A year after we first spoke with Maison Sun founder Carlos Gasperi, Downtown Brooklyn’s intimate dining destination has entered a new chapter. What began as a French-Asian tasting concept has evolved into something even more focused and personal: a Vietnamese fine dining experience deeply rooted in Brooklyn, shaped by thoughtful sourcing, and guided by a new culinary partnership.
For Maison Sun, evolution has never meant abandoning identity -the restaurant maintains the quiet elegance that defined it from the beginning. Sterling silver eggs remain carefully placed throughout the room, the Molteni stove anchors the open kitchen, and the jewel-box atmosphere continues to feel worlds away from the bustle outside. But the menu—and the philosophy behind it—has transformed.
That transformation began when Executive Chef Nancy Nguyen joined the team. Originally from southern Vietnam, Nguyen trained at Manhattan’s acclaimed Eleven Madison Park before finding her way to Downtown Brooklyn. Her arrival marked a turning point for the restaurant.
Executive Chef Nancy Nguyen
Previously, Maison Sun operated with a rotating guest chef model, something Carlos describes as exciting but ultimately difficult to sustain. “I was really looking for more stability,” he explains. When Nguyen proposed building a Vietnamese menu, it immediately clicked.
For Carlos, Vietnamese cuisine offered a way to unify the French and Asian influences Maison Sun had always explored. “Vietnamese food is innately French Asian,” he says. “The fusion concept, which I’ve always been uncomfortable with, I could finally abandon.”
That distinction matters deeply to him. Rather than combining cuisines for novelty, Maison Sun’s current menu approaches Vietnamese cooking through history, technique, and place. Nguyen’s dishes honor Vietnamese culinary traditions while Carlos focuses on sourcing ingredients that make the restaurant feel unmistakably New York—and specifically Brooklyn. Herbs, flowers, mushrooms, seafood, wood, and dairy are sourced with extraordinary attention to detail.
Carlos works closely with Brooklyn-based indoor vertical farm Farm.One, sourcing edible flowers and herbs that have become central to the restaurant’s identity. “The herbs are the most important thing we order every week,” he explains. “The quality is just leaps and bounds beyond anything else.”
A sample of Maison’s offerings. © Food Story Media LTD
On the menu, ingredients become storytelling devices. A dish featuring New Zealand hiramasa is paired with Vietnamese wood ear mushrooms, a French-style supreme sauce, and a rare purple oxalis butterfly leaf sourced from Farm.One. Another standout is the restaurant’s seafood pho, made with wild-caught Australian tiger prawns and earthy termite mushrooms imported from Vietnam—an ingredient rarely seen in fine dining settings.
Even the supporting ingredients receive the same scrutiny. Butter is sourced from small Hudson Valley producers. Pear wood used for smoking fish and duck comes from local farms. Carlos spends significant time researching regional products, believing that Vietnamese cuisine can—and should—express itself through New York’s agricultural landscape.
“To me, it’s very important that if you want to pay respect to the land you stand on, you research what it makes,” he says. “New York makes amazing bread, amazing butter, amazing wood to smoke food.”
That philosophy extends beyond ingredients into the restaurant’s broader connection with Brooklyn itself. Carlos has spent time researching the borough’s history at the Center for Brooklyn History, drawing inspiration not only from global culinary traditions, but from the history and ecology of the neighborhood surrounding Maison Sun.
Carlos Gasperi
While Maison Sun remains highly specialized and intimate, Carlos says the neighborhood has increasingly embraced the restaurant. “Most of our guests still live within a one-mile radius,” he notes. “People here are really appreciative of having something like this nearby.” Social media visibility has also helped introduce new diners to the experience.
Carlos acknowledges that operating an independent fine dining restaurant comes with challenges far beyond the kitchen. Rising costs, economic uncertainty, and global supply fluctuations all impact daily operations. Yet Maison Sun’s commitment to independence remains unchanged.
For all its precision and ambition, Maison Sun still feels remarkably personal. The restaurant’s seven seats encourage conversation between guests, chef, and owner, creating an experience that feels more like being welcomed into someone’s home than dining in a traditional restaurant.
As Maison Sun evolves, the restaurant feels less like a concept and more like a lived philosophy: Vietnamese in spirit, Brooklyn in material, and deeply personal in scale.
Visit Maison Sun at 200-3 Schermerhorn Street. Reservations are required.
