“When I was a kid I must have told my mom that I wanted to be a doctor and I think she took that a little too seriously. I didn’t realize that it wasn’t my own dream until after college. I had already taken the Medical College Admission Test and was applying to a couple of med schools and I hated everything about it. That’s when I started thinking about what I really wanted to do."

"My business partner and I met in college. He’s had a couple of businesses and he saw my passion for desserts so we started talking about possibilities. We didn’t originally plan to start a dessert waffle shop. We were planning to do a made-to-order cookie business with all types of toppings. The problem was that we couldn’t figure out how to get the cookies to cook quickly enough. We did a lot of experimenting and landed on dessert waffles."

"Before my partner and I started Waffie, we saved up a lot of money and took a two week road trip. Our goal was to try all of the waffle places we could find. We wanted to get a sense of our competition and how we could make a better product. We learned a lot. To our surprise, it turns out that most waffle places don’t make their waffles fresh like we do. 

Explaining to customers what our concept is all about has been one of the most challenging things as a new business owner. Sometimes customers come in asking for bacon and eggs as they assume waffles equal breakfast so we explain our food concept. We do make chicken and waffles, but everything else is a dessert waffle. Once new customers give us a shot, they understand our unique dessert experience."

"My mom was initially against me opening the waffle shop. I think she still wants me to go to med school. Both of my parents are Korean immigrants who have owned small businesses and worked very, very hard to give me a good life. Right now they run a cafe in the historic part of Dundalk so they know how much grunt work is involved in operating a restaurant. I don’t think they envisioned me taking a similar path, but I love it."

"I enjoy working with our team and meeting new customers. I like everything about it. Seeing my customers' expressions when they eat our waffles makes me so happy, warm and fuzzy inside. It’s hard for me to put into words, it’s just a feeling. I love everything about it."