Today we’d like to introduce you to Kenny and Kevin Mok.
Kenny and Kevin, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Since my early days of college, I’ve always dreamed of owning my own business one day. At the time, just like any other 21 years old, I was still trying to figure out my career and what I wanted to do with my life. I attended college at Cal Poly Pomona majoring in Hospitality Management and finally graduated at the age of 24. Soon after, I found an entry-level job working at the front desk of a 5 star luxury hotel in Beverly Hills called The Montage. While working for The Montage for four years, I realized to myself that “moving up the ladder” was very difficult and I had no opportunity to grow myself professionally. At the end of 2018, while working at The Montage, I told myself If I do not quit this job now, then I will forever be working for someone and would never have the chance to chase my dreams. A month after, I finally had the courage to quit my hospitality career, but the only problem is that now I have no income to pay my bills.
The day that I quit my job at The Montage was the best decision I’ve made in my entire life. At the time, I had no income to pay my bills and I didn’t have a “Plan b” yet. Therefore, it motivated me to build my business plans quickly. Everyday I brainstormed on different business ideas, such as sugarcane juice shop, matcha ice cream shop, boba shop, etc. But, none of those ideas ever worked out because I couldn’t figure out the right recipe. Due to the continuous failure of business ideas, I started to grow frustrated with myself as my bills were stacking and my savings was shrinking.
One day, While I was just casually scrolling through Facebook, I stumbled upon a Facebook post on “Subtle Asian Traits” regarding someone that was looking for this rare & nostalgic dessert called Obanyaki/wheelcakes in the San Gabriel Valley. This Facebook post had 4,000+ comments, shares and likes. As I clicked to view and read all the comments, I realized that a lot of people are looking for this rare and nostalgic dessert. Therefore, this lit a light bulb in my head and I started to research in depth about this new business idea. I started to research the recipes on how to make it, what machine I needed to make it, etc. I’ve bought a small Obanyaki skillet pan on Amazon for $25, so I can try to make the recipe at home. After many trials and errors, my mom and dad helped me improve my recipe to perfection. Once I got my recipe to perfection, I knew that this business idea was going to be a success.
My family that consists of my mom, dad and little brother (Kenny) has been a huge support for me. I consulted my new business idea with my little brother and he really liked the idea too. Therefore, I asked my little brother to partner up with me as a co-owner to chase this business dream together. My little brother is a designer from Art Center and is currently working for Netflix, so he designed the logo and handles all the aesthetics and branding of the business, while I run the daily operations. My mom and dad have been a huge support by giving me a helping hand and offering their experience to me as a mentor in our family business.
Fast forward to now, my business has been open for about 17 months now. Mr. Obanyaki is getting popular in the community of San Gabriel Valley by receiving a 4.5 stars on yelp with 300+ reviews.
Great, 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?
In the beginning, I was coming into this business with no prior experience in running my own business. The only experience I had in the food and beverage industry was when I was working as a busboy at the age of 19, but that didn’t really improve my knowledge or skill of running an actual business.
The first 12 months of opening up Mr. Obanyaki in 2019 was the hardest obstacles we faced thus far, despite this Covid-19 pandemic. We felt like we were going through a roller coaster ride because a lot of things happened that we didn’t expect it to happen. Some of the biggest obstacles we’ve faced was when our Obanyaki machine broke down twice, no electricity in the shop, learning how to be a leader, learning how to run a business, working 100+ hours a week, etc.
Building a new brand from scratch is very challenging because no one knew our brand and product yet. But, through the majority help of yelp and word of mouth, our brand is getting popular now.
We didn’t have any prior knowledge or experience, so every day was a learning experience as that has now made me stronger and a much wiser person. Thanks to my mom and dad for guiding us through tough times and mentoring us.
Mr. Obanyaki – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Mr. Obanyaki is a small family-owned dessert shop located in Monterey Park. We specialize in making “wheel cakes” as its real name in japan is called Obanyaki or Imagawayaki. Our dessert shop focuses on a creative menu to serve our customers a unique and nostalgic desserts.
Growing up in the San Gabriel Valley, many kids and families would buy these Obanyaki from this old lady that sells them outside the local supermarkets. However, recently the old lady stopped selling these nostalgic pastries and it has left a void in this community. Therefore, we wanted to bring back the nostalgic childhood memories to the community, but with a creative modern twist.
Currently, we offer eight different flavors of Obanyaki, such as Nutella, Black Sesame, Matcha Coconut, Taro, Red Bean, Custard, Mac & Cheese and Curry Corn. Out of all eight flavors of Obanyaki, the Custard and Black Sesame is getting famous as customers are ordering it in bulk. Our signature is serving the Obanyaki with Ice cream as it is a perfect blend of a sweet hot and cold sensation. We have a collaboration with the famous Fosselman’s Ice cream to serve our customers with our desserts. All of our Obanyaki is handcrafted and made fresh with 100% real ingredients. Our Obanyaki is not the only popular items on our menu, as our drinks are also a favorite as they are BOGO 50% off.
Currently, this business concept is one of a kind in the whole world, as you can not find this business concept anywhere else but Mr. Obanyaki in Monterey Park.
After all the 100+ hours a week of hard work, seeing a smile on customer’s face makes it all worth it. My family and I work hard every day to do our best to put a smile on every customer through tasty and nostalgic desserts.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Since the day we first opened, there has been three proudest moments thus far.
The first proud moment is when every time we receive great compliments from our customers and seeing smiles from our customer’s face is truly rewarding. The smiles and great compliments make us feel like all of our hard work has paid off. We really value serving great quality desserts with A1 customer service and you can actually taste the love in our desserts.
The second proud moment is when I finally had the courage to chase my dreams. I was working a dead-end job with no professional growth. Everyday, I was working at The Montage to help someone build their dreams. But now, I have the confidence to build my own with the help of my family.
The third proud moment is when I see that my whole family is working together at the shop because growing up, I felt very isolated from my family. But now, this business has brought my family together and stronger. My dad recently lost his job due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but now it seems like he has regained a sense of purpose again.
Pricing:
- All Drinks are BOGO 50% off
Contact Info:
- Address: 2085 S Atlantic Blvd
Ste J
Monterey Park, CA 91754 - Website: order.mrobanyakiusa.com
- Phone: 323-488-0044
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrobanyaki.mpk/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mr.Obanyaki/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/mr-obanyaki-monterey-park-4
Image Credit:
Thomas Trieu & Kenny Mok
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.
