Students and community members can find pad thai, Korean tacos and subs at the same store on Cecil B. Moore Avenue.
Hue Fusion Market, located at 16th Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue, has brought a dose of fresh and ready-to-order selections to the area. The store opened its doors in March. The market thrives on the idea of a convenience store with quick and fresh food, said Hue co-owner Joe Yun.
The shop serves up a mixture of American and Asian cuisine. Some of the specialty items on the menu include Korean tacos, K-Sadilla, K-Wings, Korean hot dogs and Korean hoagies – the creative collaborations of brothers Joe and John Yun.
“We wanted to provide fresh food that might not be available in the area,” John Yun said.
The brothers said they renovated the location from the ground up.
“We wanted to bring something to the area that no one has seen in this area,” John Yun said.
He said one of the reasons he hasn’t done much marketing for the new establishment yet is because he wanted to make sure that people in the neighborhood truly enjoyed it first.
After doing some research on the types of options available to Temple students, the brothers concluded bringing their business just off Main Campus was the right decision. Since the market first opened its doors, it’s been booming with college students.
“College students want food that is quick and convenient,” John Yun said.
The brothers wanted to give people a healthy alternative, so everything is freshly cooked and prepped in the morning, he said.
Some of the items are prepared ready to order, including sushi and sandwiches. The brothers said they recognized the interest from students to have authentic Asian cuisine and have a fully stocked section of the store with ingredients for various dishes.
“A lot of the students study abroad in Japan and would like authentic food when they return, and we are providing this,” Joe Yun said.
While the brothers said they did not originally picture themselves in the food industry, they are making strides with a sense of innovation.
They were given the opportunity to apply what they had learned from working with their parents for several years along with their artistic knowledge. The brothers said they wanted to create a welcoming environment through not only the design aesthetics of the store, but also the customer service.
The brothers graduated from Pratt Institute in New York City, where both studied animation. Then, they decided to take their careers in a new direction.
“We figured out quickly that we don’t like drawing that much, because animation requires like thousands of drawings for like, a couple seconds of film,” Joe Yun said.
The Yun family has a long history of doing business in Philadelphia. Their parents are the owners of several small franchises, including a sushi bar, a noodle house and a pizza shop. The brothers decided to take what their parents had already developed and place it in a different neighborhood.
“My brother and I felt like the younger crowd is what we should target and reach to, because we felt like we could relate to them,” John Yun said.
The Pennsylvania natives share a special affinity and connection with Philadelphia.
“Even though we went to school in New York, we never stopped [representing] Philadelphia,” John Yun said.
Beyond the North Philadelphia location, the brothers said they hope to expand their business to Drexel, as well as other schools in Philadelphia.
Along with learning from their parents, the Yuns credit much of their success to the creative skills they developed while attending art school.
“I was able to apply out artistic knowledge to the visuals of the store. I did everything from designing the interior to all of the signs and everything,” Joe Yun said.
The store is designed with an all white interior and special lighting to allow the products to really standout.
So far, the response from Temple students is excitement about the variety of fresh and ready-to-order products in the store, Jon Yun said.
The brothers said they hope to create a welcoming environment in the store.
“I wanted to create a culture in the store where it’s friendly, it’s accepting of all different types of people. When you come into the store not only do you like the design, but…[that it’s a] neighborhood shop,” Joe Yun said.
Priscilla Ward can be reached at priscilla.ward@temple.edu.
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