Today we’d like to introduce you to Monica Lee.
Hi Monica, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My uncle was a pharmacist living in Los Angeles and he would tell me and my family members (who were living in Korea at the time) about America. He gave me advice and said that working as a nurse would be a good opportunity in the U.S. That became my goal and in my undergrad, I studied nursing. After living in Seoul for 24 years without ever having the experience of traveling outside Korea, I made it to Los Angeles in 1977 with big hopes. I was able to secure a job as a nurse for a couple of years before I got married. Then my husband and I opened a small market and I ended up working there full time while I was pregnant with my second daughter. The job ended up being too dangerous and after being held up a few times, we decided it was time to move on. As we were figuring out our next step, I was reminded by people around me that my cooking was good and that I ought to open up a restaurant. I always had a passion for food and cooking ever since I was young. I remember when I was a little girl, I would follow my grandmother around in the kitchen and watched her every move. She was the best cook in our family and I loved to see how food brought all my family members together.
As I carefully thought about what kind of restaurant to open, I knew that I wanted to specialize in one dish, but I wasn’t sure exactly what that was at first. I started talking to people and thinking about it, and then I decided on the dish, soon tofu. “Soon tofu” means soft tofu in Korean and it is a soup that is traditionally cooked in a clay pot with beef, clams or other proteins and soft tofu. Usually, soon tofu is on the menu at Korean restaurants as one of many dishes they serve and most of the time, it is only one kind. My take on this was to have different ingredients in the soon tofu and allowing customers to choose their spice level. I also chose tofu because it has such great health benefits. So with that, Beverly Soon Tofu was born in 1986 on Beverly Blvd and St. Andrews in Los Angeles. For the first couple of years, I made the tofu that we used for the soon tofu myself and when the business grew, we shared the recipe and outsourced to a local tofu maker. We opened our second location on Olympic Blvd. and New Hampshire in Koreatown Los Angeles in 1988.
As the years passed, I started to add different kinds of soon tofu and other dishes like LA galbi – the marinated short ribs, bulgogi – the thinly sliced ribeye, and bibimbap – mixed rice with meat and vegetables. I wanted to introduce Korean food and culture to people who had never had it or experienced it. Seeing people enjoy my food makes me happy and inspired and this is my motivation. We were open for 34 years and had to close due to the COVID pandemic in September 2020. It was bittersweet for me. I had known some of my customers for the entire 34 years. Some of my customers had been coming to the restaurant when they were children and through the years, I was able to meet their children. That is what I miss most – my customers. Today, I am home, taking care of my 90 years old mother. In a way, I am running a one-person restaurant, serving three meals a day with limited ingredients due to reduced trips to the market because of COVID, with the pickiest eater as my customer (aka my mom). I am also working on a cookbook proposal so I hope that one day I’ll be able to share my recipes.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Is anything ever a smooth road? I was challenged a lot over the 34 years and struggled like many entrepreneurs do. That made me work harder and think outside the box. I was a Korean woman in the 1980s running her own business with few resources. I did the best I could and always focused on having the customer experience be the best it could be. I was lucky that people enjoyed my food and that they kept coming back and bringing new people with them.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Beverly Soon Tofu Restaurant?
Beverly Soon Tofu was the first restaurant in Los Angeles to specialize in soon tofu. Customers could customize their soon tofu to their liking which was not even done in Korea. We pride ourselves in the quality of our food and have always wanted to make customers happy with their experience at the restaurant. People recognized there was no other soon tofu like the one at Beverly Soon Tofu and we are the original soon tofu in LA. We hope that one day we may be able to reopen, given the right circumstances.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I am not experienced in using much technology so I don’t even know what an app, podcast, or blog is, but I am learning! I just learned how to use a computer for the first time during the pandemic so I could Zoom with my daughters. But, for me, a resource that helps me do my best in life is my Koreatown community and especially the Koreatown restaurants. We have always been a strong and tight-knit group that supports and advises each other in times of success and need. It is so amazing to be able to lean on and work together with other restaurant owners. I can call up my friend and tell her about the sales at certain vendors or share best practices or run new ideas off each other. It is very important to have a support system of people in your life.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://www.beverlysoontofu.com/
- Instagram: @beverlysoontofu_la
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/beverly-soon-tofu-restaurant-los-angeles?osq=beverly+soon+tofu
Image Credits:
Amanda Delgado Jenny Kim
