Ichiro Asian Bistro • 1500 Rivery Blvd. Suite 2120 • Georgetown · 512.688.4288 http://ichirosushiwinebar.com/
A successful, welcoming business owner, Alex Chon is far from the shy 17-year-old who reluctantly immigrated here with his family from South Korea in 1987.
His international adventure began when his father realized he wasn’t ready to stop working, despite nearing 55, Korea’s retirement age. Alex’s aunt, who had married an Austin-ite, convinced them to join her in America, where his parents would have more opportunities, including the chance to pursue their restaurant dream.
Like any teenager uprooted from home, Alex wasn’t thrilled about having to leave his friends and move to a different country, especially because he didn’t speak English and everyone else seemed to be blonde and blue-eyed. He also didn’t get why schools here started in September instead of January. “Why start in the middle of the year?” he wondered.
Despite the culture shock, Alex was determined to fit in, vowing to prove himself by making the best grades in class. While his inability to speak English hindered him from making friends, his passion for the international language of numbers and a strong work ethic quickly overcame the communication barrier. “One good thing about getting very good scores—other kids want to be your friend,” he says.
Those good grades paid off again when Alex was accepted at UT at Austin to study chemical engineering. A few months after graduating, though, he realized he was more passionate about the family business.
The Chons’ restaurant dream hadn’t come easily; many lessons were learned the hard way. “They learned everything by making mistakes,” Alex says. But his mom’s Korean cooking skills and his father’s master sushi chef ability, and the fact that the restaurant was one of few sushi bars in the area at the time, were a recipe for success, one the Chons would eventually pass on to their son.
CONTINUING THE TRADITION
Alex and his two sisters helped their parents run their restaurant, but when they retired and sold the business, Alex began forging his own culinary path. He opened Takara Sushi & Asian Bistro in Cedar Park, offering Japanese rather than Korean cuisine as well as wine; an unusual pairing, he admits, but it worked. It worked so well, in fact, that a group of business partners who were acquiring sushi bars all over Texas asked to buy it.
Alex agreed, already eyeing his restaurant’s new location—Georgetown was calling his name. “When you expand, you have to expand to Georgetown,” his customers would always say. The small but growing town was indeed a favorable choice; one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, plus, developer and frequent Takara customer Jeff Novak offered him space in the Summit at Rivery Park. “It was a good marriage in a way, except for the pandemic,” Alex says.
Ichiro Asian Bistro & Wine Bar was open just two days before it was shut down by COVID. An agonizing two weeks followed before he was able to reopen, but one thing Alex learned from his parents, to get back up when there was nowhere else to go. And he did, using down time to revamp the menu and build a stronger staff team. Now he sees the closure as a blessing in disguise. “If we opened right away and the shutdown didn’t happen, I think we would have made a lot of mistakes,” he says.
Looking back on his life’s journey, Alex sees his family’s immigration as a blessing, too. Though he wasn’t happy about the move in the beginning, he came to realize his aunt was right about America’s opportunities. When you work really hard here, success follows, he says. “Back in Korea, you had to have a lot of connections, but over here, you have more fair chances. As long as you put your time and effort and work hard enough, the reward is really good.”