Transcript of Interview with Danny Lee
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1 Transcript of Interview with Danny Lee Asian American Voices in the Making of Washington, D.C.’s Cultural Landscape DC Oral History Collaborative Narrator: Danny Lee Date of Interview: August 20, 2018 Location: Mandu (453 K St NW, Washington, DC 20001) Interviewer: Crystal HyunJung Rie Audio Specialist: Dave Walker Biographical Information: Danny was born in Washington, D.C. in 1981 to Korean immigrant parents. He grew up in Falls Church and Vienna, Virginia. In the 1980s, his mother ran a deli in Old Town Alexandria while his father worked as a CPA. While he was in high school, his father passed away, which led his mother to open an American Chinese franchise restaurant in Reagan National Airport. He helped out his mother’s business with his friends. After graduating from the University of Virginia, he worked as a paralegal in a law firm where his sister used to work in D.C. Through working at the law firm, he met someone working at a restaurant, Oceanaire Seafood Room, and took an office manager/event coordinator job at Oceanaire. He was trained by chef Rob Klink on both managerial and culinary side of food business. As his mother’s lease at the airport ended, the Lee family decided to open a Korean restaurant in D.C. He left Oceanaire to join the family business. In 2006, the Lee family opened first Mandu in Dupont Circle and later opening a second Mandu in Mount Vernon Triangle. In 2017, Danny, along with Scott Drewno and Andrew kim, successfully opened CHIKO in Capitol Hill and has been expanding his restaurant business. Danny has been playing an important role in bringing chefs in D.C. together through Anju, pop-up events, and creating a unique chef community in D.C Description: Danny Lee discusses growing up the child of immigrants with influences of Korean culture, food, and language. Lee discusses the impact of his father's early death on the family and his mother's restaurant enterprises after his death. Lee discusses his culinary training, running a restaurant with his mother, and collaborating with other Washington, D.C. area chefs to form the Fried Rice Collective. Finally, Lee discusses his emphasis on providing a healthy work environment and the impact Korean and Chinese fine dining has made in his life. D: Danny Lee (Narrator) C: Crystal HyunJung Rie (Interviewer) DW: Dave Walker (Audio Specialist) C: Today's date is August 20th, 2018. It's 11:43 am. We're gonna be interviewing Danny Lee of Mandu and CHIKO. We have Dave Walker, who is an audio specialist, here. We're gonna be interviewing Danny Lee about his experience growing up in Washington, D.C. and Northern 2 Virginia and his experience of opening Korean restaurants, and later Korean Chinese restaurant. Can you tell us about where and when were you born? D: I was born in 1981 in Washington, D.C., so I'm the one of a few individuals who lives in the city who was actually born in the city. At a Columbia Hospital for Women, which is on Foggy Bottom and it's funny. Now it's a hair salon. Like the basement is like a bunch of businesses and my friends has a hair salon there. So I was getting my hair cut there a couple years ago. I was like, “isn’t this building used to be a hospital?” and she was like, “yeah, how'd you know that?” “I was born here.” [laughs] so born in D.C., but my family raised me in Northern Virginia kind of started off in the Falls Church area. And then for the majority of my childhood, I was raised in Vienna and then yeah, so we've, my mom still lives in Vienna. C: then when you're born in D.C., do you know where which neighborhood did your family live? D: So they lived, they lived in Arlington at the time but the hospital that they wanted to, you know, go to when I was born was the D.C. hospital. C: Do you have any memories of Falls Church? D: Yeah, I mean I still, you know, I still go there. It's not that far outside of the district. So, you know the neighborhood that we grew up in still very similar to how I remember it when I grew up. I just drove by there the other day. So it's a very kind of classic [pause], you know, you know small family neighborhood Falls Church. It looks like straight out of The Wonder Years or something, you know, just very, you know, I think it was built in the 50s or 60s, you know, and there's like a local grocery store across the street, one gas station, but then surroundings just as a little neighborhood, but then surrounding you can see all these big mansions and everything else but that little housing complex that we grew up in is still there. C: then how was the neighbor? Like, can you describe the neighbors D: the neighbors? Ethnic. Yeah, it was, you know, I think back then, it was it was, [pause] you know definitely, I wouldn't say low income housing but you know, between like low income and middle class, you know neighborhood where especially you know, immigrant families could rent or purchase a home and raise their families in, still have access to good public schools, you know still Fairfax County which even back then was one of the best public school systems in the country. But yeah, I remember, you know, the neighbors to our left were from India. So I remember going to their house all the time and eating curries when I was like 4 and 5, you know, you know, if few Korean families, Chinese, Latino, it was very, very multicultural. I think Falls Church in general is, you know, Falls Church is pretty multicultural and ethnically diverse. C: then how long did you live there? D: So I was in Falls Church, maybe till I was like 7 and then we moved to Vienna right near Wolf Trap (Hotel) that definitely was not as diverse. But again, you're not talking about a significant 3 distance in between the two so the natural neighborhood I grew up in was a really close community. There's a community center with the pools all the kids know each other all the families know each other, you know, it's very community-driven. So, you know, we were one of the few non-white families living there, but I don't, [pause] even looking back on it now, you know, we weren't treated any differently or anything that, it was very welcoming neighborhood. [00:04:53] C: Then when you're living over there, did have conscious about your Korean heritage? D: you know, when you go to school, you know, the elementary school I went to was you know, almost a hundred percent white, you know, and you know, when you become aware of it when people automatically assume you're Chinese, you know, and you know, when you're little kids that's what you, especially back then in the 80s. That's what, [pause] Chinese was equated to Asian. You know, like what's, there wasn't a huge, and also back then Oriental was used, you know, so that's when you became aware of, you know, your own identity is like, you know, I'm not Chinese, I'm Korean and you know, I think even back then, you know, you're a kid and you're dealing with other kids your age. So it's hard to fully grasp, you know, that but looking back on it, you know, I think that's where I first started to kind of identify with my own individual heritage. C: then did you hear about Korea from your parents? D: Yeah, and also we have relatives here and we had relatives visit us from Korea. My parents took me back there. I have one older sister as well. They took us there when I was like five so I was pretty young my first trip back and my grandfather had a farm just outside of Seoul at that time. So my earliest memories of Korea are actually not the Seoul we see now with, you know, all the lights and stuff. It was waking up with the roosters, you know, at the crack of dawn picking eggs, you know, hiking in the mountains like very rural, you know, Korean country life was my city. C: Do you remember the name of the city? D: The name of the farm was called Jin-gwan but it's has since been, [pause] you know, it’s basically just outside of Seoul, basically in Seoul but it was, you know, one of the more under developed areas because it was kept to be this like beautiful kind of nature preserve almost, so we, or my extended family after my grandfather passed decided to sell it to the government and kind of use that money for everyone to open up different businesses or whatever or set up a college funds and stuff like that. So yeah, now it's, I think very developed but back then it was a you know, but, you know around there, we still have like a family like burial ground and stuff like that so. 4 C: My family lives right outside of Seoul. I grew up in Ilsan.