We were lucky to catch up with Charlotte Stessel recently and have shared our conversation below.

Charlotte, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear your thoughts about family businesses.

Family business is tricky. People want discounts. They want free food or perks. They expected to be treated differently, like they are part of the elite or “in” crowd. Our business started out employing strictly family members and it is a double edged sword. On one hand we had instant and easily accessible employees. We already knew their work ethics, their schedules, and their future aspirations. On the other hand there were expectations of favoritism, more leniency than a non related employee might have, and blurred lines when it came to scheduling, showing up late, making mistakes, and the list goes on and on.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Charlotte, and I graduated from culinary school 6 years ago. My family and I moved to the city of Maricopa in AZ back in 2002. By 2015 I found myself in my mid forties with my children either grown or not needing as much attention as before, so I found that I finally had some time to pursue other interests. I never completed college before settling down and starting a family. I checked into degree programs at my local college and found that my basic classes that I took many years ago would still transfer the credits I had earned, I started with a few courses, then took a few more. All of a sudden I found myself one semester away from graduating with my degree in culinary arts.
After graduation I took a job in the meat department in a local store, wanting to learn as much as possible. I got to a point where I was getting bored and knew it was time to move on, so I found myself working the line in a restaurant in Scottsdale AZ. That did not last very long and I was trying to figure out where I wanted to be with my husband, and then the idea of opening a food truck came along. We live in a very small community, landlocked by tribal land, and the city was still new and growing. At that time I believe there were only a handful of food trucks in our city, and we wanted to do something different. I am 100% Korean, and was born and raised in CA, but have lived in AZ since 1989. All my children were born in AZ, and it was my second son who suggested that I bring Korean cuisine to our city. I loved the idea of cooking Korean food, but I knew that I didn’t want it to be limited to one ethnic flavor, so we decided to mix it up. Asian Seoul was the name my husband and I came up with, and though the heart is Korean with our bulgogi, we also have fried rice, teriyaki, orange chicken, and fusion dishes.
Our most popular items would have to be our loaded bulgogi fries (crispy fries topped with ribeye beef bulgogi, shredded mozzarella cheese, bacon, green onion, and drizzled with our sriracha mayo), shrimp fried rice, and crab rangoon eggrolls. We have worked very hard over the last 3 1/2 years testing new items, streamlining current ones, and trying to set a menu that keeps our customers coming back. We are committed to staying in touch with our local community as we have a very strong small town feel to our city. We don’t know of anywhere else where a person can post for help and have dozens of people reaching out, whether it be as simple as needing a ride somewhere or needing help with groceries or just asking for some simple advice. Maricopa, overall, still considers itself a small town, and we are so proud to be a part of it,
Sometimes, when we are busy cooking, and are just trying our best to get orders completed and out, I take a moment to look around at my crew and all that we have accomplished, and it’s a wonderful feeling. We can’t please everyone, and it can be a hard pill to swallow, but we can keep trying and learning. No one in this business is ever done learning.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Working in the food industry, whether it be in a food truck or in a brick and mortar, is not easy. Customers can be demanding. Employees can be demanding. And time itself can be the worst of all. Sometimes there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done that needs to be. Our day doesn’t start with the time we open and ends with our closing our. We will be working many hours before we open to get everything ready, and after we close there are hours of cleanup and planning for the following day, Any days we have off are filled with shopping for supplies and scheduling our next work week. So many people out there tend to think that because we own a business that we must be rich. In fact, we once had a person give us a negative review because we were only open 3 days a week during the middle of Summer in AZ, on a food truck! People don’t realize that we don’t have the same air conditioning as a brick and mortar location, and that our employees nearly melt when it is 110 degrees outside, since it is generally much hotter in the truck in front of the flat top! We have had a standing rule for the last two Summers for our employees, “If the weather forecast is for 114 degrees or more, we will not be open”. We can only take so much. Many food truck businesses in AZ shut down for the Summer, but we have continued to do our best to be there to serve our customers.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Our main outlet on social media has been Facebook, and now Instagram, and we have our own business page there where we post our menu, hours, and anything new that is going on daily. Because we are a food truck we are very fluid and things can change from day to day. The first year we were open was very taxing, tiring, and sometimes depressing, We had to learn how to react to the negatives as well as the positives. We could not afford to get into arguments on social media with customers, and we always try to learn, even from the rude and unhappy comments. Constantly asking for people to be honest with their opinions has helped us improve our food and service tremendously, but we had to learn not to get mad or take offense to the comments that made us feel bad as well.
Posting online has also given us the chance to support other local businesses in our community as well. COVID was a trying time, but by supporting and encouraging others, lifting them up when hard times hit, and using a little understanding that it is not always all about us, our reputation in our community has grown unbelievably over the last few years.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: instagram.com/asianseoul.copa
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/asianseoul.maricopa

Image Credits
Copa TV Charlotte Stessel w/Asian Seoul. Miller Dao with SVGK 2022 Pinal County food truck battle bulgogi fries shrimp fried rice thai mango sticky rice kalbi lunch bento japanese chicken curry wonton noodle soup