 I'm Rusty Komori, and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou Boys Varsity Tennis Team for 22 years, and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. My books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game are about leadership, creating a superior culture of excellence, and finding greatness, which is what this show is all about. My special guest today is an extraordinary woman who is the co-owner of the very popular Panya Bistro. She is Annie Jung, and today we are going Beyond Honolulu Restaurants. Hey Annie, welcome to the show. Hey Rusty, thank you. Thank you for bringing me in for your special 117th show. Oh, I'm so excited. We have so much to talk about, and I know that you and your sister are co-owners of Panya Bistro, but I want to first ask you about if you can tell me a bit about your background. So we are born and raised in Hong Kong, and when I was 15, I asked to go to a boarding school in England for about two years, and after that I came here to go to University College here in Hawaii. So you attended Hawaii Pacific College before it was Hawaii Pacific University, and then you went to University of Hawaii, is that true? Yeah, that's the steps. And Annie, when you were in boarding school in England, how was that experience for you? So when we have to fly to London from Hong Kong, you have to make transit. So 15 years old, it was like, I don't know, I think I was kind of brave, and it kind of helped me to develop the independence, alertness, and what's going on, things like that. And when you're traveling, you have your luggage, you cannot lose any bags, your belongings, and is anybody following you, the kind of stuff. So it's built up my independence and part of growing up. Yeah, and that adds to your toughness. I can see why you are how you are now. And tell me about your two kids, Max and Samara, how are they doing? I have a junior and a senior in high school. So Max is going to Punahou, and he will be graduating this year. And Samara is at Ilmani, and she's a junior. And they're helping out at your restaurants? Yes, actually during this summer, even Max came and worked with us in the restaurant. Samara's been helping us since last year. She was doing host, and the bakery cashier, but during this COVID time, she kind of promoted herself to be the server, the footrun everything. So I'm happy to see the growth of them just working in our business. When I go to Punahou, I love seeing them working there as well. I know that your dad has been such a great influence on you and your sister Alice. What did you learn from your dad, Annie? My dad, we are in a very traditional Chinese family, and dad is like a 300% businessman. So we talk more business than we don't say, oh, I love you. That's never been part of our conversation. So he always makes sure that we have a goal, we have a plan. Every week when we have lunch on Sunday, that's our tradition, he asks, so what's your plan? Every week. He taught us about business, how to be persistent, how to be a person in your business. I like hearing that. Was it challenging for you and your sister as women to really learn the business and to get through some adversities? How did he help you with that? He asks questions every day, so he'll call us every day and ask, how's business? We know there's somebody checking on us, so we cannot be slacking any day. This is like for the last 20 years. We lost him 2016, so it's a big loss for both me and my sister, but I think he taught us enough in the past years to help us to stay where we are and continue working as if he's around. Annie, you and your sister Alice, you guys make such a great team together, but do you guys ever fight? Yes, we of course, we have a little age group gap, age difference, so I would say, oh my god, it's like a different generation almost, but somehow with upbringing from my family, from my dad's influence, we would eventually think ultimately it's the same one of you, and however, she would take a little different approach because of our personality, and however, we managed to come to our agreement, it's like we need to learn how to give and take sometimes, so sometimes we'll take my approach, sometimes we'll adopt hers, and we'll see which one works better, and we can always change, or we can rethink or how we should take the approach, so we are flexible, because at the end, we are the two person, two bosses, right, so we can work it out eventually, yeah. Annie, your Panya Bakery first opened in 1997 at McCully Shopping Center, what was unique about that business for you? We were the first bakery to introduce self-service, so you come to the shop, first of all, you get the tongs and the tray, you can go through the all different showcase covered to pick your piece of baked goods, because sometimes, oh, this is too burnt, I like the lighter one, I like the darker one, or this one, the strawberry looks bigger, so it's very comfortable and clean for you to choose your own baked goods, rather than you have to take a ticket and wait for the lady to say, number 96, you know, to come and serve you, and then you walk up and down the showcase, so, yes, we were the first bakery to introduce self-service. I remember that, and since then, a lot of other businesses were copying you, and during that time, Annie, you guys also opened up a coffee shop near that Ward area where that hokua is now. Can you tell me about that? Yeah, so after opening in a few months, we start also producing desserts, you know, like cakes like that, and the customers are like, oh, you should have a coffee shop, you have a place to sit down to enjoy such good pastries and cakes, so we were then thinking like, because our product was so loved by the community here, so we decided to go into our next stage, which is like a sit-down service, a coffee shop style operation, and that was the location in the two-story building, we're taking the entire downstairs, the ground floor behind the 7-Eleven with the gas station, you know, so that was our first sit-down operation, and in the back, we have like a commercial grade bake shop to support. We started wholesale to hotels, and a lot of other small businesses, so that's how we evolved from a first small bakery to be a sit-down service plus wholesale business. And then Annie, once that location closed, you moved to Alamoana, what was challenging for you going to the Alamoana location? Because of, you know, the cost of the rents over there, right, is so high, so we couldn't be doing any production over there, so we assigned the entire space to be just for retail, bakery, and restaurant, and whatever the kitchen size we need, and the production for our pastry, we have to find a central kitchen to back up. So at that point, we have to have two locations. One is for the retail, the dining service, and on the other side, we have the warehouse at Cook and Queen Street. We have like a 6,000 square feet warehouse that is closed enough for us to feed, you know, the Alamoana panya bistro like about six to eight times a day for different, you know, supplies. No, I remember that because I would go to your Alamoana location, that's where I first met you, and yeah, that was a challenging situation for you and your sister, but once your lease finished, then it all worked out to come full circle to move into Hukua because PF Changs had closed in that original location, so now panya bistro at Hukua, you came full circle, and you know, I know that you and your employees, I mean, your employees are like your second family, so tell me how special being back at Hukua now and with your employees is to you? For the location, we know that this is like an amazing story because a lot of our customers from day one, they know, oh my god, you come back here, it's like a, you know, you're coming back home, like, we know where you were before, right? And they say, yeah, it was exactly like 100 feet away, so we love this location because it's, we have the both indoor outdoor seating and the parking right there, parking is like prime for our operation, so we love it back here, and it's much bigger, so it's double the size what we can sit in Alamoana, so this is our next stage of our business, and we have focus to be put on the dining surface, and thank goodness, it's all happening right because we have a strong crew, both at the back of the house and the front of the house, and you can see a lot of them was with us like over 10 years, one of our managers was with us since like day one of the Panya bakery, and we have a, you know, we have a small, it was a small operation, but I believe we bonded really well, we worked with each other, and we're making this working every day. Annie, you know during this coronavirus time period, I mean, a lot of restaurants have been closing, what are you doing to survive? As I said, thank goodness, we have outdoor seating and indoor seating, and our whole business model has changed, because we lost like 80% of all our business that come from wholesale, wholesale in terms of like hotels, a lot of the Japanese wedding cakes, and it put us in a totally different mode that we only can rely on the restaurant operation with dining and takeout, and the dining capacity was cut to less than half, it's like only 30 to 40% if we can sit every single chair, but you know, there's not, I mean, because of the table arrangement with the social distancing, so it limits our capacity to the lower level, so thank goodness, as what every customer, when they come to say, oh, thank goodness, you have outdoor seating, and then I say yes, and that's what everybody prefer nowadays to be sitting outside, and they're happy with our social distancing format on the seating, so they feel very safe, and internally, all the staff have to take like very serious, you know, practice on a daily basis, that they have to keep cleaning all the touching area, like the doors, all the tables and chairs was cleaned with sanitizer after each customer, and we have to check in all the customers with the temperature before they come into the premises, and then they also have to use sanitizer before they come in, so we put out the guard to the highest level to, in order to protect all the customers coming into our restaurant to dine in, or even take out, you know, so this is our number one priority right now. Well, I have a lot of lunch meetings and dinner meetings at Panya that you know I have, and I want to talk to you about my books, you know, obviously you know it's about creating a culture of excellence and leadership, I want to ask you, what kind of leader are you? I am an emotional one, emotional. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but you know, I, you run your business with your personality too, right, so, and I, when I talk to my employees sometimes I talk, and they say, okay, stop yelling at us, I'm not yelling, I was just talking with a very firm voice, you know, so it takes a lot to be a good leader, you know, in the organization, so, but it's a daily thing, we work on it every day, every shift, we need to work to what we need at that, on that day, it's a daily changing, you know, so very challenging. Yeah, because basically, you know, you're a coach, you're trying to coach and guide them to accomplish the goals that you guys have for your restaurant, right? Yes, very true, but sometimes, you know, we have, we have a pretty good stable team over here that they are, basically, they know what needs sometimes, most of the times, so also they would give the input, oh, can we just do this, should we just do this, and then, you know, we kind of like work together, but of course, we, I want to maintain my service level at a good standard, so all my customer, you know, all the customers coming in, I told them they have expectations, so we need to do a, offer a good service level, so all the customers will be, enjoy the good food and have good service, so ultimately, that's our goal every day. Well, Annie, it's a constant striving for excellence, obviously, and I got to say, you know, I need the laxah, your laxah and the desserts that you have, I mean, it's not a one, it's a need, and you have such a wide variety of a menu, why do you guys have such a wide, wide range of menu? The menu was built not within months, it was years, we built, every time we, you know, we serve the same menu, and we feel like, oh, we should add something new, and me and my sister, especially Alice, is like, oh, what should we, what should we offer, but I would tell you, a lot of times we offer the food that we want to eat, so we cook for ourselves, and then we say, oh, actually, we can serve this, and then we practice, we kind of like, refined it to the way that we let customer taste sometimes, you know, the regular say, oh, it's good, oh, it needs something, you know, that kind of input, so we perfecting it, and oh, we can put on the menu now, you know, so it's day by day building a big menu like ours, but the thing is like, we use the same ingredient, but we use a different, we cook in a different way, or cut in a different way, and that's how we offer a big menu that the idea is, if you come in with a group of, you know, friends or family, everybody can enjoy their preference, you can have ramen and burger at the same time, and nowadays we introduce more healthy food, like vegetables, you know, stir-fry, not necessarily like deep-fried or, you know, fancy cooking, but like steamed fish is something very simple, healthy, that you feel good after eating it, and you can eat it very frequently, like you can eat it almost every day. And your favorite dish, laxa, the laxa noodle, I say, okay, it's a salvezation noodle, and it's very popular in our restaurant, so all my friends or cousins, I was trying to try other dishes, but you know, I have to have the laxa, otherwise I say, yeah, otherwise you don't feel like you've been to Panya, right, so, and a lot of them come here just for the laxa, you know. Well, it's a tough decision. Yes, so you have, that's why I tell them you have to come back more often, so you feel okay to let go the laxa and try other dishes, you know. Annie, I want to ask you, you know, about more of a, like, have you had a tough personal challenge that you have to deal with, you know, through these years that you overcame? Other than moving, you know, relocating, that kind of thing, I think it would be down to trusting people or the, how, you know, when you have workers or team management, you need to be able to trust them, or that was a big challenge from my experience running this operation, because, you know, like, recipe and things like that, it did become like a, is it assets or the property of the business, and if the person is not truthful or, you know, loyal to your business, it become a big challenge for us. But at that point, yes, but now we learned we have to have confidence with our own operations. And we spend, this is 23 years, the 23rd years. So after these years, we build a brand, so we would like to think that we would like to achieve that thinking like the product from Panya will give you the assurance of quality and the consistency that you would have the same dish or the same dessert taste every time the same when you, you know, enjoy Panya's product. So that's something I think we're trying to achieve. And what do you think? No, you're definitely doing it. And Annie, what I find impressive is how you guys started as a small bakery, and then how you grew it, you know, to moving to different locations, you know, and great leaders, they always find a way to adapt and adjust, and they navigate their way to success. And I know that your family is very important to you, obviously, but you truly care about the families of all of your employees, because they all depend on you and their jobs. And, you know, for you to take risks along the way, calculated risks, how important was it for you looking back to take those risks? We, I would say we need, we've been changing business, business model all this way by expanding. So the risks is we need to everybody like work as a team. And they have to perform, make the performance every day. So as I said, the consistency of the dish, of each food item, the come out, the quality is, is our key when we have a restaurant. So you have, you can meet the expectation of each customer when they come in to dine in, you know, to enjoy your food. So I think people is the key in our operations. Yeah, no, it definitely is. And I can see how your, you know, services is an important part, obviously, you're talking about the food being an important part as well. What's, what's, what's the best advice you ever received in your life, Annie? That's advice. I think is, for me and my sister, I think we have our devotion and love of running this business. We focus, you know, we don't think of like, oh, let's do something other, other kind of business. No, we just focus. If it's not Panya, everything has to be inside Panya. And I think it makes a, makes a big change in other people. I mean, I'm sorry, not change, but it plays a different priority in your life because, because of our father. I think it is something that both of me and my sister want to prove to him for whatever support he gave us. It wasn't a waste. And, and he, we want to make him proud of us for whatever, for the achievement we have. And by the time when he come visit us, he can see that we are, we are doing our job. We are, we are not just, you know, watching, but actually, so often we have to work hands-on in the front of the house, cleaning table or everything, or in the back of the house help cooking. And, you know, we are flexible to fill in the gaps of the entire operation anytime. You know, sometimes there's no bartender. I can go bartending, right? So, and there's not enough cook in the back, or we have people vacation, my sister go cook in the back, you know. So this will, this is something, you know, we, we would train, we train ourselves to be able to function, multifunction, same as my managers. So they, they do, they, they don't just cook or bake, but they have to do, you know, office work too. So we, we are, we are multitasking here, you know. Annie, I guarantee you your dad is very proud of you and your sister, and I want to thank you for taking time in your schedule to join me on the TV show today. Thank you, Rusty, for having me here. And we have to thank all my customers, the community here, actually, to support Panya all these years. Being in this community for like 23 years, I think it meant, it meant a lot for me and my sister. We truly thank you for all the support, you know, from our loyal customer. I have customers like since day one, we're still shopping here with us, eating with us, you know. So we appreciate this, this community. Supporting Panya for all the entire crew is very meaningful. Yes, and we need, we need Panya to survive this pandemic. And, Annie, I want to thank you and I'm going to see you soon, okay? Thank you, Rusty. I will see you, the, the laksa will be waiting for you. Thanks, Annie. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on ThinkTakhoi. For more information, please visit RustyKomori.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I hope that Annie and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.