A few Fridays back, I put in what I believed would be my last order for my coworkers and myself at Le’s Sandwiches and Cafe. Back in December, a sign on the door in Asian Corner Mall declared that the owner was putting the business up for sale — and a collective sense of mourning settled over the city’s banh mi enthusiasts.

For years, I have been putting in quarterly orders for my workplace, which sometimes approached the 60 or 70 sandwich mark. I would pick them up after a 30 minute drive from work, and they would always be ready, no matter the size of the order, by the time I got there.

The highlight of each visit was the opportunity to chat up the owners, Minh Nguyen and his wife Le Thi Le, if they weren’t too busy. For years, I’m embarrassed to admit, I kept calling Mr. Nguyen “Mr. Le,” a mistake he never corrected as not to embarrass me, or so I like to think. I only discovered my oafish error when I heard other customers calling him by his proper name.

On my most recent visit, I opened the glass door to the fluorescent-soaked restaurant and said good morning to Mr. Nguyen, who gave a cheery good morning right back. He seemed to be in an especially good mood for someone about to sell off their precious life’s work. I came to find out that Mr. Nguyen was smiling because he had good news to share.

“We are moving to a new location later this year.” he confidently told me as he started to tally up my order. I think he could tell I was confused. “If you walk out front of here and look across the parking lot, you see a blue building. We move there.”

I knew the building he was talking about. The sign on the front says something about a nightclub that, had it ever been in business, long since closed its doors. It isn’t far from East Sugar Creek Road behind Compare Foods. As I took in this news, I asked about his retirement. Was it off? On hold? “No, we’re still retiring,” he responded. “My son has decided to take it over.”

When the news first broke that the restaurant was up for sale, it was reported by the Observer that their son, Tuan Nguyen, had decided against taking over the family business on account of his young children and the long hours required to keep a restaurant running.

Mr. Nguyen wouldn’t tell me what had changed his son’s mind, but I like to think that he had a change of heart after seeing how much Le’s meant to so many people in Charlotte. According to Mr. Nguyen, his son is looking at a November or December 2022 opening. With their current lease ending in July, that means there will be a gap of several months without the best banh mi in the city, a scary thought vanquished by the fact that after a brief pause, this culinary stalwart will get a second chance to wow us all over again.

I loaded up a shopping cart with my haul of sandwiches, cans of Thai tea, and sunflower cookies, and made my way to the heavily-potholed parking lot. I couldn’t help but smile as I went, knowing that Mr. Nguyen and his wife will finally get to rest after a lifetime of hard work — and that Charlotte will get to enjoy their sandwiches for many years to come.

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