Help our family restart our business
Donation protected
We are the Kim Family a hard-working family who have been in the food business since 1998. We started Seoul Street in 2008, a company known for traditional and modern Korean food, loved for our fun and delicious dishes.
We started gaining a good following at festivals and events, thrilled that people were acknowledging our recipes and we were able to open our first location last year in May of 2019. It was a small space in a commercial business center, but one we could call home. We tried hard and gratefully began to grow within the community, getting to make new friends and loyal customers.
The coronavirus hit us hard as it did everyone else, we were so scared but through it the community supported us and we were able to keep going and feeding everyone. Our lease renewal for the location was up in June and we obviously wanted to continue but for some reason the request was denied. We had originally spoken in December of 2018 of renewing our contract and it seemed like it would happen but minds were changed mid pandemic. When we asked why, it was stated that they didn't want Korean food anymore even though there had been no issues with us prior. We were even on time with paying our rent, especially during this pandemic. By the second month of the virus we had even grown our business back up, having days busier than before the virus hit.
However, it was stated that an American-style deli was wanted instead even though 2 delis before us had failed, basically it was stated that they didn't think we were 'enough'. But we wanted to stay, especially for our loyal customers so we offered to compromise and possibly share our spot with a deli or maybe offer some deli items but we were flatly rejected leaving us in a dire situation.
We had been working 14 hour days, 7 days a week trying to keep our little shop going but now it's been thrown away purely because our cuisine wasn't wanted, no matter that we were loved within the community and was successful. We are trying to pick ourselves up to start anew but need help to get going, every place we've looked into requires hefty deposits that we now don't have. Please don't let our dreams die because a property manager didn't want us around because of our cuisine and who we were as people. Please help us to have a 2nd chance, to fight against the rocks that are being thrown at us. We thank you in advance for your help.
We started gaining a good following at festivals and events, thrilled that people were acknowledging our recipes and we were able to open our first location last year in May of 2019. It was a small space in a commercial business center, but one we could call home. We tried hard and gratefully began to grow within the community, getting to make new friends and loyal customers.
The coronavirus hit us hard as it did everyone else, we were so scared but through it the community supported us and we were able to keep going and feeding everyone. Our lease renewal for the location was up in June and we obviously wanted to continue but for some reason the request was denied. We had originally spoken in December of 2018 of renewing our contract and it seemed like it would happen but minds were changed mid pandemic. When we asked why, it was stated that they didn't want Korean food anymore even though there had been no issues with us prior. We were even on time with paying our rent, especially during this pandemic. By the second month of the virus we had even grown our business back up, having days busier than before the virus hit.
However, it was stated that an American-style deli was wanted instead even though 2 delis before us had failed, basically it was stated that they didn't think we were 'enough'. But we wanted to stay, especially for our loyal customers so we offered to compromise and possibly share our spot with a deli or maybe offer some deli items but we were flatly rejected leaving us in a dire situation.
We had been working 14 hour days, 7 days a week trying to keep our little shop going but now it's been thrown away purely because our cuisine wasn't wanted, no matter that we were loved within the community and was successful. We are trying to pick ourselves up to start anew but need help to get going, every place we've looked into requires hefty deposits that we now don't have. Please don't let our dreams die because a property manager didn't want us around because of our cuisine and who we were as people. Please help us to have a 2nd chance, to fight against the rocks that are being thrown at us. We thank you in advance for your help.
Organizer
Jon Kim
Organizer
Irvine, CA