The Lee family's story of how a modest catering truck became a national franchise is inspiration to all Vietnamese Americans.

The Le family left Viet Nam and immigrated to San Jose in 1980. While studying English as a second language, Chieu, the eldest son of the family often purchased items from a catering truck before and after class and eventually worked as a helper on a catering truck. In 1981, Chieu bought their first catering truck. Then in 1982, with younger brother Henry Le established Lee Bros. Foodservices, Inc. The family chose the name "Lee Bros." instead of "Le Bros." because it would be more easily understood in America.

From these modest beginnings, they created the largest industrial catering company in Northern California, serving more than 500 independently owned and operated catering trucks.

In 1983, Chieu's parents, Ba Van Le and Hanh Nguyen, started to serve Vietnamese type sandwiches on the catering truck to the community. At that time, the truck was parked on a street corner in the Downtown area, then into their first store on 6th and Santa Clara Streets. With the increasing demands, they outgrew the modest store, they relocated to King Road in San Jose.

In 2001, Chieu, his late eldest son, Minh Le, along with Chieu's in-laws, the Quach family, created a new concept - a mixture of bright, energetic restaurant sandwich environment, entertainment café and Asian-American cuisine. In addition to the traditional Vietnamese "banh mi" sandwiches, there are traditional American sandwiches such as ham and cheese served on baguettes or croissants.

Lee's attracts a diverse crowd from traditional Vietnamese-Americans to a younger crowd that is wowed by computer monitors suspended from the ceiling flashing special deals, full-color bilingual menu signs and chances to win free meals based on the number given to customers for their order.

The new Lee's Sandwiches concept has proved to be so successful that Lee's Sandwiches has become one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in the West. By 2007, there are 35 Lee's Sandwiches in operation and development in California, Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma. The company projects that it will add another dozen stores in 2008, which will include the states of Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, and will double the numbers every subsequent years.

Future plans for Lee's Sandwiches include Lee's Sandwiches International, Inc. which is focused on being one of the leading franchises throughout the world. Through franchising, our success can be shared with individuals who wish to own a business. Each franchisee is not just considered a business partner, but as an addition to our family as well. Currently, there are seven franchisees in four states: California, Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma.

Lee's Sandwiches supports VANG because of similarities of our Vision. Not only being proud of being Vietnamese-born Americans, or American-born Vietnamese, but Asian Americans, as a whole, can celebrate their history and success through VANG. In addition to honoring our Asian heritage, promoting education, leadership, and volunteerism is just as important. We hope that our support for many student and community organizations, and VANG, can help strengthen our communities.