 We're going from 25 delivery a week to 250 delivery a week during the peak of COVID. Well, sorry. Welcome, Tarn. The lady that brings and sells more than 20,000 dumplings every single month. And you are running this business and starting it during COVID. Yeah, crazy, crazy. So thank you. Thank you so much for hopping on and sharing your story. Tell us a little bit more about your background, because I know that you have been in the industry for a long time. Yeah, I work at a Thai restaurant and it's great for us here. You know, dishwasher, prep cook, I serve there. And that 16-year-old, eventually left and become a GM at this one restaurant for six months. And after that, I was a manager at an Asian street food for about a year and a half. And then I start my own. Is it typical that like the trajectory of people who are in the service industry, hospitality, they always have a dream about, hey, you know what, I can do this myself and I can do a better job? Is that your mentality? Yeah, yeah. I'm like, man, I'm making this people millionaire. Like, why can't I do it myself? You know, and I just know that I can do a way better job than most of the owner. Like, I care more. I care more about the staff. I care more about the kitchen. I will do a better job at this than people that just have money that they're investing. I know for a fact that something that I really applaud you, Tarn, about is your ability to create not just great food, but really about the culture and the community that you're able to build because that is basically your secret sauce. That's your magic. Yeah, I think we have seriously the best customer and I would go up against anyone in Victoria town. Like we have the most royal customer. They're super supportive. Yeah, they've been with me all along. Like they were, you know, picking up something from like my cooler on the corner of the street, you know, like it's a wrong way to come. But yeah, they've been great. That's actually a really interesting story. Tell me how that started, you know, picking up dumplings from the corner of the street. Like, okay, a lot of our listeners, they are just starting out and they want to be able to create that loyal customer. And ultimately in the hospitality industry, it's all about being able to have a loyal fan base that would support you. So how do you think we survive COVID if we don't have, you know, the support that we have right now in the community? Yeah, like I start off on Instagram, I make the polls, people start to order on DM. And then it's a, and people would just come and pick up on like, I just stand in front of this building in downtown Victoria with a cooler and people would just come in and tell me what was this. This is a year and a half ago, just before COVID, maybe like six months before COVID started, we started that. And it was just a part time thing because I was still managing the restaurant through time. This dumpling thing is just like something that me and my mom come up with to keep her busy with her Alzheimer's, to keep, you know, her, her hand function and her brain going. So, you know, just to keep her at the level that she needed to be with Alzheimer. So you actually created the dumpling business. Being part of that comes from a really good reason is to be able to do something for your mom. Yeah, just to do something like as an Asian-only child, there's not like, my mom should want to, all she would ever want to do and what keep her happy is me. So we're just trying to find something that we can do together, something that brings back a good memory as a, her good memory, you know, that was the doctor like just spend time with her, do things that like create good memory or bring back good memory, like they seem to respond really well with that with Alzheimer. And as a family growing up, we always, you know, sit around with a big dinner table with my grandma with a bowl of dumpling filling and, you know, they just make us all roll this dumpling and we eat a bunch of dumpling on a family night kind of idea. So that's how the dumpling drop got started. We were just growing so much dumpling and we couldn't eat them all. So I started to keep it to my friend, they suggest we should start selling them and yeah, that's how dumpling drop become a thing. Wow, it's such a, like this is such a real authentic story that that's why you guys have such loyal customers and community because like what you just shared with me, like it touched, it's hitting a chord too, you know, like it's something that I want to support, I want some dumplings from you now. It's a dark story, but at least something could come out of it, you know? No, totally. And I think that's why you're able to have that drive to continue to do this despite how difficult it is. Yeah, for sure. And at this point, I'm doing it full time to take care of my family because you know, my mom also worked in the restaurant business and she was a server of her life in the Thai restaurant and let be real, we don't really have like what they call the retirement fund like most other jobs. So like for me, this is taking care of her. So thank you. Wow, I wasn't expecting this midday, this this this song story, but you know it's good. It's good. It's good that you guys are like doing so great. I love that. And I know we took a really long detour from our initial question, which was like when you first started in the corner, just giving out dumplings, that's how you started. You created an Instagram page and you're like, hey, come find me. And people started coming by. Yeah, for sure. And I think the new one exciting for Victoria too, you know, no one really did that. And now we we start to do pop up. And that was like another thing that Victoria didn't really have before, you know, I am we start pop up in a Phantan alley, which is the oldest alley in Canada, how so like it's really narrow and it's hidden. So it's like, it's like, it's kind of a cool thing, like come and fire, you can smell like you can hear people, you can see the liar. And that have become a thing is become pretty big before the COVID. Yeah, last summer. Wow. How long did you run the pop up for? We did it for just the summer, like summer before COVID. And then that's done. Like, I think we only got, yeah, we only get permits for 14 days, like 14 different events. And we took on to that. We did 13 of that. And then we saved one of our permits to do brewery and the bees, which is like my favorite fruit festival. It was such an honor to be invited to that after like, you know, pop up, you know, so to me, it was like, wow, this is great. So, wow, you're able to okay, so let's let's go back, go back down to the timeline. So you're like, Hey, no, let's do this part time. I'm working at a restaurant space. And you created something specifically, honestly, just for your mom. And it took off on Instagram. You guys are like, Hey, there's momentum, we're selling a few bags here and there. Let's do a pop up. Right. You did 13 events. And then yeah, it's a cat took off from there. And next thing you know, everyone's like, you want to come do pop up here, you want to come do pop up there. We have 45 different pop up book for the last summer, like, like in January, we already have a whole, a whole summer plan, we have all the pop up book, we have all the food festival booked up, BFS, we have it all booked up and COVID hit. So we couldn't do anything. So I'm like, let's go back to basic, like go back to what we know best, which is frozen dumpling delivery. We're going from 25 delivery a week to 250 delivery a week during the peak of COVID. Sorry, sorry, let's go back a little bit from 20 deliveries to 250 bags a week. Oh, no, 250 different delivery. It was an average about 600 bags a week to delivery alone. Holy, wow. We were having like six people doing an eight hour shift out delivery. But we have to like that. That's the thing about COVID. You have to pivot to what's next, what's the next restriction and what we could do, you know, so we can't do pop up anymore. So let's go back to doing what we know how to do and what people need right now. We should cooking at home, cooking frozen dumpling with the family. We did like soup kid in the winter, like we did, you know, like dumpling soup kids so people can, you know, have like a nice soup dinner with their family in the winter. So you just, that's the thing about COVID. It makes you, you think you work to come up with something that will work for that restriction at that time. Oh my God, I'm falling in love with you, Tarn. You are so great as a entrepreneur because you embody so much of the attitude that is needed to succeed in this field. And because, and I want to share a little bit with you because I get in touch with a lot of entrepreneurs and restaurateurs and a lot of them, they feel defeated and they're always angry about restrictions. They're angry about, hey, you know, why are we getting shut down? Why is this? Why that? But for you, you are like the 5% of the people out there who's like, hey, the game has, the rules of the game have shifted and has changed. Don't get me wrong. Not that I feel for everyone and everything going on. I feel that I totally understand where the anger coming from with like, we can fast it down, be angry or we can do something about it. That's exactly my point. It's like, you understand that the rules of the game have changed and you're like, hey, you know what, there's no point of sitting on our butts. Let's go out and actually adapt to the rules and let's pivot on what we do best. And you brought it back to the core and you understand what your customers are wanting. So you went from like 20 bags to 600 bags. It is insane. And I'm super, like I applaud you for being able to take action so, so quick and just keep adopting. Now, on that note, I think a lot of people's questions would be like, Hey, did you just post on Instagram? Is that the only way? Yeah, it was the only way. Like we were posting on Instagram and people were ordered to Instagram. And it was getting a little crazy. So we started a little website website website website website. So people can actually now order online. So it's just more organized and I don't miss any one order and things like that. So it was like an online store that like, we can do that. And yeah, that's that's how it's got started. But like, most of it is just Instagram and scrambles and we just got to be on it. And my thing about that too, and I think what why I think that we do so good. And I don't know if it's right. But like, that's just my thought is that the fact that I don't discriminate. Like if people happy to post a picture of the dumpling and it doesn't look the greatest, but if they're proud enough and they're happy to share everything, I'm going to pose it. I want feel like they did something because they did. To me, I'm happy and they happy. So I'm going to pose it. You know, I'm not the most dumpling job. It's not the most curated. Like I don't care the picture is not perfect. I care about what make people happy about food. That's why you have loyal fans. That's why you have that community. I love that. And the and the post that you guys make is always so heartfelt. You guys are always so authentic. And it's something that is really inspiring. So you know, a consistent posting on Instagram. Now you have a following. You like people love your good food. And of course you need to make sure that you have great dumplings. I'm not saying that anyone that sells dumplings can be as successful as you are. But now that Hey, you know what, you figured it out. You're selling like 600 bags a week. Then you're like, you know what, I need my own store. Yeah, we were going to do the food truck, you know, like the food truck was our next best thing. But then COVID hit. I lost money on the food truck situation. And studio Victoria make it really, really hard to to run a food truck. Like you have to get permit. It's really hard to find space to park. It's rainy here most of the time. So like we can only run it. So you know, so we have to scratch again, like with COVID, they change immediately. So you have to just like, Okay, what can we do next? So I approached a guy that was like, going to let me use this parking space. And he like, Oh, no, like you can use the parking space. This restaurant next door is like really up against you. And he doesn't want it. But I have this restaurant space that you can have, you know, and I went and look at it. It's an old part of Victoria China town where I live with, you know, most of my life here is I live in China town. So obviously we took it immediately. And we opened, we took the key and we just started that day. We just did everything we could. We know that it wasn't going to be permanent. They told us, obviously, that like that building going to be knocked down in the next few years. We probably have a couple of years. But for us, it's hard to pass by like doing COVID, we'll take what we can, we'll make it work while we can. And what are we next? Something makes it going to have to plan and work on that. Why we do this. If there was one thing, your secret, let's say that someone can actually be able to learn from you on the ability to create a community. What is that one thing that you think is your secret sauce? Authentic to being yourself, like being exactly, you know, and cook the food that you love, just cook the food that you like and stand in. Being authentic. Wow. It's always a very, very big common theme that I realize, especially, you know, being in touch with so many different restaurant owners. It's that the people that are authentic truly be able to let their passion flow through. Right. And people can see right through that. And your customers can see right through that. And if you're not real, then like people won't support that. So really, really good stuff. And I know for a fact that, you know, the community, the community doesn't just stop at your customers. But more importantly, it bleeds through to how you treat your employees as well. Tell me. That's such a good team. It's hard not to, you know, like they're all my friends. We work together, like some of us work together, both at a restaurant. You know, some of us just, yeah, like the old friend, the old good friend of mine. And that was exactly what I said was that was like one of my number one goal to start a business. Like I want to run a business that I can be like proud about. Like that, you know, like that we treat each other well, you know, because I feel like if you treat them well, that was so hard for you. And to be honest, I have such a good team, like amazing, amazing team. We make sure to pay them well. And my main thing is to make sure they all get benefit. And like the trees, you know, we all have family. Like restaurant business right now, just like, I work in restaurant business for 20 years. And have to fight cheat and nail for like my benefit, which I only got for six months at one of the jobs. Like out of the 20 years, I got my benefits for six months. The rest, the other people did not give to you. And I think a lot of people leave because of that, you know? I think the restaurant owner doesn't really realize that that's like it is hard on your body to work in a restaurant. So you give them a little tool to you know, help them taking. But right now at 40, like my body is just like in so much pain all the time. I feel like if I take care of myself that 20 years running around, I wouldn't feel like this. It's pretty unheard of that in the restaurant industry, especially like a mom and pop shop to give benefits and to have that kind of care for their staff. Because ultimately, and it's truly about the culture that you breathe. And a lot of people don't realize that the culture is not something that they write on a piece of paper. It's really how you live and how you treat not just your customers, your vendors, your suppliers and also your staff. And when you can embody this type of values amongst everything that you touch, that's really the essence of how you can create such a great culture. Yeah, I wouldn't run the restaurant out of way. I love my staff. They're like family. I am so inspired talking to you because it's like I'm learning from you. I don't think that I run my businesses like you do. And as much as I pride myself to care about my staff and to really want to build something with them, I don't have that commitment like you do. So it's very humbling being able to learn from you. So thank you. Thank you so much for sharing this. You know what? You are proving to be doing a much better job in being able to actually showcase your culture and the community that you're able to build because you are like viral online. The posts that you guys make is just amazing. The way that I found you is through the MSG post that went viral. That was a touchy subject, obviously. Actually, you know what? Tell us a story about that one, that post and how it got viral. That's the story behind that. I was nervous about it, obviously. I mean like we're in Canada, what they believe in and what not. But I worked in an Asian restaurant for like I say 20 years and racist is real. I deal with it on a daily, especially in a restaurant. And when you work in an Asian restaurant, you get them every day in certain shape or form, just a little remark here and there. But MSG was like something that come up almost on a daily. I grew up thinking that MSG was bad personally. I was not allowed to eat instant noodle growing up because my grandma think it was full of MSG and it's bad for you. And working in a restaurant business for so long and with more study coming out all the time like David Chang. Some people put a lot of money and study into this. What the hell do we still think is bad? I mean like so I thought that with all this anti-Asian racism that's coming out, I think it was a good time to come out with it because people are listening right now. People are open they had and they mine to this Asian, anti-Asian thing. And I think it's a big can of work that we should open. And the Japanese talk about really, I mean people we try to talk about that but I don't know. So it's a it's a no bragging situation. Oh, totally. It's super ballsy for you to you know during the heat of this whole discussion about and just to fill our listeners in. During this whole the peak of the whole Asian hate anti-Asian whole movement. You've decided to come out and just write a post about how MSG relates to racism and was able to bring it back to food and about how this phenomenon is already happening throughout the years without us knowing. And I thought that it was brilliant because for you you are not coming out to to claim this just because you want to get the attention but rather you come from a very very it this means a lot to you and it comes across through the post. It was scary for us you know like what what what did we get SLN to but I believe it was a good time and I believe that people are open and more willing to learn. So I love that it proved to be super well received went viral all these attention. Thank you so much for this opportunity to talk about something I really really appreciate. So let's say for example people who are in Vancouver they want to support you how how can they support you tell me we are working on it we are definitely working on it but to be honest when people from Vancouver talk to me I'm just like have you heard of my friend Dickie? Have you heard of Dickie dumps? No I haven't. Yes my friend he doing the same thing he's a good guy let's support him. No no no no we're supporting you tell us how we can support you. You were something hopefully I talked to 33 agar to do some pop-up there eventually when it's safe to do so we would love to come there and I would love to see you there obviously. Nice tell us about your handle what's your handle what's your you know what what is your shop's name I don't even know if I made a proper introduction of your shop and your restaurant. Up to Dumplin Drop and we are in Victoria BC we have local small shop in the O'Shiner town we have 556 Pandora Avenue and yeah dumplindrop.ca check us out. Awesome awesome thank you thank you so much Tarn for for being on this. I really appreciate it and yeah I hope to be chatting with you again soon hopefully. Very soon you take care of yourself and I'm definitely going to order some dumplings I'm already like I'm already on your site I'm like you know what time to order and go guys make sure you guys give Tarn to follow her stories amazing she's authentic she's a real deal make sure you guys go and support her. Thank you Wilson I appreciate it.