Today we’d like to introduce you to John Kim.
John and his wife, Sophia, moved back to Dallas in 2016 from California to raise their family and start PurePoke. Previously, John was a senior manager with Hillstone Restaurant Group, and co-founder of Pueblo in Costa Mesa, CA. Sophia classically trained under a Japanese chef who taught her about sushi and poke, which is a diced raw fish salad.
“Two years ago we made the leap, and my wife said she wanted to bring poke to north Dallas,” John said. “It was her vision, and I supported her. She is the master and brains behind the operation.” Although PurePoke is smaller in scale than Hillstone/Houston’s, the same daily principles of quality, attention to detail and consistency drive us to serve the best rice & sushi bowls in town.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It’s been a challenging but fulfilling road.
We had trouble deciding on a location and looked at 20+ spots in North Dallas. My wife on a whim, decided to take a drive to clear her head and stumbled into Hall Park/Park Plaza our current location.
Building our reputation with the local community took longer than we anticipated. Rome wasn’t built overnight and PurePoke certainly didn’t feel even semi built until about a year into it. Being in the middle of Hall Park (all offices) was great for lunch business but not good for dinner traffic. Our first couple of months, we literally would get excited if we had one person walk-in for dinner so there were a lot of quiet nights and days contemplating if we could sustain this business. However, we were committed to being a healthy dinner option and trusted that eventually word would get out. It did, it just took longer than we would have liked!!! 😉
PurePoke – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We (my wife and I) set out with a prayer that PurePoke could be used as a vessel of God. It’s on Pg. 1 of PurePoke’s training manual that we go through with every employee. We pray that in addition to serving great, high-quality food to our local community, we, as owners, get to use PurePoke on the daily to serve our employees & guests by treating them with genuine love and using the financial fruits of the business to give generously.
To remind ourselves regularly of this prayer, we purposely painted the bible verse Matthew 4:19 “And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” in our main dining room mural and printed it on every to go lid that goes out with each rice bowl. By seeing it visually daily, it keeps us in check and reminds us of what this is all about.
From an operations side, I take pride in running PurePoke like a baby Houston’s. Consistently executing high-quality food and timely service. We have fresh fish flown in daily, using only sustainable fish and organic greens. Everything is trimmed in house and prepared from scratch daily by my wife. It’s really a labor of love but makes us super proud to share our food.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success is being able to see our talents and previous experiences being put to great use in serving our employees and guests. We love the restaurant business because we like caring for people and sharing good food. Nothing makes me happier than to see guests REALLY enjoy their meal and walk out with a smile on their face. The same goes for being able to coach employees to work efficiently as a team and really enjoy & take pride in what they do and walking out at the end of the day knowing they worked hard and earned it.
Pricing:
- Small Bowl $8.50, one protein, unlimited toppings + miso soup
- Regular Bowl $11.50, two proteins, unlimited toppings + complimentary miso soup
- Dole Whip Ice Cream $2.75, save yourself a trip to Disneyland to enjoy genuine Dole Whip!
Contact Info:
- Address: 6750 Gaylord Pkwy #160, Frisco TX 75034
- Website: www.purepoketx.com
- Phone: 2143969933
- Email: purepoketx@gmail.com
- Instagram: @purepoketx
- Facebook: @purepoketx
- Yelp: @purepoketx
Image Credit:
Samantha Marie, @smfoodiepoet
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