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Bon Van Pham believed you could live with complete kindness to all living things and lose nothing. Not flavour, not satisfaction, not joy. He spent his whole life proving he was right — and the food he cooked was the evidence.
He started in Preston in 1996, opening La Panella Bakery — one of Melbourne's earliest plant-based food businesses, long before any of this had a trend attached to it. He wasn't following a movement. He was starting one.
— Henry, William & James, on their father Bon Van Pham
By Bon carries his name because it carries his values. Every meal we make is an attempt to honour what he built — and to take it further than he ever got the chance to.
1996 The Beginning
Bon Van Pham opens La Panella Bakery on High Street, Preston — one of Melbourne's earliest plant-based food businesses. With no roadmap and no trend to follow, he builds it from scratch on the simple belief that food made with kindness can be extraordinary. The local community falls in love with it.
After La Panella, Next Chapter
After years running La Panella, Bon sells the bakery to his brother-in-law and sets his sights on something bigger — a full vegan restaurant. He'd always believed that a plant-based dining experience, done properly, could change the way people thought about food. Now he was going to prove it.
2013 The Restaurant
Bon opens Loving Hut Northcote — his dream realised. A plant-based restaurant in the heart of Northcote, serving the same food he'd been perfecting for decades. The community response is immediate and warm. Night after night, the restaurant fills with people discovering that vegan food can be deeply, genuinely satisfying.
2016 In Memoriam
Bon Van Pham passes away in 2016 after a battle with leukaemia. He leaves behind a restaurant, a legacy, and three sons who had grown up watching him prove every single day that a life of kindness never has to mean a life of compromise.
2019 In His Honour
William and James take the reins of the restaurant and rename it Brother Bon — in honour of their father. The name is a tribute and a statement: this place exists because of him, and everything it serves is a continuation of what he started. Brother Bon quickly becomes one of Melbourne's most beloved plant-based dining destinations.
2025 The Latest Chapter
Henry comes back to the family business and together the three brothers launch By Bon — taking the same recipes that have been feeding Northcote for years and making them available to everyone across Australia. Same kitchen, same values, same refusal to compromise on flavour. Dad's mission, finally going beyond a postcode.
"By Bon is us carrying on what he started. We think he'd be pretty happy about it."— Henry, William & James
Co-Founder · The Kitchen
William has been the backbone of the Northcote kitchen since Dad passed. He and James renamed the restaurant Brother Bon in 2019 and have kept it running with the same care and intention Bon brought to everything he cooked. Every By Bon product starts with William — the recipes, the standards, and the refusal to let anything leave the kitchen that isn't exactly right.
Co-Founder · The Builder
Henry's the one who came back. While his brothers have kept Dad's restaurant alive in Northcote all these years, Henry returned in 2025 with a clear purpose — to build By Bon from the ground up. He runs the business, opens the doors, and does the thinking about where this brand goes next. Dad spent his life proving the food was extraordinary. Henry's job is to make sure the rest of Australia finds out.
Co-Founder · The Storyteller
James has been by William's side in Northcote since the beginning, and now looks after everything By Bon shows the world — the brand, the community, and the way the story gets told. He believes the most powerful thing they can do is be honest about where the food comes from and who made it. Dad's story deserves to be heard. James makes sure it is.
84% of vegans eventually return to eating meat. Usually because the food let them down — not their values. We started By Bon because we knew it didn't have to be that way. Dad proved it every night at the dinner table for decades.
Our job is simple: make plant-based food so delicious that staying vegan never feels like a sacrifice. If we do that well enough, the rest takes care of itself.
