We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Yim Kwok. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Yim below.
Yim , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
This question is the most asked question for me! It is often a story starter. Fig & Ginger Honolulu started with the love for cooking and its ingredients. I wanted something that represents the significance of cuisines around the world, especially Western and Eastern cuisines. First glance at Fig & Ginger Honolulu, we specialize in chef-crafted grazing board and platter. I selected Fig because Fig plays a big role in Western cuisine and fig jam or dried fig have been used in a lot of grazing boards. I also love how Fig flowers bloom inside the fruit! So Fig seems to resonate with the food we make and serve when we first started the company. Ginger represents me and the food I grew up with, I am from Thailand but live in Hawaii. Ginger is used in a lot of Asian cuisines. Ginger flower is also grown a lot in Hawaii and I first greeted with ginger flower Lei when I first touched down on the island 20 years ago. The smell of it reminds me of how I fell in love with Hawaii. Ginger then represents who I am, where I am from and where I am now. The two ingredients are the best of both worlds and it shows no limitations on what we do here at Fig & Ginger Honolulu.
Yim , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Yim Kwok, the owner of Fig & Ginger Honolulu. My friend Jackie and I have started the company in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic outburst. We loved to share our love for food especially grazing boards to others and so one day we turned our little talks into ideas and turned ideas into reality. During that time, everyone were limited to social distance. So we know we needed it to be the most accessible and innovative things for them. We then created the most bespoke boards and platters for contactless and curbside pickup and it worked! We took Hawaii by storms and have served renowned companies and organizations such as Ritz Carlton Residences Waikiki Beach, Central Pacific Bank, American Savings Bank and Nordstrom. Fast forward to 2022, we knew it was time for a change and we were ready for a brick & mortar. Fig & Ginger Honolulu cafe was born.
We are a modern grazing & brunch concept food company located in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu. You can come to our restaurant to get brunch, espresso drinks, refreshments, grazing boards, platters & gifts. We are Hawaii’s first chef-crafted grazing boards creators. We take prides in sourcing our ingredients and innovative food pairings for our grazing boards and boxes. We also specialize in elevated catering and events including weddings, corporate functions and more. We choose seasonal, local and organic products when possible and available. Our space welcomes private parties, charcuterie workshops, collaborative events & special occasions for all. We are a team of chefs who experience in broad spectrum of foods, knowledge and skills. Our menu reflects Hawaiian, Asian and classical French cuisines. You can say we are flexible and versatile. Our strength lies in the abilities to serve you at full potentials, good food, beautiful presentation, impeccable service, fast communication and excellent customer service.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
My husband and I were chefs who worked in restaurants and when COVID occured, we were furloughed. We had to think fast how we would survive without a payroll and raise our baby. Our son was 7 months old at the time. We were scared and frustrated but we knew we got each other. And like many others, we looked into how can we start a small business. We looked at how we can turn our home cooking to sell. We started making home-cooked meal plan for family and friends. We then rented a commercial kitchen and started to gain more customers little by little. I also made cakes and desserts. We did pretty well for a short time, people started to trust us to do caterings and we grew into a small LLC. One year later, my friend, Jackie and I partnered up to open Fig & Ginger Honolulu to serve the most delicious, innovative and beautiful grazing boards to all areas in Oahu. We delivered those boards daily and approached customers on the most rewarded level. We catered to them when everyone was in a lockdown and could not enjoy the “norms”. We touched them by heart. We joined the farmer’s markets, pop ups and promotional outdoor events. We collaborated with other small businesses so we could support each other and got over COVID. Social media took a huge role at that time because everyone stuck at home and scrolled. We then turned this little niche into something bigger a year later and opened Fig & Ginger Honolulu Cafe. Looking back at it, I know running a small business is not easy especially a restaurant but I trust in my intuition. The amount of support from Hawaii community is also very important for me. I wouldn’t be here without everyone’s loyalty.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Social media took a significant role in building Fig & Ginger Honolulu brand. It was the only marketing tool we had during COVID, specifically Instagram. We started by brainstorming about our products, then the photoshoot and style we were going for. We then formed our targeted audiences, young executives, mid 30s-50s locals. We knew we wanted our brand to stand out but speak for itself. We didn’t want an obvious or loud presence. Our logo is the most crucial part. It is elegant, modern and timeless. The brand, the name Fig & Ginger is also fresh and different. We gathered all of these informations and then started a mood board. We constantly took filler images, products images and lifestyle images for Instagram and started to post. The introductions of us on the IG was about clean, modern and different food everyone saw back then. We liked bright edit and lots of negative space images. We set the color schemes and contents to build the IG grid. We studied the trend and followed seasonal occasions. We evolved with how the world is changing. We really took time to create a good IG posts. Audience sees this beautiful, organic, almost mysterious beginner posts then moved into more product focus and details. We wanted them to feel moved and drawn into the arts of our creations as well as the relation of lifestyle. I think the most important part of building the audience is how to make them your customers and then buy your products. So we started to do pop ups and approach them directly. We did a lot of giveaways with other businesses for crossed marketing. Our IG was mostly organic since we only paid for ads twice. We use app like Later to plan and auto post through the app. We use Canva to create flyers and announcements, etc. I think my advice is to know your brand really well and take it serious when you build your brand on social media. It is powerful.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.fghonolulu.com
- Instagram: @fig.gingerhonolulu
- Facebook: @fig.gingerhonolulu
- Yelp: Fig & Ginger Honolulu
- Other: Google : Fig & Ginger Honolulu
Image Credits
Courtney Mau
Celena Reyes