Today we’d like to introduce you to Sylvia Yi.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Our little restaurant got its humble beginnings from a family whose stubbornness outweighs fear and grit that can sand concrete. From Korea, to Hawaii, to Texas where all three Yi sisters were born, one thing remained constant: my dad was always a fan of fried chicken in all its forms—especially my mom’s Korean fried chicken.
After many years of financial hardship hustling our way through janitorial work, construction, and concrete polishing, our family got a chance to bring our roots to life in the city that all Koreans in DFW know and love: Carrollton.
When covid hit and the world stood still, Toridori was quietly being born from the ashes and the echoes of the old world. Around that time, a new law allowed alcohol delivery to support struggling restaurants, and we had an idea. What if we added alcohol to our bubble tea? The concept of fried chicken and bubble tea wasn’t new, but we added our own Korean twist (with a couple kicks). Even with no experience, we devised the whole restaurant from the ground up after painstaking research and analysis. We couldn’t compete with the big franchises around us, so we forged our own path with our own quirks. With my mom’s natural talent in cooking and my ever-learning palate with its own mind, we charged ahead with big dreams and big hopes and big hands (meaning big portions in Korean) for big appetites for our fellow Texans and new friends from all states and countries.
We would never serve what we wouldn’t eat ourselves, so we pride ourselves on the quality and taste of the humble food and drinks we make. I’m allergic to some alcohol and don’t even drink personally, so making DFW’s first alcoholic bubble tea was quite the experience! It was fun to experiment with unique flavors and finding interesting profiles for both our regular and alcoholic bubble tea.
We learned how to wear many hats ourselves and had a very humbling and interesting learning experience. How many people do we know who can say that they rode around on a scissor lift while figuring out how high to place table lights when designing a restaurant layout with nothing but sketches and watched it come to life right before their eyes? Piece by piece we witnessed our dreams come to life and after a year or so of headaches, research, and bellies full of fried chicken and tea, Toridori was finally born in 2022.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Building a restaurant with no professional kitchen, design, or branding experience had many monumental tasks and struggles. I constantly researched and analyzed existing systems and observed how restaurants and cafes ran their businesses. I highly enjoy analyzing systems and breaking them down to the most efficient ways while adapting it to current ways in addition to building it towards what the future might demand. I built Toridori with scalability in mind. The simple food and drink menu could easily translate to other cities, while still allowing for potential special locations, like a more pocha (pub) focused location.
A lot of what I built was inspired by corporations that had access to millions of dollars in R&D, but adapted for our humble needs. After all, if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Except the alcoholic bubble tea! That was a fun foray into the unknown, but it’s rewarding to see the twinkling light in our customers’ eyes when they see bubble tea + booze shining on the bright menu screen.
The Yi family has always believed in humble simplicity paired with high standards for everything. We believe in quality over quantity, so we kept our menu smaller and added flavors that were tried and true, but also adding new unique twists on existing classics.
Although I studied art and writing, I am not an interior designer, nor am I an architect. But I found myself having to make decisions balancing budget and taste in design and figuring out what type of equipment, gas, light tracks, voltages etc we needed. Numbers are my nightmare, but I had to grit my teeth and try to crunch the numbers. It was like walking on a tightrope in the Earth’s mesosphere where it’s difficult to breathe. But at the end of the day, I am happy with what we came up with. It’s comfortable like a cafe with the quality of a restaurant—including all handmade wooden tables that my sister painstakingly sanded in the cold wintertime. This was also her first time woodworking and boy, was it a project to behold.
I remember how anxiety bubbled beneath the surface as we drove a large, empty van on the world’s most windiest day past Lewisville Lake and Denton to pick up ash wood for the tables (which, I do not recommend due to its porous nature even if it’s beautiful!) because the prices of premade tables were exorbitant. I remember the way our hands stung and dried out in the cold winter as our brains dissociated due to having to sand a million tables in the frigid winter.
I remember seeing the blank walls and deciding to dust off the art skills I had forsaken and drawing doodles and a big mural to fill the space and design. To be honest, I bought the colorful cushions we have based off the mural I had already drawn—not the other way around! In the end, I simply trusted every Yi family member to bring their talents, support, and expertise to bring this restaurant to life. And we all did. And for that, I’m so thankful.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Toridori?
Toridori is a family-owned and operated restaurant known for its unique twist on Korean fried chicken and bubble tea. Especially our signature boozy bubble tea, first in DFW! We focus on high quality and generous portions, creating bold, balanced flavors in every drink and every sauce on our menu from dine in orders to carry outs or deliveries to catering events.
We’re most proud of the standards we hold ourselves to. From families and friends to co-workers and neighbors, we welcome anyone who loves to sit, chat, and build connections over good food and great drinks.
Beyond our menu, we’re also passionate about supporting the community. Our restaurant offers space for local small businesses and vendors to sell their goods and we collaborate by creating new and unique custom drinks based on their events.
We enjoy being a space for people to chill, work, or even have birthday parties and life events one crispy bite and bubbly sip at a time.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
For interest in collaborations, please email aloha.toridori@gmail.com, follow us on instagram & tikok @toridori_tx. Support us by stopping by and giving us a try!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://eattoridori.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/toridori_tx/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Toridori-100092304190350/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/toridori
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/toridori-carrollton
