The house that became a courtyard brunch

Before it was Lalita's, it was three houses. The complex on Nguyễn Duy Hiệu had stood for generations, its rooms rearranged and repainted across the years the way old Hội An houses always are. When the restoration began, the plan wasn't to erase that history but to cook inside it.

The kitchen at the back of the middle house is the one that made the final cut. Its low beams and worn tile floor now hold a run of brunch tables instead of a family's daily cooking, but the room reads exactly as old as it is. Outside, the courtyard between the three houses became the main dining room: open sky, a scatter of tables, a rooster arch painted at the entrance.

Every evening the same rooms and the same courtyard become Hèm, the sake cocktail bar next door in the same complex. Two very different rhythms, one address, one set of walls that has seen more than either of us.