Lan D.
Yelp
If the world were perfect, every neighborhood would have a place like Singleton's Mini Mart. Located in the middle of a residential area, Singleton's is an homey family-run business that serves as a community hub.
As a mini mart, it has what you would expect - drinks, snacks, batteries and the like. But what makes it unique is that it's also a restaurant serving po-boys, burgers, Korean short ribs, chicken wings, etc... The menu is surprisingly extensive for a mini mart restaurant.
There's a single long picnic table that allows you to dine in. Everyone has to share it so it's actually a neat way to meet other diners.
On Saturdays this place serves Pho, Vietnamese noodle soup. The dish is authentic, as the owners are Vietnamese. The parents cook and the kids - four daughters and a son - serve the customers and work the register. The patriarch of the family is quite nice and is good at carrying on a conversation. The family lives right above the mini mart.
The day I was there, I saw the family interacting with a non-Vietnamese child, maybe 3 years old. When I asked whose kid it was, they explained that the kid always asked his parents to go to the mini mart so on weekends the kid's parents would drop him off at the mini mart to hang out with the owners. And the owners don't mind, they treat the kid as part of the family, feeding him, cleaning him, and teaching him.
This is a really great community business, run by a really great family.