Zalat Pizza’s Founder & CEO, Khanh Nguyen, came to the United States as a refugee in 1975 after the fall of Vietnam. After finding his home in Houston and graduating from Klein Forest High School and University of Houston, Nguyen became a corporate attorney-turned-serial-entrepreneur. His first restaurant in Dallas, DaLat, pays homage to his roots with an American twist on traditional Vietnamese comfort food. After locals quickly adopted DaLat as a favorite Asian comfort food staple, Nguyen tried his hand at handmade, top-quality, New York style pizzas and opened the first Zalat Pizza next door. The concept was immediately embraced by both customers and critics and quickly grew to 29 locations across Dallas, Houston, and now Austin. The chain was named Top 100 Restaurants by the Dallas Observer, Top 40/40 Concepts by QSR magazine, and chosen for the prestigious Nation’s Restaurant News’ Hot Concepts Award for 2021, awarded to growth stage restaurant brands predicted to “become household names” in the future.
