The Rolling Spring Roll (finally) opens in Commack

It was 2018 when Joe Bui signed the lease on what was to be the third location of his Vietnamese restaurant, The Rolling Spring Roll, in Commack. “I figured it would take me three to six months to open,” he said.

It took five years.

Bui is a transformative figure on the local dining scene. In 2012 he gave up a career in finance to open a food truck, The Rolling Spring Roll, parked alongside Spagnoli Road in Bethpage. At that time, there were no crisp, golden Vietnamese spring rolls on Long Island, no translucent summer rolls, no banh mi sandwiches overfilled with meat, herbs and pickled carrots and daikon radishes. (Come to think of it, there weren’t too many food trucks selling more than hot dogs and egg sandwiches, either.)

The truck was a sensation, and a year later Bui opened an eatery of the same name in Farmingdale that expanded on the menu, adding pho (rice noodles in broth), bun (rice noodle bowls) and com (rice bowls). In 2016, a larger restaurant — with a larger kitchen — opened in Syosset and it delved further into the glories of the Vietnamese kitchen with such specialties as bo luc lac (”shaking beef”) and banh xeo (a rice-flour crepe filled with pork and shrimp).

The new Commack shop, its menu almost identical to Syosset, was taking over a deli-juice bar, so Bui figured the required work and permits would be minimal.

Opening delays are a familiar story on Long Island, but this one is one for the books. It took two years to resolve septic concerns alone.  Then COVID effectively shut down the dining scene. By the time Bui thought it was safe to proceed, he found that the permits he had obtained had expired, causing even more delays.

Meanwhile, what would have been one of the few Vietnamese restaurants on Long Island in 2018 suddenly had a lot of competition. Saigon Casa had opened in Port Jefferson in 2017 and, after that, the pho-floodgates opened, with Pho Fans in Smithtown, Kenko in Merrick and Pho 34 in Levittown, Ha Long Bay in New Hyde Park and Sup in Stony Brook and Massapequa, JoJu in Port Washington and Top Pho in Hicksville.

The general dining climate had also changed. During the 10 years between Farmingdale and Commack, Bui also saw his costs soar: Rent, he said, “has gone up around 3% a year, compounded annually. His labor costs, he said, “have close to doubled” and ingredients have risen anywhere from 20% to 300%. That bowl of pho that he used to sell for $12 now sells for $15 and, he continued, “with higher prices, there are customers who get priced out.”

Bui chose the Commack location partly to develop a lunch business among the many local office workers, partly to shorten the drive for his loyal Suffolk County customers — many of whom have already visited.

Bui still lights up when he starts to talk about his food. He considers himself a standard-bearer for Vietnamese food on Long Island and he is proud that on a recent trip to Vietnam, he found that his own fare “really stood up to what I was eating there.”

The Rolling Spring Roll, 6120 Jericho Tpke., Commack; open noon to 9 p.m. daily except Mondays; 631-486-5232, therollingspringroll.com.