Haluthai Brzys, founder and chief dumpling officer of Ypsilanti restaurant Basil Babe, started delivering dumplings to her close friends and family during the coronavirus pandemic. Once orders began piling in, she decided it was time to expand and open a business in the Ypsilanti community. Brzys graduated from Eastern Michigan University and began working in advertising, but always had a passion for cooking. Her family helped and supported her as she opened Basil Babe, a Thai restaurant on Cross Street just across from EMU’s campus.
Q: Where did you get the idea of opening your own restaurant?
A: During the pandemic, I was living in Detroit and working from home for an advertising agency. I've always loved to cook, and food was a love language in my family, so it's what I gravitated toward during such a dark and scary time. I'm half Thai and half Lao, and dumplings are not common in Thai or Lao culture.
So, I started to learn how to make dumplings. I started with a simple pork and ginger one, but then I had the idea for more of like a Thai flavor dumpling, which is spicy pork basil. All those flavors are in Pad Pao. That’s my mom and I's favorite dish to eat together, and that's the OG on our menu right now. I did a little Thai dumpling, and then me and my mom would just make dumplings together.
Fast forward a little bit — people were asking me [about dumplings] on Instagram or Facebook. It started with one person [saying], "Hey, can I order dumplings?", and I was just like, maybe other people want to, too. So, I opened a little order sheet in my DMs, and the first round of people ... was like 35 different people that I came to deliver dumplings to. It was just like me and my mom making a bunch of dumplings, stuffing my RAV4 with coolers trying to keep them frozen. It was such a good way to drop off homemade food for my friends and family and see them from a safe distance because we would drop them off at the front and wave by the sidewalk. It was really cute and just a nice way to connect with people after being away from each other for so long.
Q: How did you come up with the name Basil Babe?
A: Once I gained a following, people were starting to ask, what do we call you? The first thing was Basil Babe. My mom and I’s favorite dish is spicy basil stir fry, so I just put it in. People think we're an Italian restaurant sometimes because of that, but there's more than one type of basil.
Q: How did you create a business plan and turn your idea into reality?
A: While we were making dumpling deliveries, we kept gaining more following. So, people had to come to us to pick up from my parents’ house in Ypsilanti or my apartment in Detroit, and we called that Dumpling Delivery.
Then, after that, local restaurants and businesses reached out to us to do pop-ups, which is like, come to our establishment, set up shop, cook and we don’t charge you anything. So we started doing pop-ups, and that's just pretty much me, my mom and a few friends setting up shop with a 10-by-10 tent, two portable wok stations, a big pot of oil, two folding tables and a ticket rail. That setup kind of set us up for success in the future because we collaborated with so many people. I decided to quit my job, which was super scary, because my dream was just to work in advertising and I was living the dream, but I was incredibly miserable being so away from people and not getting to go to the office. I just knew I loved cooking, and I love family, and I just had so much more fun, and it was just more fulfilling to do Basil Babe. So, I just quit, and I didn't have anything lined up, I just wanted to see what I could do.
So, fast forward to 2021. My middle school bestie reached out and pretty much said, "Hey, my uncle owns the Tower Inn building and he's looking for a new tenant; would you be interested?" I met up with him, and our goals aligned perfectly, and it was a match made in heaven. Tower Inn was like a family restaurant run by his family, and he loved the idea of Basil Babe being a family restaurant, too. So, we finally had to place for Basil Babe.
Q: What was your college career like here at Eastern Michigan University?
A: My last two years of schooling were at EMU, so I only spent two years there, but they were the fondest years of my life. I was a Communications major and a Marketing minor. I was part of a lot of groups. I was part of American Marketing Association, Student Advertising Association, Southeast Asian Student Association — I think it's Alliance now. I was on the board of all these. I was very involved in that way, and I was born and raised in Ypsilanti too, so the whole town was my stomping grounds.
Q: How important was it to you to have Basil Babe so close to EMU’s campus?
A: When I was approached with even the idea of moving into the Tower Inn building, I just knew that it was the one, being a few steps from EMU’s campus, and I don't see Basil Babe being anywhere else. We were looking at other buildings and it just wasn't clicking. With Tower Inn’s building, it had to be Basil Babe.
I definitely love being an Eagle. Being steps away from campus is comforting yet bittersweet, if that makes sense. I used to cross the road and try to get a table at Tower Inn which, back in the day, was always busy and bumping. So many people coming together, and in the exact same back room where I was trying to get a free table, seven years later, my 1-year-old is trying to take his first steps! Students come in with big backpacks and pure exhaustion, and then they eat, feel revived and have energy to go to their next class. Maybe they'll get together with their friends and fill their bellies up before they hit the town. I love being that new Tower Inn for this new group of students, and sometimes I'll ask one of my managers, who I met while we were undergrads at Eastern, "Should we go back to school?"
I miss it, but I love being able to see and witness student life!
Q: How often do you see students from EMU or U of M, and do you have any discounts for students?
A: We cater to U of M students and clubs and even the hospital all the time, which is nice. We see students every day, especially during lunchtime, so we're not strangers to students! I have been slacking on the discounts because I was raising a baby last year, but we’re working on getting a discount system for students.
Q: How important has family been to you in the process of creating and opening Basil Babe?
A: The absolute world — I just feel so lucky to have my mom and my husband! Back then, when we got the building, he was my boyfriend, so he completely believed in Basil Babe the whole entire time, and he quit his job to help me. So having the support from them and my dad — he's in the background cheering me on — I don’t think I could do any of this without support. I had my aunts come in and be on the payroll and cook in the back. They make Basil Babe what we are, because love is within the walls.
Q: What advice would you give to college students who will soon be graduating and off into the real world?
A: During the very last semester of undergrad, I told myself, "Say yes to every opportunity that approaches me,” and that led me to so many cool experiences and meeting so many different people. My biggest thing is building relationships, making friends with people, genuinely listening to people and remembering things. Keep these people in your pocket because they can lead you to an opportunity that you would never believe you could be in. My middle school bestie, she led me to this beautiful opportunity. It's building relationships, maintaining relationships and staying connected with people.
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In the future, Brzys said she hopes to expand Basil Babe to a second location and one day start selling dumplings in grocery stores. They may decide to continue to stay at their current location or move to another, but she said they are open to all opportunities.
