Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Victoriano Hernandez. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Victoriano , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers

The craziest thing that has ever happened while running Haochi has to be Christmas service 2020. We were popping up out of a well-established business, which was huge at the moment since we were only 4 months old. We were selling take-out dinners for the holiday and we were very eager. It was a great event on paper: we had a presale system placed so we could keep track of our cost for inventory, we were getting really good exposure, and we sold out well before we thought we would. Now, for what actually happened… on Christmas Day, I showed up at the location early in the morning and got everything in order before the rest of our staff arrived. As I’m double-checking our counts, I realized that the pick-up times were all set for the exact same time. I started to panic and went into survival mode, trying to see how can we make this happen in a make-shift kitchen with 4 induction burners scattered all around the restaurant (because if they were all connected to one outlet, the power would go out for the whole place!) Long story short, food was supposed to go up at 4 pm…. the last plate goes up at 9:30 pm. Our customers were waiting for more than 4 hours of food that I was not proud of. The food had no soul, just an essence of constantly being in the weeds. That one episode of “The Bear” reminds me of that night so much because it felt so real and kind of felt like they’re mocking me personally. Overall, I learned from the experience. I know my limits, and I try to push them constantly, but I’ll never do it on that scale again.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I got into the restaurant industry just a little under 10 years ago washing dishes at a Chinese restaurant. Now, I make dumplings, noodles, and am still washing dishes, but here at Union Beer Store. Full circle. Making this place my residency gives me a lot of creativity freedom. I have a base menu, but I’m free to make specials to see what works and what doesn’t. Luckily we also have a real awesome following that’s willing to experiment with me. It’s a great feeling to challenge what typical “bar food” really is.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I believe most chefs in recent times needed something to do during the pandemic. I was lucky enough to have 2 jobs at some fantastic restaurants, but I had too much free time, and things were getting pricy. So, I started making dumplings for my friends and coworkers. After that I got some calls to see if I could make some for different restaurants because they wanted them for family-meal. I figured if people were reaching out to me, then there must be a market out there for what I was doing. I ended up finding a place that was nice enough to let me pop-up twice a week… then it became 3 days… then 4. And now UBS is my home kitchen. I was fortunate enough that the first pop-up 2 years ago has led to finding a business partner, a leased space, and a new concept coming very soon.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I’ve had the opportunity of working around Miami and meet some amazing people that will always support along the way. Specifically, I have to say that my former bosses, Chef Alex and Chef Lucci from Boia De helped me create buzz around Haochi by posting it on their Instagram (I think my page grew from 100 followers to 800 that day.) I also have to thank Simon and Matt from El Bagel for letting us pop-up there and ride their coattails.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Haochi_at_union

Image Credits
Alex Hernandez Karina Rey