SomiSomi

Matt Kim opened the original SomiSomi blocks from this Koreatown storefront on October 21, 2016, building on an idea he'd tested first with a crepe and waffle shop in San Diego and then with Sul & Beans, a Korean dessert cafe he ran in Los Angeles starting in 2014. The shop's only product, ah-boong, pairs a fish-shaped Korean bungeo-ppang pastry with a swirl of soft serve in flavors like matcha and ube. What started as one storefront grew into a franchise chain of more than 30 stores across the country, on a following that formed almost as soon as the doors opened.