We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bonn Rassavong a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Bonn, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

The restaurant was born out of the covid Pandemic. I’ve been in kitchens for close to 15 years. It’s really all I’ve ever known. When the shut down happened I was out of work and had no idea how I was going to survive. I’ had done a few burger pop ups at local bars in my neighborhood. So while trying to figure out what was next, I approached my friend (and now business partner), who owns a coffee shop in our neighborhood, about selling burgers out of my garage to keep income coming. He was 100% in and the next week we started. Fridays and Saturdays nights we moved everything out of my garage and moved in restaurant equipment. We would post on our personal Instagrams that we were selling backyard burgers. Our first night weekends sold over 100 burgers. We kept that momentum for about a year until the shut down was lifted. We were heavily supported by our neighbors and friends who continue to support us to this day. We are so grateful and will never take that for granted. When it came down to opening a brick and mortar a couple years later in the neighborhood we started in, we created a kickstarter to fund the build out. We hit our goal in one week and a majority of the donors were our neighbors and original costumers!

Bonn, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Bonn Rassavong. I’m the Chef and Co-owner of “Doinks Burger Joint” a pandemic-born restaurant in the Collinwood neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio! We started Doinks in my garage during the pandemic shutdown in 2020. I’ve been a cook for about 15 years working in restaurants around the city and recently started in a new kitchen. My partner Peter Brown owns a local Cafe and Roastery, Six Shooter Coffee. These times were very concerning and uncertain for the both of us, along with everyone else affected by the shut down. Peter and I were having coffee and shooting ideas back-and-forth on how we were going to continue to bring in any kind of income and tread water until everything starts to normalize. Earlier that month I had done a burger pop up at our local bar, so I pitched him the idea of selling burgers and fries out of my garage. He was immediately in and we started the following weekend. We advertised to our neighbors and on our own personal Instagrams selling just one burger and fry box on Friday and Saturday nights. We set up time slots people would fill so costumers could just pull up get there order and head out, not causing any kind of crowd, to stay somewhat Covid cautious. We had our first pop up April of 2020 and lasted to the end of the year, selling out nearly every weekend.

Im most proud of my neighborhood who heavily supported us from the garage all the way through opening our brick and mortar in Collinwood. Our community is small but very active and supportive of anyone trying to better our neighborhood. I’m extremely grateful for them and honored to establish a business in this community.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I met my partner Peter Brown at his coffee shop, Six Shooter Coffee. My wife and I just moved in the neighborhood in 2015 next door to the cafe. My wife got a job there pretty soon after and is still with them to this day! Peter and I became close pretty quickly. We did not have a ton in common at first but we clicked. He was always very welcoming and easy to get along with. He is very supportive of other peoples ideas and would help out anyway he could. My first go at a “business” was actually with Six Shooter doing wholesale sandwiches. We went from new neighbors, to boys overnight. Our friendship is very natural, relaxed, and lighthearted. We are supportive of each other but very honest.

Our friendship means a lot to me so when we decided to open Doinks for real we agreed that our friendship has to come first.
Before we started we discussed very clearly what we wanted out of this company and each other. We made a very detailed partnership agreement stating our positions in the company and what our responsibilities were. We discussed our commitments to the company and what our limits were. Once we agreed on our vision and accepted our roles and commitments to each other, we went for it.

Clear communication ,honesty, and self-awareness is the name of the game. Its better to know who some is instead of hoping they become what you want.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I originally went to college for automotive and diesel. I always had an interest in cars and was fairly decent with my hands. I was in the industry for three years and I quickly learned interest does not equal a career . The environment and culture was not something I wanted in my life, and honestly I was a terrible mechanic. I’m happy I realized it quickly and didn’t just push through for security reasons. You have a responsibility to your family and community but you don’t need to kill apart yourself to achieve it.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @doinksburgerjoint
• Facebook: @doinksburgerjoint
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6ly9KGuVTk

Image Credits
Cover Photo – Photographer: Breanna Kulkin