PRESS: Kingston Wire “Life In Kingston- Philippe Trinh”
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KINGSTONWIRE: Life in Kingston? Philippe Trinh
Opinion By Morgan Y. Evans
For this edition of "Life in Kingston?" we talk to entrepreneur, foodie and all-around inspiration Philippe Trinh. There aren’t many people I know who are as fun or amusing to have a conversation with over a drink (when I still drank) or to trade life stories with. I caught up with Trinh about being a local businessperson, adapting to change and much more.
Morgan Y. Evans: Hey there! It’s really cool to do this with you, as you're one of the people I associate with the most positive side of this city. It’s great to meet someone who is genuinely interesting and kind-hearted, but also a troublemaker (Laughs)! Have you always been a bad boy and a nice guy combo or was it a tug of war ever?
Philippe Trinh: (Laughs) You know me pretty well. I'm actually an introvert by nature, but there's also this other side of me that wants to go out and have a good time. When that kicks in, I actually love meeting new people and I’ll strike up conversations with complete strangers. ... I do love a good crazy nightlife moment where I can throw on a kilt and grab a drink Uptown. On the opposite side of the spectrum, I also love spending time outdoors, hiking with my partner and rescue pups, cooking, gardening, and working on my Whiskey and Booch blog.
MYE: How long have you lived in Kingston, and what is your earliest memory here? Were you born here?
PT: It's been about 10 years since my partner, Julian Lesser, and I bought our Kingston home. I met Julian 16 years ago in New York City, where we both lived and worked at the time. I was a fashion designer, and he was an artist who was just getting into digital marketing. We found our common ground in our love for the outdoors, nature, and the reprieves from our New York City hustle. To counter that frenzied city energy, we started taking day trips upstate and spending weekends in the Hudson Valley, and that’s how I discovered Kingston.
While we were taking little trips upstate, Julian and I were launching a magazine together about our borough, Queens, so people would know about the art and nightlife scene there. We wanted to help people figure out where to go and what was going on in the neighborhood, because until we did so, nothing like that even existed. After a couple of years, we sold that to a big publisher and we decided to take that money and invest it in a home together.
Julian had a big network of friends in the Hudson Valley because he went to school at SUNY New Paltz, and I loved it there, so it made perfect sense to find something in the area. And we always owe a big thanks to John McKinney, one of Julian’s closest friends, because we stayed with him for countless weekends while we were searching for our dream home. We settled on a boarded-up Victorian home in Kingston literally a block away from John’s that was vacant for years but had a stunning structure. We put so much love and work into it, and 10 years later we’re still making our home in a place that’s always felt right to us.
MYE: How long were you involved in fashion design? I remember one time at your house I thought, "He really has good taste in a lot of suits." What was your favorite aspect of that line of work?
PT: I have been a men's fashion designer since 2005. My first job was an internship at R. Scott French, which led me to Phillip Lim, Adam Lippes, Perry Ellis, Joseph Abboud ... When I met you a few years back, I was working for Men's Wearhouse and Joseph A. Bank, so I used to design a lot of sport coats, and also a lot of casual wear.
My fondest memories of design are the times when I was working on collections for fashion shows. Seeing my designs walk down a runway was just so exhilarating. It also brings me so much joy to see people here in the Hudson Valley walking around in designs that I've created. They have no idea that they’re walking past the guy that made that, and I just smile.
Unfortunately, I was laid off last year from my position in the fashion business, so I've been trying to fill my life with new passions like food and spreading awareness of causes or businesses that are important to me.
MYE: You're someone who is very active about supporting places around here and spreading awareness about issues you want others to be conscious of. What are some of your favorite places to frequent which have managed to last through the past difficult year for many?
PT: Julian and I have had a few small businesses in our past, so I really felt the need to support other small businesses in the area. In April of last year, my Instagram became an outlet for me to promote beautiful plated foods from local restaurants that were hit the hardest. I wanted to do that so it would entice others to also support these phenomenal businesses that help make this city so special. It featured food and drink places that I always ordered pick-up from like Ruby Mae's, Pakt, Boitson's, Stockade Tavern, Lunchbox, Pie for the People, Lola's, Opa, Buns Burgers, The Anchor.
To this day I still order from all of those places, but you can usually spot me grabbing a drink at Boitson’s or Stockade Tavern on the weekends.
MYE: Your Vietnamese culinary heritage has become more at the forefront of your life. Can you talk about how you became more involved in cooking vegetarian, pescatarian or vegan versions of traditional dishes? That is so cool.
PT: I was a vegetarian/pescatarian for about 12 years, until recently. Having been a vegetarian for that long, Vietnamese food wasn’t really a part of my life since there weren't that many vegetarian Vietnamese dishes that I knew of. Then the pandemic happened, and I was really worried for my parents, who are 70 and 82 now.
With time off from fashion, I had a lot of time for self-reflection, and it hit me that if something were to happen to my parents, all their recipes — and therefore my childhood memories along with them — would be next to impossible to recreate.
So I decided that I wanted to recreate all my childhood favorites. And I got more connected to my Vietnamese heritage and culture, something that had been missing from my life for so long. I remember cooking one of the first dishes for Instagram: My family recipe for Pho Ga (also known as chicken pho). I sat down and had my first spoon of pho. The second the first spoonful hit my tongue, all the aromatics tickled my nose and I had instant childhood flashbacks. I knew right then that what I was doing was much greater than just making food.
My ultimate goal ... is to share my family recipes for all the foods that I grew up loving, in pure form. I knew that in order to turn these dishes into vegetarian, pescatarian or vegan options, I would need to be able to nail down the recipes authentically. Only then could I later try to adapt them to plant-based, eventually returning to my vegetarian diet.
Stay tuned for part two of Whiskey and Booch — and maybe a cookbook in the future!
MYE: Of course, we also need to talk kombucha! How did you become fascinated with booch and end up starting your own company — Seek North — and what can you share with people who have never heard of it? I can confirm it is delicious!
PT: I've always had a soft spot for sour and fermented foods. The first year we bought our home, we installed numerous garden beds so that I could harvest my own vegetables to pickle and preserve my harvests. Back in 2014, I took the Master Food Preserver workshop at Cornell Cooperative Extension so I could learn more about food safety and how to better preserve and ferment foods. A couple years after that, my partner Julian got neurological Lyme disease. His doctor put him on a 28-day antibiotic via a PICC line to his heart.
The antibiotic treatments were absolutely tearing up his stomach, since it essentially strips away all bacteria — even the good ones — from your gut. I was making lots of kimchi and fermented vegetables, but there's only so much of that he could actually eat.
I was also experimenting with kombucha, but it wasn't at a point where he could drink it — it was very sour and more of a kombucha elixir at the time. So I kept trying to make a kombucha that he could stomach and drink every day, even though he hated kombucha. And that's how Seek North was born — kombucha made to appeal to people that don’t like kombucha. To this day, a portion of our proceeds still goes to Global Lyme Alliance to help fight Lyme disease.
MYE: What is something uniquely special to the Hudson Valley that you love?
PT: I really love the people and all the energy here. I have met more amazing friends and neighbors here than I did living in New York City for over 15 years! Having this close sense of community, belonging and accountability has made me feel so much more complete.
Visit Seek North and Whiskey and Booch to learn more and experience Trinh's craft.