – ‘the speaking wheel got the oil,’ – we had to keep on asking for stuff and bothering people to be able to get input as to how Hache could run.” 

The life of running a student business proves to have its own rewards. 

“I enjoy serving and hearing feedback from my friends,” Han Nguyen said. “Even if it might be like ‘oh, today is a little bit bland.’ I really appreciate people showing up. And some people have been trying hotpots since the very first days, and they saw the hotpot get better and better everyday. I really appreciate that.” 

And while it is fun to work with friends as coworkers, Han Nguyen said, it’s not so easy having to run a business with them at the same time. 

“You have to be confronting them … you have to tell them unfortunate or uncomfortable truths. Chester sometimes says to us, ‘I’m gonna be so for real, you guys gotta fix this,’ and I appreciate that, the straightforwardness,” Han Nguyen said. 

What Chester Nguyen ultimately enjoys most about Hache Hotpot is the space it creates for asian culture and students simply hanging out. 

“What I resonate with most about Hache is how it fulfills a very demographic need. We kind of had this vision when we were thinking of, ‘What does Hache do? What are our values?’ We’re serving a very specific community of Asian people, or Asian diaspora that likes hanging out with other people. And I like to get feedback and insight from other people about how hotpot is still valuable in that regard. Like, do they still enjoy the food for foods’ sake, [or] the interactions that they have whenever they’re like, ‘hey, do you want to get hotpot,’ to other people. And I don’t know, [so] I like to keep my hand on that pulse to know that we’re actually doing well,” Chester Nguyen said.