Amelia Tran

Chef & Owner, Maison Linh

Amelia left a stable government job to open a 28-seat Vietnamese-French restaurant on a side street in Chinatown. She'll tell you exactly what it costs to run a restaurant in this city — the margins, the burnout, the nights she almost quit — and why she'd still do it all again.

Everyone sees the full dining room. Nobody sees the 4 a.m. spreadsheet.