Owner Kim Huong and her humorous style at Happy Hill Dalat

In mid-November, the atmosphere at the coffee shop located on Hoa Phuong Tim street, Xuan Huong ward is not only filled with music or conversation, the space of the shop resonates with the clear voice and intonation typical of Hong Kong swordplay films (TVB) that were popular in Vietnam in the 90s.

The person making that sound is Ms. Kim Huong, the shop’s owner, wearing a white ancient costume. Holding a fan, she walked between the tables, greeting a group of guests who had just arrived: “What wind brought you to me? It’s you. Really, so cute. Let me arrange it.” The guests laughed, took out their phones to record. Similar videos, when posted on social networks, have attracted millions of views in the past few weeks.

“How cute, if you have a chance to come to Da Lat, you must definitely try it,” user Thao Nhi commented. “Just beautiful, talented and charming” is Nguyen An’s comment. Many people say they enjoy the shop’s eloquence and Hong Kong movie accent. Meanwhile, some others teased the shop owner to quit selling coffee to go into filming because “the job chooses people”.

Ms. Huong said the shop has been open for 8 years, but the style of teasing and posting videos dates back to the beginning of this year. The costume idea came from a previous photo costume rental service. Once she tried it on for fun, she found it suitable for the shop’s atmosphere, so she continued to develop it into a highlight. Since mid-October, random videos have been posted and have since gone viral.

According to the female owner, at first she was quite shy because she was afraid of being “out of line”, but the positive reactions of the customers helped her feel more confident. All situations in the video are naturally improvised, without a script. However, the female restaurant owner always observes the attitude of each customer, only teasing them when they are happy to avoid causing discomfort or offense.

Every morning when she opened the door, Ms. Huong prepared her own costumes, makeup and hair to “get into character”. In addition to dubbing Hong Kong movies in the 90s, she can flexibly switch between Northern – Central – Southern accents, imitate the voices of some artists and communicate in English and Chinese. Currently, the shop owner also learns Korean at night to increase his ability to interact with international customers.

The number of customers coming to the restaurant over the years has been quite stable. Ms. Huong admits that humor is only a catalyst, what keeps customers coming back is still the space and service. The shop has 250 seats, decorated with thousands of colorful hydrangeas, and landscapes are constantly changing to serve photography needs. “Da Lat is very competitive, coffee shops check in a lot. Having customers come back is a great blessing,” Ms. Huong said.

The shop owner added that the shop’s space with many “virtual living” corners facing Tuyen Lam Lake and the price range from 40,000 to 55,000 VND are also factors that help the shop in the alley still attract customers.

“Happiness must be accompanied by good products, then with luck we can retain tourists,” Ms. Huong said.