Local pair win lottery prize

It’s been a very fortunate year for Charlie Trinh.

Just months after the Charlie Wong restaurant owner was able to bring nine more family members from Vietnam to Kalispell to help open a second restaurant, he won the lottery.

Trinh and his brother-in-law, Thuan Huynh, who works with Trinh in the family restaurants, this week claimed their $40,456 Powerball win in the Montana Lottery. They purchased their ticket at Super 1 Foods in downtown Kalispell.

The men said they will put most of their prize into the two restaurants and whatever is left will go to their families.

Trinh opened Charlie Wong 16 years ago and spent 12 years scrimping and saving to send money back to family members in his native Vietnam. With help from the additional family members who arrived earlier this year, he opened Charlie Wong Saigon Garden in south Kalispell.