Café Lam was opened by Nguyen Van Lam in 1956. Over the years, the walls of the café have been covered with gouache paintings, watercolours and oils donated by artists as payment for the many hours they spent here drinking and talking. Most of these paintings are realistic in style, portraying the history of Hanoi and Vietnamese art, which was influenced by Western painting taught at the time at the Indochina Fine Arts School.