Camille, by chef Tung Phan, is the first concept to take residency at the Neighbors at East End Market

Domu Lab, the chef incubator and culinary component of the Neighbors at East End Market, will launch its eight-seat rotating chef's table with a concept called Camille.

It's the brainchild of chef Tung Phan, a Le Cordon Bleu graduate who's held the chef de partie position at Victoria & Albert's and who currently serves as chef de cuisine at the Isleworth Country Club. Phan also operated Phan's Asian Cuisine on South Orange Blossom Trail in 2017 before shuttering it a couple of years later.

At Camille, a concept named after his first-born daughter, Phan will offer a seven-course prix fixe menu of modern French-Vietnamese cuisine with global flair along with wine, beer and cocktail pairings.


Dinners will be offered Thursdays to Sundays, with two seatings per day. On days when Phan isn't operating Camille, other chefs may be brought in to the Domu Lab to test out their concepts.

"I chose Vietnamese cuisine as a means of finding my identity and going back to my roots," says Phan, who was born in Vietnam but came to the U.S. with his family just a year after he was born. "I wanted to honor that — know more about where my family came from, and pay homage to the food as well."

Some of the menu items guests can look forward to: thịt kho ravioli with slow-braised caramelized pork; wild-caught prawns with Viet-Cajun beurre blanc and house-crafted semolina pasta; and Mediterranean-inspired mung bean falafel with caviar and Thai basil yogurt.

"I want guests to leave feeling like they’ve experienced Vietnamese food in a way they haven’t before," Phan says.

The Neighbors, you'll recall, is a joint initiative from Jacob Zepf of Freehand Goods, East End Market owner John Rife, Domu's Sonny Nguyen, and restaurateurs Johnny and Jimmy Tung that's slated to open this fall in the second-floor event space at East End Market.

Domu Lab, run by Nguyen and the Tung Brothers, will offer up-and-coming chefs a stage to showcase their creativity for a six-month run at the Neighbors.

"We'll mentor these young chefs by developing their concepts, menus and culture, and support them with any resources they need to become successful," says Johnny Tung. "It's a low-risk opportunity for everyone before committing to a brick-and-mortar."

Should any of the concepts prove successful, the Tungs, with help from Nguyen and Rife, would help these chefs open a permanent space in the city.

The Neighbors is aiming for an early October unveiling, with Camille debuting shortly after that. A website for online reservations will be made available soon, but if all you food influencers out there want to be among the first to try Camille, send an email to [email protected] and get on the list.

And be sure to follow Camille on Instagram for all the latest updates.

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