Timothy Kang, owner of Grain Lab
Opening up a business with my mother, who is also my best friend, has been something I have always wanted to do. Every weekend we go bargain shopping, followed by Chinese food lunch, and then we watch hayati. I imagine if we ran a restaurant together, we would be quite the dynamic duo. This is exactly what Timothy Kang and his mother, Cindy, did. They started Grain Lab Deli and Kitchen in Burbank.
Growing up near Burbank my entire life, there were hardly any healthy food places. If you were a vegetarian, you wouldn’t have too many options at a restaurant, you would probably just have to order appetizers. Grain Lab prepares healthy and vegetarian-friendly bowls, sandwiches and salads. Timothy Kang shared with me the story of his family's cafe, a neighborhood favorite.
Growing up near Burbank my entire life, there were hardly any healthy food places. If you were a vegetarian, you wouldn’t have too many options at a restaurant, you would probably just have to order appetizers. Grain Lab prepares healthy and vegetarian-friendly bowls, sandwiches and salads. Timothy Kang shared with me the story of his family's cafe, a neighborhood favorite.
How would you say the taste of the food at Grain Lab differs from other places?
As far as what we do here at Grain Lab, and the reason we are different is because we have a lot more cleanliness...is how I would describe it. Everyone says that they are "fresh" but that's something our customers will actually tell us. As far as not having freezers, everything comes in fresh delivered every 2-3 days. Everything that we do is prepped in house, so it is a lot of that. I guess there is that secret ingredient of love that you definitely can taste here.
As far as what we do here at Grain Lab, and the reason we are different is because we have a lot more cleanliness...is how I would describe it. Everyone says that they are "fresh" but that's something our customers will actually tell us. As far as not having freezers, everything comes in fresh delivered every 2-3 days. Everything that we do is prepped in house, so it is a lot of that. I guess there is that secret ingredient of love that you definitely can taste here.
"You really gotta be here non-stop. There are a lot of things that are going on that you always need to be apart of. Not only that, as far as a family business goes, you really gotta be committed to it."
What are some tips you would give other people who are trying to start an upcoming business such as Grain Lab?
Don’t do it (laughs). Just kidding! I feel like starting a restaurant in general is one the hardest industries to part take in and the reasons for that are that you really gotta be here non-stop. There are a lot of things that are going on that you always need to be apart of. Not only that, as far as a family business goes, you really gotta be committed to it. That's where I begin, because if you are only going to be 90% into it, you're not going to succeed. It's something that you need to understand and be willing to make a lot of sacrifices to be here, but you will reap those rewards. If you take care of everyone in your family, on your team, and your customers, then you will see the dividend payout.
Don’t do it (laughs). Just kidding! I feel like starting a restaurant in general is one the hardest industries to part take in and the reasons for that are that you really gotta be here non-stop. There are a lot of things that are going on that you always need to be apart of. Not only that, as far as a family business goes, you really gotta be committed to it. That's where I begin, because if you are only going to be 90% into it, you're not going to succeed. It's something that you need to understand and be willing to make a lot of sacrifices to be here, but you will reap those rewards. If you take care of everyone in your family, on your team, and your customers, then you will see the dividend payout.
"If you take care of everyone in your family, on your team, and your customers, then you will see the dividend payout."
What were some visions you had of the restaurant before you opened it. Was it something you always wanted to do?
This is definitely one of those crazy stories where the puzzles just kind of came into place. My mom actually owned a franchised sandwich shop here before which was not doing very well. Our franchise lease was out but we still had a building lease towards it, so we canceled the franchise. I had a friend come in here just to do a quick facelift and during that time, there was a chef who was not quite a chef yet. He was a manager from another restaurant that had just quit his job. So, I brought him in and kind of had a vision... From there we were throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. Grain Lab was really born through that. I think just really came from a passion that we had in our family - my mom was always telling us how to eat right, cooking in house. So, this was something that we wanted to part take in. Just to be a little more health conscious and Burbank didn't really have that so we thought we would give it a try.
This is definitely one of those crazy stories where the puzzles just kind of came into place. My mom actually owned a franchised sandwich shop here before which was not doing very well. Our franchise lease was out but we still had a building lease towards it, so we canceled the franchise. I had a friend come in here just to do a quick facelift and during that time, there was a chef who was not quite a chef yet. He was a manager from another restaurant that had just quit his job. So, I brought him in and kind of had a vision... From there we were throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. Grain Lab was really born through that. I think just really came from a passion that we had in our family - my mom was always telling us how to eat right, cooking in house. So, this was something that we wanted to part take in. Just to be a little more health conscious and Burbank didn't really have that so we thought we would give it a try.
"I think it just really came from a passion that we had in our family...My mom was always telling us how to eat right, cooking in house. So, this was something that we wanted to partake in."
What is the key to running a successful family business?
Patience, communication and accountability are cornerstones we preach here. You can't be passive here. You have to call everyone out when it's due and also be accountable for yourself. When you have those two together they fall in line. Here we do our best to sit down on a weekly or monthly basis regarding if it's the back of house team of the front of house team or even if it's just me and my mom. We ask how much are we netting vs. what kind of improvements we need to be making and I translate that to both my back of house and front of house teams. It's very difficult and along with that it's both the back of house team and front of house team have different personalities and it's chaotic when personalities clash. I'm very envious and curious of how other larger restaurants do it when they have a general manager whose managing 50 plus employees. It all goes back to communicating and making sure everyone is in a positive work environment.
Patience, communication and accountability are cornerstones we preach here. You can't be passive here. You have to call everyone out when it's due and also be accountable for yourself. When you have those two together they fall in line. Here we do our best to sit down on a weekly or monthly basis regarding if it's the back of house team of the front of house team or even if it's just me and my mom. We ask how much are we netting vs. what kind of improvements we need to be making and I translate that to both my back of house and front of house teams. It's very difficult and along with that it's both the back of house team and front of house team have different personalities and it's chaotic when personalities clash. I'm very envious and curious of how other larger restaurants do it when they have a general manager whose managing 50 plus employees. It all goes back to communicating and making sure everyone is in a positive work environment.
Tim Kang with mom, Cindy Kang
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"Patience, communication and accountability are cornerstones we preach here. You can't be passive here. You have to call everyone out when it's due and also be accountable for yourself."
What's your mom's favorite dish?
She loves french fries. That's her guilty pleasure, obviously other than that, she's always eating healthy. That's her one things is to come here and get some french fries to snack on. Then for me, I would say I like a variety of things and it's just making the bowls. I feel like that kind of also what sets us apart from the other similar restaurants serving healthy food is the bowls that we make and the variety of things we have as far as the brown rice, couscous, quinoa, and grilled vegetables.
She loves french fries. That's her guilty pleasure, obviously other than that, she's always eating healthy. That's her one things is to come here and get some french fries to snack on. Then for me, I would say I like a variety of things and it's just making the bowls. I feel like that kind of also what sets us apart from the other similar restaurants serving healthy food is the bowls that we make and the variety of things we have as far as the brown rice, couscous, quinoa, and grilled vegetables.
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How did you come up with the name Grain Lab?
That definitely wasn't me. It was actually my friend who was revamping the restaurant. He was just like, “What do you think about Grain Lab Deli and Kitchen...” and I said, let's go with it. He works with a lot of wood so that was the aesthetics here and as far as what we were doing with with going back to the roots of the grains. That's what we wanted to portray. As far as the deli and kitchen, we were suppose to have a deli counter all that but it didn't work out so I don't know. Some people come in still thinking there is gonna be things like salami. It’s a little bit of a confusion, but it works out. |
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"I feel like that's also what sets us apart from the other similar restaurants serving healthy food is the bowls that we make."
How much do you think social media has impacted the amount of customers?
I know social media these days has a huge influence for a lot of these restaurants especially the ones that are very instagram friendly. You find a lot of these places with just instant buzz. We have a lot of vegan options. Some of are bowls are colorful as well and it's really just free marketing and you have to take advantage of it, if not, you're losing out. It's being able to have social influencers that you don't even know take a picture, and all of a sudden, you check you instagram and you're like, this person with 100,000 followers was just at my place! Why didn't he or she come up - I would love to have shaken hands and said thanks for all that. I don't really know the game too well but whenever that happens, I take advantage of the reposting. You understand that it's valuable and at the same time has a large scope that traditional advertising can't get to.
Located at
1737 N Victory Place, Burbank, CA 91502
I know social media these days has a huge influence for a lot of these restaurants especially the ones that are very instagram friendly. You find a lot of these places with just instant buzz. We have a lot of vegan options. Some of are bowls are colorful as well and it's really just free marketing and you have to take advantage of it, if not, you're losing out. It's being able to have social influencers that you don't even know take a picture, and all of a sudden, you check you instagram and you're like, this person with 100,000 followers was just at my place! Why didn't he or she come up - I would love to have shaken hands and said thanks for all that. I don't really know the game too well but whenever that happens, I take advantage of the reposting. You understand that it's valuable and at the same time has a large scope that traditional advertising can't get to.
Located at
1737 N Victory Place, Burbank, CA 91502
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