Today we’d like to introduce you to Calvin Hang.
Calvin, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Funny that you ask – Iris is retrieving photos from Honey Belle for our five years anniversary.
Here’s a timeline of what happened these past recent years since 2015.
2013 – Iris and I start dating. Iris creates “Honey Belle” in her home kitchen, finding a sense of serenity and a creative outlet in the midst of traumatic life changes. She gifts me her natural lotion to help ease my eczema irritations.
2014 – Still inspired to expand on the vision of Honey Belle, Iris spends her lunch hours, weeknights, weekends, literally any time that she could to build Honey Belle’s foundation. I find that the only way I can get some quality time with Iris is to join her in the kitchen festivities.
2015 – After graduating from college, we spent months in the kitchen producing products for our first pop-up event while working our full-time jobs. I was a manager-in-training at Panda Express. After eight weeks of the training program, I realized this was not my ideal life path so I left Panda and worked full time on Honey Belle. Honey Belle is incorporated and we move into our first warehouse studio.
2016 – After hundreds of cold calls and emails, Honey Belle is making its first steps in entering the retail world. We start selling our handcrafted products to fashion, lifestyle, and gift boutiques.
2017 – Honey Belle makes a debut in larger retailers and partners include: Costco, Forever21, Riley Rose, Rue21, Francesca’s, and Ipsy.
2018 – We celebrate our anniversary by dining at Bestia in DTLA, where we have bone marrow for the first time. After a few years of thinking about starting a food concept, we start seriously entertaining that idea again. In November 2018, I approached my cousin Jacqueline (and her husband Jonathan- both chefs in fine dining cuisine). We conduct our first experiments of The Golden Marrow dishes right in our backyard.
2019 – The Golden Marrow has its first debut to the public. The glamorous food concept catches the media’s attention, including Los Angeles Times, Thrillest, and Food Beast. A cult following is created as bone marrow addicts flock to our pop-up stand.
2020 – Iris now leads Honey Belle while I take on Golden Marrow. Since coming back to US in March from a medical mission in India, we had to pivot and support the community with everything that has been happening. The ‘Bone Thug Heroes’ project was created where 100% of proceeds were donated to our healthcare workers, first responders, and LA Fire Department. I am now working on getting the necessary items to start shipping out bone marrow nationwide.
Early April, a conversation sparked between my buddy and I about the impacts of the pandemic to our local favorite restaurants. Since then, we put our skills and resources together to create FoodFest Live, a virtual food festival. FoodFest Live was created to support local restaurants that were impacted from the recent events. Since our conversation, we gathered a team of 14 to support with this project, pro-bono for the past four months.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Looking back at these past few years, it looks pretty easy to get here however to create something that will last for years, even decades to come, was not a smooth road. Something I’ve dealt with through these past years was and still is self-doubt. I am as human as I get and having these thoughts are normal. However, even though self-doubt comes into play multiple times, acknowledging the doubt is critical in moving forward personally and in business.
– Building a business with my significant other.
– Growing multiple businesses with no prior knowledge of running a business.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Golden Marrow – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Golden Marrow was founded in 2018 by two couples who are passionate about food, giving back, and creating unforgettable experiences. In 2018, Iris and I fell in love with roasted bone marrow, traveling to various cities and states in search of the perfect marrow. This dish easily became one of my favorites! After a foodie trip to Portland- we came back to California with an intention: “This is it! We definitely need to create more flavors.” So I approached my cousin Jackie and her husband Jonathan, who are both amazing chefs at award-winning restaurants in LA and have over 20 years of combined experience in fine dining cuisine.
I am the CEO of Golden Marrow and what I love about creating businesses is that each business starts from an idea and if that idea sits long enough, it becomes a conversation. And from the conversations had, the idea comes to fruition. Honey Belle, Golden Marrow, and FoodFest Live were all created from an idea.
I am most proud of take on 2020 for how its been thus far. Since events were canceled, we as a company, had to innovate and pivot with the times. We did that by changing our business model to become a fully-fledged e-commerce business. As an events based company, we had no intention of becoming an online business so soon, however we are proud and glad that we are. We are still creating the foundation of what Golden Marrow is and what it can be in the future.
Golden Marrow is such a unique concept. We took a classic dish and opened a new realm for how bone marrow can be cooked and enjoyed. With our team dynamic of having experienced chefs and business savvy individuals, what sets us apart from others is our vision in creating an unforgettable experience through food, community and extraordinary smiles.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
A few changes. We will start shipping our chef-inspired bone marrow across the US. We are also looking to add a few other variations of bone marrow inspired products. That’s all I can share for now.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.goldenmarrow.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/golden.marrow
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegoldenmarrow/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-golden-marrow-arcadia-5
Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Popular
-
What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
-
What fear has held you back the most in your life?
-
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
-
Life, Lessons, & Legacies
-
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
-
Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
