Please note that Woon Kitchen was compensated by Square.
When Keegan Fong opened Woon Kitchen, a thriving, LA-based, homestyle Chinese restaurant, he wanted to tell a true and authentic story. He’d spent years in the skate and fashion industries, using marketing to push a number of initiatives forward and tell a number of stories. But in 2019 he finally felt compelled to put a new story on display: his mom’s story.
“This [restaurant] is all kind of an ode to my mom and her immigration story,” said Fong.
His mom would always cook a variety of Shanghainese and Cantonese dishes for him growing up. He found those moments to be the most comforting, and he wanted to recreate those recipes so everyone could experience that comfort too.
What started as a simple pop-up soon turned into a brick-and-mortar location. Later came expansion into Pasadena. And with each step, Fong partnered with Square to help him navigate all of the operational complexity, so that he could focus on what mattered most to him — bringing his mother’s journey to the masses through food.
The challenge: Being a first-time restaurant owner
Transitioning from marketing into the food-and-beverage industry was a challenge on its own. At times Fong had to be honest with himself and say: “I don’t know how to do this part. So I’m just going to learn and listen and like every single person.” This challenge was compounded by the fact that he’d never worked in a restaurant before, so he was unfamiliar with how traditional point-of-sale systems functioned on the front and back ends.
When the pandemic hit and threatened the survival of the business, Fong needed to tap into new ways to stay afloat. Branching out into merchandise, online ordering, and delivery was another complication, and he needed a simplified way to manage it all.
The solution: Using the Square ecosystem to centralize and simplify
Fong invested in the Square ecosystem to centralize and simplify various business operations, such as invoicing and taking orders. “I chose Square because I felt like it’s a very user-friendly experience. And for someone new to the industry, I felt like I could understand it really well,” he explained. Square tools enabled Fong to manage the restaurant effectively, even without a traditional culinary background. Square Invoices made it easy for the business to process invoicing for wholesaling frozen dumplings, and Square Terminal allowed for the business to take orders at the table, a key component to his expansion from pop-up to brick-and-mortar.
Having easy-to-navigate and reliable technology allowed Fong to focus more on what he loves: the branding and marketing side of the business. These elements added to the business’s growth, compelling Fong to look to Square to provide the back-end functionality to support expansion.
The impact: Saving time to cultivate grassroots marketing efforts
At a time when many businesses look for the next trend to boost their visibility with customers, Fong has taken a different approach to create a true Woon Kitchen experience through marketing and social media. “How do I zig when people are zagging?” he asked. He relies on two things: staying true to his mom’s story and doing whatever feels the most organic. Some days that looks like spotlighting his mom in different ways on Instagram, and other days it looks like fostering community events to stay connected. Hosting pop-ups every other Tuesday for an entire year was one of Fong’s methods, and it paid off tenfold.
The benefits: Establishing community with customers
“It really served the community, because everyone was like, ‘I’m going to a new [experience] every other week, but I still get to go to Woon,’” he noted. Building for community and not just in a community is a key component that’s made Woon Kitchen beloved in the Historic Filipinotown, and he’s using his community-centric ideas to guide his expansion into Pasadena.
Fong knows the community values communal restaurant spaces, so he’s leaning into that as he designs the new space. He also knows the community enjoys daytime concepts like lunch, so he’s accounting for that too by making it a fixture in the Pasadena location. Balancing expectations with what feels true to the business is what excites Fong, and it’s a part of what’s helped sustain the business. “I think it’s the only way to get people to understand Woon,” he said. “Just have an open mind. It is what it is. Don’t try to categorize it, whether it’s the food or the ambience.”
