Last year, Thang Ngoc Le was doing well with his Vietnamese street food business in Ballarat, but was looking for a better place to raise his young family.
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It just so happened a friend of Mr Le's was closing down her Nhill shop at the time.
After eight months of at times difficult renovations, he has opened his Mr Le store in town on Friday, offering pastries, pork rolls and noodle soup to the town.
"I'm excited but nervous," Mr Le said ahead of opening.
"My kids have been sick so I wanted to get them out to the country to live. My youngest two have autism, so we wanted to move further out so there is more fresh air for them."
"(We chose Nhill) because the opportunity was that friends of mine there, Lisa and Andrew of Nhill Takeaway, were closing down. She offered the place and we saw the area and how nice the people were, so we took the opportunity."
Mr Le has moved to town with his partner Lieu Tran and children Andrew, 13, Jennifer, 11, and Benjamin, aged four.
He took ownership of the Nelson Street building in October, after selling his Ballarat store back in June. He has also sold the Mr Le store South Melbourne which he set up after first moving to the city from south Vietnam in 2008.
"It was a struggle at the beginning because Nhill was a long way away for electricians, builders and plumbers to travel, but finally we've gotten there because we hired local (tradespeople) to do the renovations," he said.
Mr Le said his business would employ 12 Nhill residents across a wide age range.
"We are hoping to attract a lot of truck drivers, but mainly we will be focusing on locals: they have sold me supplies for the time I have not been in Nhill, and now we are serving them so they are all really happy," he said.
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