Life & Work with Sarah Zheng & Quin Kim

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Zheng & Quin Kim.

Hi Sarah & Quin, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
We started back in July of 2022 when we moved back to LA from NYC. We had just picked everything up and moved across the country not knowing what to do next. Although being back in LA was comforting as it was home, we missed so much of what NYC had to offer. That’s when Quin and I (Sarah) decided to open up our pop-up cafe which will hopefully one day become a speakeasy. We decided to bring to LA a lot of the flavor profiles that NYC had into our drinks and pastries. What were known for today, our not to sweet pick me up tiramisu, was actually made on accident. We noticed that just doing drinks wasn’t sustainable for us and that we had to add something to our menu with more sustenance to keep our cafe going. Youtube university came in handy and we started baking all sorts of pastries that finally led to our first tiramisu. We hand mix, fold, and pipe all of our lady fingers— I think that’s what separates our misu from other tiramisus in stores. We also make our own vanilla mascarpone that we infused with fresh jams, lattes, and house-made milk syrups. Every flavor that we come up with is a nostalgic twist on our childhood incorporated into our thoughtfully crafted misus.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Definitely not a smooth road! Quin and I started as a two-person team and we were doing everything by ourselves. The baking, marketing, deliveries, pop-ups, finances, and managing was all done by us. It was only then that I realized that there were not enough hours in a day. I think that growing up in an Asian household we both developed a very competitive knack in the business industry and so we would apply to every pop-up that we could get accepted into with little to no discretion. But we would only have one car to attend the pop-ups that would occur on the same day, so we d move our schedules around in a way that we d make it to both. When we started facing three pop-ups in a day — that’s when we realized we really needed help. The biggest struggle as of right now is getting the right amount of help so that we can focus on improving and growing our small business. Shameless plug— we are hiring! 🙂

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Bluey & Co. is best known for our nostalgic flavored drinks and tiramisu. But our Asian-inspired tiramisu definitely sets us apart from others because we find ways to incorporate flavors like yuzu, Korean coffee, Korean banana milk, injeolmi (nutty), pandan, ube, honey passionfruit, and matcha red bean. Additionally, we execute the flavors in a way in which your taste buds aren’t overwhelmed by the sweetness but more so by flavors that spark nostalgia. We’re the most proud when we see the reactions of our supporters and their enjoyment in the misu. It makes everything feel worth it and gives us the most sense of gratification.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
The qualities that we feel are most important to our success is staying humble, motivated, persistent, and grateful. It’s always important for us to remember where we started and being grateful despite the hardships of how far we’ve come. Our family members have supported us continuously throughout our journey and so have our employees. We would not be where we are without them. Our motivation to give back not only to our family but also our employees and the community inspires us to be persistent in our journey. We’ve thought about giving up so many times during our sleepless nights, but the results at the end of the day of our happy customers give us the validation that we need. Persistence keeps our heads up and humility reminds us of how we got here. We need both to succeed because greed only gets any business so far.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://blueyncocafe.company.site/
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/blueynco_cafe