Quang Tran, who has been an expert server at Peck's Arcade since the Troy restaurant opened almost four years ago, is developing a restaurant of his own in the Collar City.

Quang's Vietnamese Bistro is being built in the back of the new Kim's Convenience, an Asian bodega at 88 Third St., near Congress Street and across from Dunkin'. A Jan. 15 opening is projected.

Tran tells me the 26-seat restaurant will have a focused Vietnamese menu with specialties including beef, chicken and vegan pho, and spring rolls. Tran will supervise the kitchen but says he will devote most of his attention to serving customers. He is applying for a liquor license and plans to be open for lunch and dinner Wednesday through Sunday.

Tran says he's been speculating for the three years he's lived in Troy, with varying degrees of seriousness, about opening a Vietnamese restaurant in a city that doesn't have one. "I get tired of having to drive to Albany or Clifton Park to get it," he says.

The dream suddenly became more real and immediate earlier this fall when the space at the back of Kim's Convenience became available. Jinah Kim, owner of Sunhee's Farm and Kitchen in Troy, was developing the store in partnership with the building's Burmese-born owner, who was planning to open a Burmese restaurant in the back. He chose not to pursue the project, Kim says, which left a restaurant space with much of the facilities work, including a kitchen, complete or nearly so. She offered it Tran, whom she knows from Peck's Arcade and who has impressed her with Vietnamese food he made for one of the TroyAsia Night Market pop-ups Kim organizes.

"I didn't think (my restaurant) wold be anytime soon," says Tran, who has been enjoying being a dad to a 4- and an 8-year-old, "but it's happening so fast now it seems pretty surreal."

Kim's Convenience is in a soft-opening phase this week and next, with a grand opening scheduled for Friday, Dec. 7. It sells basic groceries, Asian staples including varieties of rice, a growing roster of prepared foods from Sunhee's, and Korean and other Asian gifts.

Read more and comment on this story in Table Hopping, and continue viewing the slideshow to see other recent developments in Troy.