Today we’d like to introduce you to Chef Doomie.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Back in the end of 2008, I had a chance to run what was basically a pop-up restaurant inside one of the nightclubs I worked at in Chinatown. It was there that Doomie’s concept of veganized home cookin’ and junk food was born. I had long been slinging tacos at nightclubs throughout the city and always had a vegan option for my friends. After 3 months in the Chinatown space, a search began for a proper restaurant home. In 2010 luck landed me in Hollywood and things started to take shape with a lot of help from a crazy cast of characters and some modest funding from the pocketbook of an angel. The next several years seesawed between hardship and accomplishment, growth and loss, successes and failures. In 2015 I was lucky enough to marry my wonderful wife who really helped take the businesses to the next level. We currently have three concepts running: the original Doomie’s, NextMex a vegan taqueria, and Hot Vegan Chicks a vegan Hot Chicken ghost kitchen.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s never been a smooth road, and it still isn’t. The struggle in short is money. We didn’t start with big money, so we are always struggling to keep up with the basics. When you start a business with a lot of capital, you have the ability to do things the right way and not have to cut corners. When you bootstrap together a shoestring budget, you find ways to make things happen and to survive, but it’s never easy. It’s like that story of the poor guy who can only buy cheap shoes, but they don’t last, so he’s buying another pair every six months. Versus the rich guy who buys shoes that cost 3x as much, but they last for years. That’s our story over and over again. Do we get a used fridge for $1000 with no warranty or buy a new fridge for $5000 with a 5-year warranty? If you only have $1000 in the bank, the choice is made for you. And then in six months, you’re spending $500 on repairs. The upside is we know how to repair a lot of things now!
We’ve been impressed with Doomie’s, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We’re Doomie’s (and NextMex). We are LA’s original vegan junk food spot (and taqueria). For over a decade, we have been making the most realistic vegan versions of the food folks remember fondly, and for their friends who are dragged with them to a ‘vegan’ restaurant to enjoy just as much. If you can imagine the vegan food scene over a decade ago, it would explain why we still make our own cheese. There just weren’t options then and so we are accustomed to making things the hard way to have them come out the best. Our current best-seller is our 2-piece fried chicken meal. There is nothing else like it anywhere else because we make each leg and each breast piece by hand. If you ever watched a very vegan Bellamy Young eating fried chicken on Scandal and wondered how it’s because those were all made by us. The iconic meat stew in Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight was also a Doomie’s creation. Again, it just goes back to trying to make the most authentic non-vegan food experience vegan. Other things that set us apart – we have an in-house pastry chef (Das Baker of industrial powerhouse Das Bunker) – and we’re open 24hrs on the weekends for the late-night vegan crowd!
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I was a risk taker; my wife was not. I dropped our life savings into another restaurant location in Culver City. We lost our life savings in that fiasco. I’m not allowed to be a risk taker anymore.
Pricing:
- 2-piece fried chicken meal with 2 sides: $16.75
- Scratch-made desserts starting at $4
Contact Info:
- Website: www.doomies.com
- Instagram: @doomies @doomiesnextmex
- Facebook: facebook.com/doomieshomecookin facebook.com/doomiesnextmex
- Twitter: @doomies @doomiesnextmex
Image Credits
Doomie’s
