Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Chang and Ryan In.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jennifer and Ryan. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Ryan and I arrived in Houston on August 1st, 2011 from Los Angeles California. I found a job the first week I arrived but Ryan was unemployed. A week later, Ryan got an interview and got an offer but he did not have all his I-9 information to start. All his documents were in Storage with the moving company. The moving company won’t delivery our belonging until we got a place. At the time, we were staying with a friend. Since Ryan did not have his I-9 documents his offer was null.
During the drive to his interview on Cypresswood Drive toward Interstate 45, he encountered a bad traffic in the school zone. Since the traffic was a stop and go, he then saw a lease sign of an Allstate building. At that moment, in his mind “location location location” .. geez weez.. this is a great opportunity to have our own business. Later that afternoon, he came running home and said… we should be doing our own business and the opportunity is endless… and let go and look. When we got to the lease location, we saw lots of school buses, students and surrounding business, in our mind “thinking wow”… a lot of potential customers even in the afternoon not to say that morning business hour will be with students, there it was a super traffic area for business.
So, as we are driving back home we start thinking about what we want to do and that required less capital. With that in mind, we thought of doing a donuts business as Ryan’s family do have donuts experience and business in Dallas. So now comes the hardest part, what should we name our business that is different and easy for the customer to remember about our business and products……. ah ha… ICY Donuts was born and open to the public in late December 2011 until the present day.
Has it been a smooth road?
It wasn’t a smooth sailing as we thought but leasing out space within a day was crazy now come to think of it. We faced construction challenges where the contractor does not come to do their work on time. Pulling the permit from the city, working in getting the health department and food manager safety training was all new to us. Plus getting electric to our space was a challenge… not like in California.
Ryan and I learned that setting up new business wasn’t easy but it was the greatest experience we both had faced together. We even do our own construction work… we had laid all the tiles in our shop from ground up and paint the wall ourselves, every day when we walk into our shop we feel the sense of comfort just like our own home and we are so proud of it.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I wear many hats in my establishment as it is our owned business. I am the chef, the baker, the fryer, the cashier, the salesperson, the accountant and customer service. My husband is the baker and I am all the above.
We specialized in Donuts, Kolaches, breakfast egg rolls, breakfast bun, breakfast tacos, breakfast Croissant sandwiches, donut sandwiches, cinnamon roll sandwiches, Boba drinks and coffee. We are known for everything in our shop as we focus on gourmet products.
We are most proud of as we offer the best high quality to our customer and we offered the best customer service in town. Our customer are mostly repeated customers and many of them had a choice as we have 7 donut shops nearby us, some are less than a mile away.
What set us apart is our products, our exceptional customer service, breakfast egg rolls and Vietnamese coffee. We are the only shop that carried breakfast egg rolls in the whole 50 states, our customer coming from as far as Katy, Magnolia, Pasadena and Kingwood for the breakfast eggrolls and Vietnamese coffee. Breakfast egg roll is our main driver for new business/customer from all over Houston.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Yes, most definitely. If I must open my 3rd shop, it will still be in Houston!!
Pricing:
- Donuts/Cake – range from $.0.75 to $0.95
- Filled Donuts – $1.50 to $1.75
- Bear Claw/Apple Fritter – $1.75
- Kolaches – $1.35 to $2.25
- Breakfast Egg Roll / Bun – $3.25
- Breakfast Taco – $2.25 to $2.50
- Croissant sandwich (bacon/sausage) – $3.50
- Donut Sandwhich – $3.25
- Bacon Bar donut – =$1.25 to $2.75
- Boba Drinks – $3.25 to $4.50
Contact Info:
- Address: 19784 Interstate 45 North Spring, TX 77373
- Phone: 281-528-6078
- Email: icydonuts@att.net
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