He's the man who invented Bui's famous "hangover special" - the breakfast combo that brings long lines of Penn students to the food truck on the corner of 38th and Spruce Streets those particularly painful Sunday mornings.
"One day I was sitting at home thinking, 'What can I do to satisfy [Penn students]?'" explained the proud combo-creator, who asked to be identified as Bui, Jr. "So instead of putting just the bacon [on the sandwich], I put all the meat in."
Ask Bui, Jr. for a "hangover special" today and receive a ham, sausage, egg and cheese sandwich, complemented by a 20-oz. Gatorade to revitalize electrolytes, all for six dollars.
"It's a big sandwich," Bui, Jr. said. "I know a lot of guys who get hangovers on Friday and Saturday nights and they get that all the time."
The Bui's food truck began serving the Penn community 15 years ago, when Bui, Jr.'s mother started the business.
"We've been here the longest," Bui, Jr. said with regard to his food truck neighbors.
The Bui family, originally from Vietnam, travels 30 minutes to Penn every day from their home in New Jersey. Their busiest time is the lunchtime rush, when Penn students line up en masse for egg and cheese sandwiches, hamburgers and chicken steak teriyaki.
According to Bui, Jr., the food truck's appeal is in its value.
"You'd spend 10 dollars each day on lunch somewhere else and here, you can get a sandwich and soda for four [dollars]," he said. "If you calculate that in the long run, you save a lot of money."
According to Bui, Jr., the best customers are always the upperclassmen, who have been at Penn long enough to discover the deliciously cheap secret.
In addition to the class years of the food truck's clientele, Bui, Jr. pointed to another trend: the orders placed by Penn women. "Ninety percent of the girls get egg whites," he said, noting the mixed veggie egg white, an egg white and vegetable omelet served on a roll.
Not surprisingly, a good camaraderie exists between Penn students and the people who cure their hangovers. "They come out, they're friendly, they're funny and they mess around with us," Bui, Jr. said of his customers.
"And they're loyal to the food truck."
