March 20, 2017

Meet Uyen Trinh of Happy Valley in Norcross

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Uyen Trinh.

Uyen, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Happy Valley started off in Buford High in Chamblee Tucker as a small restaurant in the mid 90’s. We then bought out the property next to us and expanded a few years after. There we stayed until about 2008 and moved to our current location in Norcross. We have been serving dim sum and Chinese cuisine for over 20 years in Metro Atlanta.

However, not only dim sum we provide catering services and traditional Chinese/Vietnamese style wedding banquets as the restaurants were always built in a wedding hall style. Since 1995 hundreds of families have had our services employed not only in Atlanta but all along the east coast from as south as Florida to as north as Ohio. Happy valley is proud to be a dim sum staple in the Metro Atlanta area.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It wasn’t always easy, I was laid off in 2000 from my IT analyst position, and we took the rest of our savings and invested in the restaurant. At that time it was putting all or nothing. The first location worked out great but then when it was time for us to move again the financial crisis coincided right at the same time. It was an immense risk financially but we have been blessed to have been able to open the restaurant then with few hiccups.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Happy Valley story. Tell us more about the business.
The Happy Valley can be considered one of the few original dim sum/Chinese restaurants in the metro Atlanta area. However, since there have been much more that have followed in our footsteps. However what sets us apart from many other restaurants is that we do catering and wedding banquet service. Our catering service stretches from Florida all the way up to Ohio. Veery few restaurants in our industry or our particular cuisine offer the style of catering we do. The logistics involved are immense. Happy Valley owns multiple refrigerator trucks and vehicles in order to transport staff and supplies to the location whether it be Richmond, Virginia or Pensacola, Florida. All of the ingredients are brought there and the food is cooked on-site always.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
There is a statistic, I’m not how sure true it is but apparently, a majority of restaurants close within their first year of opening. For Happy Valley to have been able to stay open for over 20 years took a good deal of luck, but also blood, sweat and tears.

Pricing: