Wei-En Tan, Ph.D., DipWSET

Wei-En Tan, Ph.D. was born in Singapore but spent many years of her youth working in vineyards in France. With a strong appreciation of minimal intervention and respect for terroir, Wei-En is a strong proponent and advocate of the natural wine movement. In her other life, Wei-En has managed hedge funds and is an aerobatic (loops and spins!) instruction pilot. She holds commercial and instructor pilot licenses in airplanes and helicopters. She obtained her PhDs, masters and bachelor degrees in Mathematics, Economics, Political Science and Comparative/French Literature from Stanford, Cornell and Harvard Universities. After aerospace, clean energy, finance and venture leadership roles, Wei-En founded her own company in AI medical imaging with over 600 deployments worldwide. She then founded Stem Wine Bar, our sister bar, in 2020.

Trang Nguyen was born in Saigon, Vietnam, and immigrated to the USA at the age of 13. Without knowing any English when she arrived, Trang graduated from high school in Vancouver WA, then went to Washington State University, where her first real restaurant job was as a dishwasher. Trang has travelled the world as a flight attendant for Delta and is on track to obtaining her pilots license under Wei-En’s instruction (and wings). Trang is a prolific restauranteur and chef, and their other Vietnamese restaurant Friendship Kitchen has been featured in Forbes as well as countless other food appreciation sites. With boundless optimism and kindness, Trang espouses a philosophy of creating space that is safe and open, yet cozy and always welcoming. Most of all, Trang’s hospitality is at the core of the restaurant, and she hopes to have people learn more about her culture through…food!