Last week, reported that Yumpling, a Taiwanese food truck, will open its first brick and mortar location at 49-11 Vernon Boulevard.1 We caught up with the owners of Yumpling recently to get a preview of what’s to come. Here’s what they had to say:
The Court Square Blog: Tell us about Yumpling.
Yumpling: Yumpling is co-owned by myself (Jeff), Howie and Chris. In 2015, I was working as an attorney and began exploring the possibility of starting a food business with my wife Carol. Howie, a college buddy who was operating his own school in Vietnam, took a trip with me to Taiwan and that laid the groundwork for the concept. Chris is a cousin who was working in recruitment at the time and shared a desire to open a food business so it was an easy decision to join up. We started by doing a series of dinner popups before opening at the LIC Flea market where we operated for a season in 2016. While at the LIC Flea, we saw that people were really taking to the concept and that’s when we knew we were on to something. The community was incredibly supportive and though that market wasn’t the largest, we met some amazing people who were passionate about the food and came out every weekend to eat it. We debuted our truck in June of 2017 and we’ve been operating it ever since.
TCSB: Why did you pick LIC for you first location?
YUM: It was a really easy decision to set down our roots in LIC. Having already done the market, we know that it’s a growing, tight-knit community that really supports its local businesses. It was always our thought that we’d come back if we ever got to the point where we were going to do a restaurant.
TCSB: Will you have the same menu as your truck or expanded menu now with the brick and mortar?
YUM: We’re keeping all the truck menu items but we do have plans to add a few items. Our menu will never be a large one as we feel it’s best to focus on a few things that we feel we can do really well. Among a couple of additions, beef noodle soup and vegetarian dumplings will finally be making an appearance and that’s something we’re really excited to be doing.
TCSB: When are you planning to open?
YUM: We are hoping for a soft open in late fall. We’ll continually post progress info on our Instagram account. Fingers crossed!
A view of 49-11 Vernon Boulevard