{"id":23083,"date":"2022-08-03T18:52:34","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T18:52:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/?p=23083&post_type=story"},"modified":"2022-08-05T19:57:49","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T19:57:49","slug":"gourmet-getaway","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/gourmet-getaway\/","title":{"rendered":"Gourmet Getaway"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2010, Kaleb Harrell \u201904<\/strong> and\u00a0Wayne Yung \u201906<\/strong> got a call from\u00a0their friend, Allen Lo, that would\u00a0change their lives. He had found a\u00a0spot on Mills Avenue and wondered\u00a0if they were interested in opening\u00a0a restaurant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said, \u2018Hell no, you\u2019re crazy,\u201d\u00a0says Harrell. Within a couple of weeks,\u00a0Yung told Lo he was in. So did a fourth\u00a0friend, Kin Ho.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point I had a lot of FOMO\u00a0[fear of missing out], and I was like,\u00a0\u2018I guess if Wayne\u2019s doing it, I\u2019ll jump\u00a0in,\u2019 \u201d says Harrell.<\/p>\n

The crazy idea paid off. Fast forward\u00a012 years, and the four friends have\u00a0successfully opened 12 Hawkers Asian\u00a0Street Food locations spanning six\u00a0states in the South, with three more\u00a0under construction. In June, their\u00a0flagship restaurant was recommended in\u00a0the inaugural Florida Michelin Guide \u2014\u00a0solidifying the success of their venture.<\/p>\n

The name is a nod to \u201chawker\u201d street\u00a0food stalls found in Asia, and the menu\u00a0features authentic, boldly flavored\u00a0foods from Malaysia, China, Thailand\u00a0and Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

From Best Friends to Business Partners<\/h2>\n

Harrell and Yung\u2019s friendship\u00a0began in the halls of Winter Haven\u00a0High School in Florida, over 25\u00a0years ago. The two met as first-year\u00a0students and quickly bonded over\u00a0an appetite for adventure that later\u00a0evolved into an entrepreneurial\u00a0spirit. They both graduated from\u00a0UCF, where Harrell studied finance<\/a>\u00a0and Yung studied management with\u00a0an entrepreneurship track<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing around a community of\u00a0entrepreneurial minds solidified what\u00a0I wanted to do after school,\u201d says Yung.\u00a0\u201cIt helped me overcome the fear of failure\u00a0and believe it was achievable to start my\u00a0own business.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduation, Harrell and Yung\u00a0worked in real estate until they quit their\u00a0jobs to launch a marketing company,\u00a0landing clients like Disney and UPS.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the best learning experience,\u201d\u00a0says Harrell. \u201cThat\u2019s where we really\u00a0cut our teeth on entrepreneurship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Building Hawkers<\/h2>\n

After agreeing to open the restaurant,\u00a0Harrell and Yung got to work with Lo\u00a0and Ho. Yung has family roots in China\u00a0and Vietnam, Lo was raised in Malaysia,\u00a0and Ho grew up in Hong Kong. The team\u00a0wanted to bring inspiration and flavors\u00a0from across Asia into their restaurant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is to transport our guests\u00a0to the streets of Asia, and make them\u00a0feel like they\u2019re somewhere different for\u00a0about two hours,\u201d says Harrell, who was honored with the UCF College of Business\u00a0Entrepreneurial Alumni award this year<\/a>. \u201cIt comes\u00a0down to the neon lights in the building,\u00a0the music we play, and obviously the\u00a0biggest part of it is really great, authentic\u00a0street food that\u2019s served on the streets\u00a0of Asia today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many recipes on the Hawkers menu\u00a0come straight from the families of the\u00a0restaurant\u2019s co-founders. The dumplings\u00a0served at Hawkers are the same\u00a0dumplings that Yung\u2019s family shipped by\u00a0the case to the best friends in college.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat recipe has been in our family\u00a0for generations,\u201d says Yung. \u201cAnd a lot\u00a0of Allen\u2019s family members were actual\u00a0street hawkers in Malaysia, serving\u00a0the exact same recipes we serve in our\u00a0restaurants today.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the first Hawkers location\u00a0opened, it was with a team of eight:\u00a0the four founders and their four\u00a0girlfriends, now their four wives.\u00a0While their girlfriends served tables,\u00a0the founders ran the kitchen line and\u00a0built a restaurant company.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the short version, without all\u00a0the blood, sweat and tears,\u201d says Harrell.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Growing Hawkers<\/h2>\n

Within a year of opening, the four\u00a0founders set their sights on expansion.\u00a0On the day the second Hawkers opened\u00a0in Jacksonville, Florida, it immediately\u00a0beat the original location\u2019s sales record.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that year, the four of us felt that\u00a0we could overcome anything that got\u00a0thrown at us moving forward,\u201d says Yung.\u00a0\u201cThat year really grew our confidence\u00a0about being able to scale this concept.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team also built a wood shop run by\u00a0Yung and Ho, where they create almost\u00a0every piece of furniture in the Hawkers\u00a0restaurants.<\/p>\n

\u201cOutside designers and architects\u00a0didn\u2019t understand our vision and what\u00a0we wanted for our restaurants,\u201d says\u00a0Yung. \u201cBringing all that in-house just\u00a0made sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

What’s Next?<\/h2>\n

By 2030, Harrell and Yung hope to\u00a0open 100 Hawkers restaurants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking to be the household\u00a0name in casual Asian dining nationally,\u201d\u00a0says Harrell.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, you can often find\u00a0the friends enjoying their favorite\u00a0Hawkers dishes. Yung raves about the\u00a0pan-fried pot stickers and roti canai,\u00a0a Malaysian flatbread.<\/p>\n

Harrell likes the Korean fried wings\u00a0and the curry laksa, a ramen soup with\u00a0a Malaysian curry base.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to say you can\u2019t go\u00a0out and find the same dishes anywhere,\u00a0but what you can\u2019t find is those\u00a0dishes, that menu, in the\u00a0environment that we\u2019ve\u00a0created,\u201d Harrell says. \u201cI don\u2019t really think\u00a0there is something that\u2019s\u00a0comparable to us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23184,"template":"","categories":[999],"tags":[324,1452],"class_list":["post-23083","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumknights","tag-college-of-business","tag-ucf-alumni","issues-1575","issues-fall-2022"],"yoast_head":"\nHow 2 UCF Alums Help Co-Found Hawkers Asian Street Fare<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Best friends turned business partners Kaleb Harrell \u201904 and\u00a0Wayne Yung \u201906 transport restaurant guests to the streets of Asia.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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