Park Segment 1
Bruce C. Bryan: [00:00:00] John Park, thank you for being my guest on Naturally Curious.
John Park: Thanks for having me. I'm, I'm really excited about this.
Bruce C. Bryan: So I speak to college kids and some high schoolers about what they wanna do when they grow up and what they wanna do professionally. And many of them, especially the younger ones, want to be social media influencers.
Hey man, you are one. Tell us about that. Would you,
John Park: um, you know what's interesting? So I'm, I'm kind of an interesting, uh, person in that influencer space because. I'm a lot older than most quote unquote influencers.
Bruce C. Bryan: Hey man, you're younger than I am,
John Park: so that's good. That's fair. Um, the other aspect of it is, is you don't see as many guys that are influencers on social media, but there are, they are out there.
Um, what's interesting is. When I was growing up in high school and college, we didn't, that was, this was not a thing, so it wasn't like we could be like, oh man, we're gonna become influencers or be, you know, be people on social media. So it just, it's kind of weird. It just [00:01:00] kind of happened.
Bruce C. Bryan: I was gonna ask also if it, if it was grown intentionally or organically, and I think I know the answer, but,
John Park: Hmm.
So I'll give you a quick story. Um, I was very much, you know, a lot of this is because, you know, I'm, I'm pretty big on Instagram right now and what's interesting is, is I was very anti Instagram, uh, when it first interesting when it first came out. 'cause you know, my background is photography and I saw Instagram coming out and I was like.
Oh, everybody's gonna think they're a photographer or not. And I'm just like, okay, whatever. But back in 2012, I think 2012, uh, the Roanoke Times, Lindsay Naer, I don't know if you remember that name. I
Bruce C. Bryan: do. She, she works at Roanoke College
John Park: now, I think. Yeah. So she used to be the food reviewer, or food editor, whatever you wanna call it, for the Roanoke Times, started a Instagram contest.
All right. Wrap your mind around this. This is 2012. They were, that's very progressive for that time to do an Instagram contest. 'cause that really hasn't been taken off until probably the last, you know, [00:02:00] 10 years. Um, so it, it. Uh, they were like, enter all your food photos. We're gonna do a contest and hashtag, I forget the hashtag.
So I was like, you know what, I'm gonna just, I'm gonna start an account. I'm gonna put all my photos on there,
Bruce C. Bryan: see
John Park: how it
Bruce C. Bryan: goes.
John Park: Yeah. And I was like, I'm gonna win this thing. And that's how I actually ended up getting my Instagram account started. And, uh, I won that contest.
Bruce C. Bryan: So it was a little bit intentional, but I sense that it was a lot of organic growth too.
So maybe a combination of the two.
John Park: Yeah. So when I started the account, it wasn't, my intention was not to try to grow it. 'cause even when I started the account, this whole concept of influencers really was not a thing. And so it was really more about just. How do I document and share my food experiences, my food travels.
Bruce C. Bryan: Put it out there.
John Park: Yeah, just put it out there.
Bruce C. Bryan: Just 'cause almost like a, like a, a journal somebody might
John Park: Correct.
Bruce C. Bryan: Might put their journal out there.
John Park: Yeah. It was, you know, it was kind of that, that, that modern or, or, or more. Current version of a blog just in the social media [00:03:00] format.
Bruce C. Bryan: And it makes sense. Food is a natural industry for that.
Tourism or natural industries because they're so centered around photographs,
John Park: right? Absolutely, absolutely. Yep. Yeah, so it just, it literally just started with, you know, us. 'cause you know, my wife and I love to travel. We love to travel for food and. Hey,
Bruce C. Bryan: here's an idea.
John Park: Hey. Yeah, I mean, honestly, like we literally just travel to go eat food and a lot of times people want to travel to go experience culture through the museums or whatever it may be in that city.
No, I, for me, I experience the culture through the food in the city.
Bruce C. Bryan: So it seems like you're everywhere. And I don't mean that in a social media way. I mean, physically it seems like you're everywhere. Is that just a part of being an influencer?
John Park: Um, no, it, a lot of it is, is I just love to experience things.
Um,
Bruce C. Bryan: so it's part of what brings you joy then, John?
John Park: Absolutely. Traveling to new destinations or sim, you know, familiar destinations and [00:04:00] just trying different things. But it also helps me to kind of open my mind into, to like. What's, uh, what I like, well, part of it's like I'm in Roanoke and I'm eating the same things and, and like not, you know, we have a great food scene in Roanoke, but every once in a while you kinda have to get away to appreciate what you have at home.
Yeah. So that's part of the reason I do get away. Yeah.
Bruce C. Bryan: Well, you're listening to Naturally Curious. I'm Bruce Bryan. My guest today is John Park, also known as the Hungry Asian. That's your handle.
John Park: Yep.
Bruce C. Bryan: So do people walk up to you and say, Hey, what's up, hungry, or, what's up, John? Or like you, you can tell who your friends are and who your followers are.
How does that work?
John Park: Yeah, honest. Nowadays it's uh, we will get, these people will just be like, Hey, what can I get for $10 here? Or, Hey, bartender, what you drinking? So
Bruce C. Bryan: they know your branding, but they, and we're gonna talk about those two features a little bit later. Sure. So they're. So you're a little bit like the weatherman too.
Everybody wants to give you an opinion on what they should do or eat or tell you where you missed it or tell you where, where it's even better.
John Park: Yeah, absolutely. We get, [00:05:00] uh, a lot, we get so many, uh, people that comment and be like, Hey, you guys should go check out this restaurant, or you should go check out this bar or go check out this bartender.
So yeah, we get it all the time. Keep a little
Bruce C. Bryan: side list.
John Park: Yeah, and I'm very grateful for it because, you know, I can't find everything
Bruce C. Bryan: right.
John Park: And honestly those, those comments where people were like, Hey, you should go check these out. I really cherish those.
Bruce C. Bryan: So John, I know you have other professional interests as well.
Sure. Photography, your advertising agency, you were even a financial planner for quite some time.
John Park: Yes.
Bruce C. Bryan: Talk about balancing all of that. Is that hard?
John Park: Um, you know, it was, it was hard when I was. Um, in the financial planning world, also running the digital marketing company and doing all of these things. And really, it wasn't until I left my financial planning practice that I really started to create a lot more personal content.
Um, you know, I just had more time. And back then I just didn't have enough
Bruce C. Bryan: time. So all these different things fit together in our brains. Right. Okay. But help others understand how it works for you, because [00:06:00] you got a big mix of things happening that I know fit together in your brain.
John Park: Um, I don't really know
Bruce C. Bryan: if, or do they not
John Park: fit together?
I don't know if it fits together. I mean, I just, you know, for me, I'm just out there doing things and so I don't really know if I have a strategy on how to fit it all together. I mean, so you know right now what my world looks like. Because I don't report to a, an office quote unquote office anymore. Um, you know, I, I have a lot of flexibility in what I can do.
Um,
Bruce C. Bryan: was that hard to make that break?
John Park: No, not at all.
Bruce C. Bryan: Okay.
John Park: It was super easy. I'm, I'm a pretty, I'm pretty good when it comes to controlling my own schedule and being a. Self-motivated. So it's not that challenging. Um, but yeah, it, right now, like most weeks, I'm, I'm, if I'm home, I'm shooting an episode of Bartender, what You Drank, and I'm shooting an episode of what can I get for $10 and then I may be, you know, creating content for some of my clients.
Bruce C. Bryan: So how did you get. John to Southwest Virginia. What brought you here and what do you love about the area?
John Park: Uh, I'm, I moved to this area to go to Virginia [00:07:00] Tech.
Bruce C. Bryan: Okay.
John Park: And I stayed because
Bruce C. Bryan: for those of you listening at home, that's a little college, just about 45 minutes from
John Park: road, a little, a little college,
Bruce C. Bryan: maybe a whole city.
John Park: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's a, it's a city.
Bruce C. Bryan: I also happen to own this joint.
John Park: Yeah. It's a city unto itself. Um, yeah. So I, I started at Virginia Tech and uh, got my degree there and met my now wife who's from Roanoke. And, uh, was. Fortunate enough to find, uh, my first job, which was essentially a 20 year career in the financial planning world, right outta college.
Bruce C. Bryan: Okay.
John Park: Yeah.
Bruce C. Bryan: And so what do you love about the area?
John Park: Oh man. I love the fact that I don't have to sit in traffic. I'm from Northern Virgin, I'm from Northern Virginia, and traffic is terrible. Right. But I also love that we are pretty central in that I can get to Richmond, I can get to dc, I can get to Charlotte within a three-ish hour drive.
Uh, so it's, it's absolutely awesome.
Bruce C. Bryan: So we're gonna talk about some of that stuff Sure. In the next segment. But people watch you, John, I think they watch influencers. Okay. And they wonder about. [00:08:00] Fomo, that fear of missing out. Oh, do you sometimes suffer from the same thing?
John Park: Oh, for sure, because
Bruce C. Bryan: Okay, good.
John Park: Thanks
Bruce C. Bryan: for coming clean.
John Park: I appreciate that. No, I, for sure. Uh, you know, have fear, fear of missing out. I obviously get FOMO because I see it on social media all the time. I'm like, oh man, there's this thing happening, and I could have gone, but I'm not there and I see all my friends are there. So yeah, I do get FOMO a lot,
Bruce C. Bryan: so.
John, I'm curious, what kinds of things do you do when you want to get away? Like, so you're going away all the time, but like, and I don't necessarily mean get outta the area, but you know, who do you pull close to and, and how do you kind of escape some of the visibility things?
John Park: Oh, that's a. That's almost an impossibility.
The visibility thing is kind of hard these days because, you know, I, I create content pretty much anywhere I travel. And so even if I travel to a certain city, I, I will probably get recognized or noticed somewhere. But, uh, you know, how, how I pull away is a lot of times I will [00:09:00] go to South Carolina, uh, especially Hilton Head.
And, uh, I will just stay down there for about two weeks, ride my skateboard around, um, and just relax.
Bruce C. Bryan: So you mentioned your wife, Sharon. Yep. Who? Her handle on social media is Mrs. Hungry Asian, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Which is awesome. Tell us a little bit, and I think she might be the behind the scenes star, this whole thing, right?
John Park: She's really the one that keeps me on track. If it wasn't for her, my life would be a wreck. I mean, honestly, like, you know, she makes sure that, you know, the house is running okay, even though I should probably be the one doing that. Uh, she makes sure that I've got all my things that I need when I go to travel.
You know, she's the planner of the two of us,
Bruce C. Bryan: so a lot of us, when we go to travel places, we have memories of food we ate or meals that we had, and we want to go back to those places 'cause they're. Comfortable and they're familiar. Mm-hmm. And yet we wanna try new places that must be amplified in your arena.
John Park: Ooh. That is so challenging. Um,
Bruce C. Bryan: because you gotta mix [00:10:00] both, right?
John Park: Yeah. That's, that's always a challenge. And, uh, I, I have no good solutions for that, unfortunately. I wish I did.
Bruce C. Bryan: So when we come back, we're gonna get the inside scoop. Hear about some of your favorite places and things, and the, the things, the features that you, you and your team produce.
And that terribly crowded calendar, you'll, you're, you talk about, so hopefully get a chance to talk about what's next for you and your team as well.
John Park: Awesome. Sounds great.
Park Segment 2
Bruce C. Bryan: [00:00:00] Man, welcome back to Naturally Curious. I'm Bruce Bryan. My guest today is the Hungry Asian John Park and John. People go out to eat to enjoy themselves. That's a line from the TV show, the Bear. Right. What's the food experience like for you as a person? Because that's work and food.
John Park: Oh, man. Um, I don't, honestly, I don't think about that food experience as work.
You know, for me, I, I want to enjoy a good meal. It doesn't have to be a fancy meal. I want something that's good, that's done well. And to be honest, some of my favorite restaurants are some of these places like. You're gonna be able to go get a meal for like, under 12 bucks a person.
Bruce C. Bryan: That's awesome. It's all about good food.
Yeah. It doesn't actually have to be pretentious food.
John Park: Absolutely. You know, there's, if you look at, like folks in Japan, they're, they, they like to do these things where it's like they make just one thing and they do it over and over and [00:01:00] over and it gets so good. Right. And there are people like that in the, in the United States.
There's actually even people like that here in Roanoke.
Bruce C. Bryan: That's awesome. So I also know that sometimes you're on the other side of the serving line. I know you help out sometimes and prep and even make some dishes too. Right? Talk about that a little bit.
John Park: Yeah. You know, this might be surprising for most people who are listening to this.
Uh, I've actually never worked in a restaurant. I've never been in a kitchen. I've actually never served, I've never worked in a restaurant, but I've. Been in enough restaurants, not just as a person dining, but you know, being in the kitchen, just seeing how a restaurant operates and seeing how people operate in a restaurant that I.
I feel like I'm comfortable there. Um, but yeah, I, I love going to events and helping out and, and if it's, you know, just prepping for a chef to be ready for an event, I love doing that. But
Bruce C. Bryan: you'll get your hands dirty, literally.
John Park: Uh, exactly. And I also love doing popups where I can [00:02:00] share some of my.
Bruce C. Bryan: I forgot about the popups.
We, I went to one, it's probably been eight, 10 years ago now.
John Park: Yeah, yeah.
Bruce C. Bryan: Um, it was at a restaurant that was closed early in the week and you did a popup event. Maybe a barbecue or something
John Park: like that. Yeah. So
Bruce C. Bryan: what's your secret weapon, man? Like, what do you love to make for people when you gotta show off?
John Park: Um, people love my smash burger.
Bruce C. Bryan: Okay.
John Park: Yeah. So
Bruce C. Bryan: prove it.
John Park: Uh, oh man. Let's do it for me. We
Bruce C. Bryan: can do it right now. Let's go big Jim. Come on. Let's do it. Yeah. Okay. Smash Burger. I, I can totally get behind a good smashburger
John Park: and it's like, you know, I, I have a pretty large tailgate at Virginia Tag One and during football season, and that's like the number one requested thing and so wants
Bruce C. Bryan: smash.
So you might've just gotten a few extra hangers on after this episode. Um, so, so can you walk into a kitchen and tell. Type of, not the type like style of restaurant, but the type of experience the diners are gonna have just by talking to the chef or talking to the prep team and that kinda stuff. Can you kind of, just by getting that vibe, can you sometimes see what's
John Park: gonna happen?
Yeah, I, I think so. I, you know, a lot [00:03:00] of, I think the energy that's, that, that is, you know, shown inside the kitchen, I think obviously translates out to the dining room as well. So, yeah, I, I obvious, I think so.
Bruce C. Bryan: Well, we're gonna keep talking about food, but I also know between tourism and food and your, your different work that you're involved in a bunch of different events through the years.
So I'm gonna give you a second to think about,
John Park: okay.
Bruce C. Bryan: The top events that you look forward to every year, and I'm thinking about the top three. Okay. And what I really want to hear is the bronze, the silver, and the gold of all the hungry Asian events that you go to. And you know, like. There's no Paola here.
This is just like off the top of your head, just thinking, man, when I look at my calendar for these 12 months, right? Here are the three events that I just like circle my calendar and can't wait to go do. Sure. So the bronze, what's the third favorite event?
John Park: Oh man. The, I might have to think about this for a second.
Hang on. I know my, I know my gold, I know my, I know my gold, but silver and bronze lately have [00:04:00] been a bit challenging. Um, I, I think for me right now, my bronze is going to be. Euphoria, which is a food and wine festival down in Greenville, South Carolina.
Bruce C. Bryan: Okay. I've heard great things about Greenville.
John Park: Oh, Greenville is amazing.
Wait,
Bruce C. Bryan: don't they say Greenville?
John Park: Greenville, yes. Yeah, that's
Bruce C. Bryan: right.
John Park: Greenville. Uh, Greenville is amazing. I, I've been going to that Food and wine that festival for, shoot, probably a decade now.
Bruce C. Bryan: And what time of the year is
John Park: euphoria? It. It's in September, middle of September. Okay. Middle to the end of September.
Yep. All
Bruce C. Bryan: right. So you're silver. You said you pretty much knew your silver, you weren't quite sure.
John Park: Silver is probably gonna be, uh, my buddy's barbecue festival in Charlotte, North Carolina, uh, Carolina Barbecue Fest. Did I, I hope I got that name right.
Bruce C. Bryan: That's okay,
John Park: Lewis.
Bruce C. Bryan: We can, we can fix it in post-production.
Yeah. Just kidding. There's no fixing. This is real life. Around what time of year is that
John Park: festival? Uh, that one is generally April. So it's coming up soon. Soon, yeah. April And, man, I can't remember.
Bruce C. Bryan: And then John, like, I knew when I asked it, you were like, this is the one.
John Park: Oh, you
Bruce C. Bryan: do? What [00:05:00] is
John Park: that? Oh, do you know which one it's gonna be?
Bruce C. Bryan: I don't, I have an idea, but I don't wanna steal it for our listeners. Maybe you tell us
John Park: what is it? I get it. Um, I, right now my number one event for the year is. The family reunion held at the Salamander Resort? Uh, it is, oh my, I, I don't even know how to describe it because like. You know, they have, they will have guest appearances, music musical appearances, uh, like you don't even, you're not even sure who's gonna show up.
And, you know, two years ago, juvenile showed up on Friday night, had nobody had any idea he was coming to perform. But this is like the who's who of Black Chefs, um, chef Kwame Achi, who was formerly Top Chef, you know, started this festival because. He said that he was look, going to these other food festivals, looking around and seeing, not seeing
Bruce C. Bryan: people that look like him.
John Park: Yeah. People look like him, you know? And so he was like, you know what, we're gonna start our own food festival. And, you know, the family reunion has a [00:06:00] very strong relevance in, in black culture. And so that's why he wanted to call it the family reunion.
Bruce C. Bryan: And that, that Salamander resorts in Northern Virginia,
John Park: correct?
It's in Middleburg, Virginia. Yeah, and I, I attend as, uh, I actually attend as a volunteer and I help out chefs in the kitchen and it's long days, but, uh, it's a lot of fun.
Bruce C. Bryan: That's really cool. So, uh, you're listening to Naturally Curious, you just heard from John Park, otherwise known as the Hungry Asian. We were talking about Family Reunion, which is a big food festival that you look forward to every year.
Is that in the summer or when is that?
John Park: Yeah, that happens in the middle of August.
Bruce C. Bryan: Okay. So John, tell me about your comfort food.
John Park: Ooh, my comfort food. Um, I am Korean, so naturally I'm gonna have some Korean food on there. You know, my mom was a really, or is a really good home cook. Uh, so I'll probably have some.
Uh, Korean dishes. Something like kimchi chie, which is a kimchi [00:07:00] stew.
Bruce C. Bryan: Okay.
John Park: Um, also have a, a, um, what's called, uh, a tofu soup, uh, silk and tofu in a, in a really spicy, you know, broth. Um, and you
Bruce C. Bryan: need mom to make that, and then you feel like you're at home again. Right? Absolutely. Oh, that's awesome.
John Park: Absolutely.
Bruce C. Bryan: Do you have any fast food favorites? Because I know that kind of like, Ooh, this could get clipped and you, you know, go on record to say fast. Like, 'cause you're on the road. You're on the road a lot. Yeah. Sometimes you gotta grab something quick. Do you have something that you have a kind of
a
John Park: go to? Oh man.
Uh, fast food. You know, I really love, uh, a Culver's.
Bruce C. Bryan: Okay.
John Park: We don't have any around here. Those are
Bruce C. Bryan: the butter
John Park: Yes.
Bruce C. Bryan: Buns,
John Park: right? Yeah. Butter. The butter burger.
Bruce C. Bryan: Butter burger.
John Park: Yeah. So they finished the burger patties in butter. Um, but Culver's is great, you know. I, I, I still love a McDonald's man.
Bruce C. Bryan: Okay.
John Park: There's a reason.
There's a reason why there's so many of them.
Bruce C. Bryan: That's right.
John Park: Yeah.
Bruce C. Bryan: So, I, I know you get around. Yeah. The Hungry Asian, and I'm gonna name a region where the station has listeners.
John Park: Okay.
Bruce C. Bryan: And you can tell me a favorite [00:08:00] spot or two from there.
John Park: Okay.
Bruce C. Bryan: Could be an off the beaten path joint like you talked about earlier.
Sure. Or fine dining. Okay. Or maybe a brewery. Whatever comes to mind. And I, I would love to go rapid fire through this. I'm hoping your game, you play with me here. Okay. Yep. Let's
John Park: go.
Bruce C. Bryan: All right. So we have listeners in a big footprint, south side, Danville, that area where the casino is. Mm-hmm. It's really booming and bustling now.
It's been a little while since I've been there in person. Do you have any places that you meander through down that way?
John Park: Um, you know, I haven't really spent a whole lot of time there, but I was there recently in November and there is a little. Place across from the casino called school fields.
Bruce C. Bryan: Okay.
John Park: And that man has some damn good crab cakes.
Bruce C. Bryan: Okay?
John Park: Mm-hmm.
Bruce C. Bryan: That's awesome. How about Southwest Virginia? You know, like Abingdon, Marion, maybe even the newer valley. Anything down 81 as we get towards Tennessee, that
John Park: comes out to mind. Yeah. When we go down to like chill Howie. There's a little place called the Dip Dog. And folks who live in that area will know it is not a corn dog.
[00:09:00] It's a dip dog.
Bruce C. Bryan: Dip
John Park: dog. There's a difference. They look similar, but there is a difference,
Bruce C. Bryan: man. That's awesome. How about Charlottesville?
John Park: Oh, Charlottesville. Man, that's a tough one 'cause I haven't been to Charlottesville in a while. Um, there's a little place. Off the downtown mall called The Alley Light and it kind of, you, you kind of don't, you kind of could walk right by it because there's not really any signage for it, but it's a little cocktail bar that does like tapa style food.
I haven't been there in a long time, but it's, it was a great spot.
Bruce C. Bryan: Alright, how about Lynchburg or the Hill City? Hour and a half from Roanoke, because it's a big listening area, so
John Park: yeah,
Bruce C. Bryan: basically what we're doing is covering the whole stage on
John Park: pretty, yeah, so I, if I was in that area, I might go. Kind of towards forest.
I think that's Forest and go. Yep, that counts. Um, go see my boy Ken over at County Smoke. He's a little barbecue guy.
Bruce C. Bryan: Okay.
John Park: Uh, former Greenbrier, uh, graduate, so, yeah.
Bruce C. Bryan: How about going the other way up at the Highlands, you know, up [00:10:00] near, you know, bath County? Oh, man. Homestead Anywhere up in the Stanton, even that
John Park: Oh, oh, in Stanton.
Okay.
Bruce C. Bryan: Anywhere
John Park: up there. Okay. The Highlands, I haven't visited enough. To, to really give you guys something.
Bruce C. Bryan: So to let you off the hook.
John Park: Yeah.
Bruce C. Bryan: Sounds like you got a homework assignment. Maybe somebody from Bath County, you'll reach out and say, Hey John, come on up.
John Park: Let's go, let's go. Um, but Stan Waynesboro in Stan, you gotta go to the shack.
The shack has been around for
Bruce C. Bryan: unbelievable,
John Park: right? The, the, yeah. A decade. And then now he is opened a new place called Ma in the Bear, which is a little bit more, definitely more fine dining. You know, um, and
Bruce C. Bryan: it's like a menu where you eat what they serve,
John Park: correct? Prefixed? Yeah. Prefix menu. It's a set menu, but well worth the visit.
Bruce C. Bryan: All right. How about Roanoke? Greater
John Park: Roanoke. Oh, Roanoke.
Bruce C. Bryan: You gotta pick one or two. We have
John Park: listeners from all around, man. Alright, so Roanoke, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna give you guys three in Roanoke just because
Bruce C. Bryan: it's a home team.
John Park: Man, this is so hard. Bruce. You're putting me on the spot, man.
Bruce C. Bryan: I am, but it's okay.
It's, it's for the listeners. It's all about their [00:11:00] ears. Oh man. From your mouth to their mouth via their ears.
John Park: Okay. So one of my favorite places in Roanoke is Richie Freeze and on
Bruce C. Bryan: Williamson
John Park: Road. Yes, on Williamson Road. Cash only. The same family has been running this place for 40 years, since nine. I think they're going on 41 years this year.
And their double cheeseburger is probably one of the best in town. Uh, you can get a double cheeseburger, fries, and a drink for, I think it's a, it's like 10 79 or 10 99, I can't remember exactly, but that's a smoking meal that beats any fast food place. Every day, all day.
Bruce C. Bryan: All right. How about Richmond?
Finish
John Park: up with Richmond. Richmond. Ooh, Richmond. Um, you know, I think I might go to the Jasper bar. No, actually, I'm gonna back up. I'm gonna cut that out in Richmond. I think I'm gonna go to the Jasper bar. Uh, it's a little cocktail bar. Uh, a former bartender from Roanoke that used to work at Lucky is now the [00:12:00] bar bar manager there.
I would go to the Jasper.
Bruce C. Bryan: That sounds like a win. And I know I the bartender of whom you speak. So right now, these days you've got. Some wicked cool online features. You mentioned 'em earlier. Hey bartender. Yep. What you drink in and what can I get or what can I order for $10? Mm-hmm. Talk about those two features a little bit.
John Park: Yeah. So when I, uh, left my financial planning practice, uh, I was like, you know what? I have time to make content now. So I was just like throwing a bunch of different ideas on the wall. Thing was sticking. And then I saw, uh, Danny Grubbs, who's a very big creator on Instagram, who does this feature where he goes into the kitchen to a chef and says, Hey, chef, what can you make me for 20 bucks?
And that, that idea was like, oh my God, let me just translate that into a restaurant. And so I said. Let's see what we can get for $10. And that's how that came about. And then the bartender series, it's really about, um, what bartenders like to drink. We don't really care what they're serving at the restaurant.
We want to know when the bartender goes off a [00:13:00] shift, what are
Bruce C. Bryan: they drinking? Where do they,
John Park: what are you drinking? And we, we ask them to serve that to us. Yeah.
Bruce C. Bryan: That's awesome. Well, John Park, thank you for being my guest on Naturally Curious, curious this week. Give your handles out real quick.
John Park: Yeah. So, um, it's at.
Hungry Asian RKE. And it's the same on Instagram, Facebook, x, TikTok. I got it all.
Bruce C. Bryan: So to listen back to the to the show, the full interview and links to learn more about John Park, visit a social media channel and search for the Hungry Asian, as you just heard, or search naturally curious@radioiq.org.
Naturally Curious was produced and edited by Big Jim Shively and recorded. At W Vtf Radio IQ Studios, I'm Bruce Bryan. Thank you for listening.
John Park: Awesome.
Bonus Content
Bruce C. Bryan: [00:00:00] Alright, welcome back John. Great to have you on the show. If you're listening now, John Park, the Hungry Asian is here. John, people see your food posts and wonder how you do it and keep your figure. I know about the pub run, I know about pickleball and some of your, some of your other activities. Talk about that part of your life.
Some, would you man?
John Park: Yeah, absolutely. I, I, well, what people don't really see is how regimented I am with my food, um, when I'm not dining out. They don't see, necessarily see the things. I do a lot
Bruce C. Bryan: of salad, a lot of yogurt.
John Park: Yeah. So right now, um, uh, I eat very clean. Uh, when I'm not dining out, I eat very clean.
I try not to eat processed food. I eat very high protein. Uh, I avoid seed oils and uh, yeah, I, lots of eggs, lots of lean protein. Um, try to eliminate sugar and carbohydrates.
Bruce C. Bryan: And that way when you are out, man, correct. You can go to town,
John Park: right? Yes. There, yeah. It's a ba it's a whole balance thing.
Bruce C. Bryan: If you were guessing.[00:01:00]
I'm just curious, man. Yeah. If you were guessing, has there been a day where you've had 5,000 calories?
John Park: Oh, I'm sure there has.
Bruce C. Bryan: Have you ever had a 10,000 calorie
John Park: a day? Uh, it wouldn't surprise me. I mean, look, man, we did, we did a trip to New Orleans a couple years ago where we were averaging. Almost six restaurants a day.
Bruce C. Bryan: Oh my God.
John Park: For seven days.
Bruce C. Bryan: I was with you out of town last fall. Yes. We were down in Charleston and your guys showed up at my thing and they were so full and then the food trucks all brought you more food and I think they were gonna, I think that they were just like up to their eye. Yes. In
John Park: food. This is the thing.
Everyone wants to come join me on a food tour. They don't realize you can't hang how hard. It's
Bruce C. Bryan: No, you can't hang, don't
John Park: you Ha. Yeah.
Bruce C. Bryan: People leave it to the experts. You want no part of that.
John Park: You have to be very disciplined in how you eat at the restaurants, to be able to go to six restaurants in a day.
Bruce C. Bryan: So you were into placemaking before it was kind of a thing.
Okay. You started Pub Run maybe, what a, over a decade ago now. Uh, it's 15 years.
John Park: It's coming up on 20 years.
Bruce C. Bryan: Almost 20 years. Tell, tell our [00:02:00] listeners about Pub Run.
John Park: Yeah. So around 2000.
Bruce C. Bryan: Wait, don't try to sell me because I'm not gonna run unless it's somebody's chasing me. If big gym's chasing me, I might run, but I'm not really running.
But 20 whatever
John Park: years ago. Yeah. So 2008 I start, you know, I, I was, uh, I was at a point in my life where I was probably the most inactive, the heaviest I'd ever been, started hitting the gym and I was starting to run and I was like, man, I was never a runner. And then my buddy was like, Hey, we, you know, they.
Uh, in other larger cities, they have these things called pub runs where people get together and run and then we go have a beer afterwards. I was like,
Bruce C. Bryan: that's, I can get behind
John Park: that. Yeah, that sounds amazing. So,
Bruce C. Bryan: can I just meet you for the beer?
John Park: Let's go. Let's do it. You can call. What day
Bruce C. Bryan: of the week is it?
John Park: Tuesdays.
Bruce C. Bryan: Tuesdays. It's alright. So Tuesdays is when it happens? Yep. And can people follow you online to get where it happens to move around or. The same place. It's
John Park: always at the same place. It's at the Village Grill in Grandin.
Bruce C. Bryan: In Grandin if you're in Roanoke.
John Park: Yep.
Bruce C. Bryan: And if you're, you know, big listenership, so maybe Danville or High, you can come down and make an evening of it.
John Park: Well, I'm sure [00:03:00] every town's got some kind of running group. You just gotta go look for it,
Bruce C. Bryan: go run, and then go drink. Exactly. It sounds like a good formula.
John Park: Yep.
Bruce C. Bryan: So you said earlier that your family's from Northern Virginia. Mm-hmm. I would guess, and I not just guess, there are a lot more Asians around Northern Virginia than here in southwest Virginia.
What's that like? And do you have to deal with junk from poor behaving people sometimes? Or is it not really a thing anymore?
John Park: Um, you know, I will say I've been fortunate, blessed to not really have to experience that. Um, I, I, the, the thing that you do get. By having a lot more Asians in, in Northern Virginia is the food is way better.
Bruce C. Bryan: Of course,
John Park: you know, we have access to much more, uh, Asian cuisine than we do in southwest va.
Bruce C. Bryan: So that's the trade off.
John Park: That is the trade off. Yep.
Bruce C. Bryan: So I'm curious, what advice besides don't do it, would you have for wannabe influencers?
John Park: Oh, man. Uh, I don't think that people who are influencers realize how much time it takes.
[00:04:00] Um, they don't realize that you have to be dedicated to the craft. Um, you know, it it, it takes a toll on you when you have to every week do something, uh,
Bruce C. Bryan: you gotta feed the machine.
John Park: The machine. Yeah. You gotta feed, buy that the content
Bruce C. Bryan: machine.
John Park: Absolutely. You know, we, the thing is, is we treat it like, kind of like a TV show.
You know, TV shows have an episode that drops every whatever day at whatever time. We treat it very similarly. My, my $10 series drops every Tuesday, sometime in the morning. Uh, our bartender episodes drop every Thursday. Depending on if Elliot's busy, it might drop Friday, but generally on Thursday. So we feed the machine and we are.
Very consistent in terms of creating that content. And it takes a lot of time.
Bruce C. Bryan: It, it's definitely not easy. So you're telling those influencers it might look like fun. And it is fun. It be fun. Let's not kidding ourselves. Yeah. But it's also a fair amount of work. Are you surprised, John, when somebody recognizes you, who you've never seen before?
Does that catch you off guard still?
John Park: Um, it [00:05:00] used to, it, it doesn't anymore. You're ready
Bruce C. Bryan: for it now?
John Park: Uh, kind of. You can kind of tell 'cause somebody will just kind of look at you. They look
Bruce C. Bryan: at you and
John Park: then they look at their phone. They look at you again. Yeah. Yeah. You, you've kind of learned that there's this look that somebody gives you and they're, and I'm like, yeah, they, they know who they're looking at.
So
Bruce C. Bryan: sometimes you'll. Take 'em off the hook and you'll go to them. I bet. Because
John Park: you're kind never. No, I won't do that. No, I will not do it. You'll just wait until they come up. Yeah, I, I'll let them approach me. I will never approach them, but yeah, I'll let them approach, approach me if they want to.
Bruce C. Bryan: Tell me about your business partners or talent partners, whatever.
Zach and Elliot, you guys have a lot of fun, seems like anyway, right?
John Park: Yeah. I mean, honestly, like if you hang out with us, uh, what you see on camera, the way we roast each other on camera is no different from how we. Hang out in real life how our group texts look. We, it is literally the exact same thing.
Bruce C. Bryan: So John, we are like 35 minutes into this thing.
Yeah. And I, I gotta have some breaking news. Which one is your favorite of the other two?
John Park: Oh, Jesus. Are you gonna put me in that [00:06:00] spot, man?
Bruce C. Bryan: Yeah, absolutely. I'm just kidding. I'm not gonna really do that too.
John Park: Thank you.
Bruce C. Bryan: But deep down inside, you really do have a favorite, right?
John Park: I mean, who doesn't have a favorite, favorite child?
Bruce C. Bryan: That's right.
John Park: I don't have children.
Bruce C. Bryan: Were you the favorite child?
John Park: Uh, I was the number one child. So in an Asian family, probably.
Bruce C. Bryan: Okay. Um, what have you learned about those two after traveling with them and hanging out with them? Uh,
John Park: yeah. Hmm. You know, traveling with somebody, um, can make or break relationships.
Right. And, uh, I've learned that it's, they're, they're pretty easy to travel with. Okay. We haven't killed each other yet.
Bruce C. Bryan: That's a plus.
John Park: Yeah. That's very much a plus. And we're still friends and we still do things together.
Bruce C. Bryan: And you said earlier, Sharon is the, the, the organizer and the structure person.
John Park: Mm-hmm.
Bruce C. Bryan: I'm guessing she's your ride or die, right? Correct. You travel with her great.
John Park: Correct? Yeah. She, um, we, we travel well together. Um, you know, we try to travel together as much as we can. She doesn't always get to come with me, just depends on what my schedule looks like. Yeah. But yeah, [00:07:00] she is a, she's a great travel companion.
Bruce C. Bryan: So, John, what's next for you? Is it, is it looking at a bigger region, more experiences, more of the photography, all the above. Something else? Um, are you even thinking about what's next? Are you just enjoying the ride where you are?
John Park: You know, um, as much like I, I'm trying to be more type B these days. Okay. Uh, and so I'm kind of just going off of vibes as the kids say.
Uh, so right now for me, I just like to get out, talk to people, meet people, and see what happens. I do love. Currently working in that tourism space and helping some of these smaller communities who are, you know, maybe overlooked, uh, tell their, tell their story, get their voice. I've really enjoyed that. Um, I've been doing a lot of work on the Eastern Shore the past couple of years and, and really helped get them some exposure.
So, yeah, I, I, I just want to do things that I have fun doing.
Bruce C. Bryan: Man, that's a great place to end, but I don't know that I can let it end right then. So I'm gonna let it end except to say,
John Park: [00:08:00] okay.
Bruce C. Bryan: Would you like to edit either of the list? Like is there a gold, silver, bronze? Would you wanna add an Argo mention? Oh man.
Or is there a restaurant that 10, 15 minutes later you thought, ah, I really should have mentioned,
John Park: okay.
Bruce C. Bryan: That place.
John Park: Well, you know, I'm, I, I want to give out some more flowers for Roanoke just because it is my hometown.
Bruce C. Bryan: Okay.
John Park: Um, generally, uh, you can see me. At Mama Jean's a great barbecue spot
Bruce C. Bryan: with good reason.
John Park: Yes. I will be there. And also Show Pony. Yes. Which is another bar that I frequent quite a bit. Those two, I, I just love them because they're very casual atmosphere. I love getting great spots. I love getting drinks there. And the food there in both locations is great.
Bruce C. Bryan: It's really incredible. Mm-hmm And I don't know if you knew this, 'cause I'm no influencer and I'm no big timer, but you might not have heard the pro where I said, you don't get to be my size and not love food.
I just want everybody know we're this far in, this is the bonus content anyway. There's a secret menu at Martin's. Did you know that? Have I told you about the Bruce wrap?
John Park: Whoa, I did
Bruce C. Bryan: not. Right?
John Park: No, I, I
Bruce C. Bryan: did [00:09:00] not know. I'm gonna shock y'all's world, so I know this is your show, but we're talking food. It's okay.
So it's, it's the, it's the Venn Diagram Center place where we crossed, they had a dish on their menu for a long time and they did a new menu maybe a decade ago. Okay. And I said, Hey, I really miss that wrap that you used to have. Sure. It has barbecue chicken, pepper jack, cheese. Okay. And coleslaw. Oh, it's really good.
And they were like, well, we have wraps. We have barbecue chi and we have chicken, we have barbecue sauce, we have coleslaw and, and we have pepper jack cheese. We can make you a Bruce wrap. So it's on the secret menu. And sometimes I'll go in there and I'll say, I don't know if you know, but I'm gonna have the Bruce wrap.
And they're like, I've heard about you, but I haven't seen it. And they, it's a button on the secondary screen. Oh my. That's
John Park: amazing. Yes. Oh, oh,
Bruce C. Bryan: I'm in. I get to play. Can I be honorable? Mention now,
John Park: John, bro, you are. That's big time.
Bruce C. Bryan: Okay.
John Park: Having, having a, having a food item named after you is big time.
Bruce C. Bryan: Well, we're gonna work on getting one of those for you
John Park: somewhere.
Well, I do have one.
Bruce C. Bryan: You have some? Where's
John Park: yours? Yeah, so I have the John Park 2.00. I have a 1.0 and 2.0.
Bruce C. Bryan: What? So you got two. And where are those
John Park: at rt. Smith's downtown.
Bruce C. Bryan: Okay.
John Park: Yeah.
Bruce C. Bryan: The John Park [00:10:00] 1.0 and the John Park 2.0 at RT Smiths.
John Park: Yeah. The 2.0
Bruce C. Bryan: downtown Roanoke.
John Park: Yep. The 2.0 is a everything bagel with mayo and ketchup with, uh, egg, cheese, uh, Taylor, ham or pork roll,
Bruce C. Bryan: ham or pork roll
John Park: and roast beef.
Bruce C. Bryan: Beef. How you beef. Okay. And
John Park: yep. Wrapped then sliced. There you go
Bruce C. Bryan: man. So this is incredible content and if you stuck around to the end, you got the, the John Park 1.0 and well, do you wanna tell us the 2.0? 'cause I mean, as well?
John Park: Yeah, that's uh, the 2.0 is the 2.0 adds hot sauce.
Bruce C. Bryan: Okay.
John Park: Yeah.
Bruce C. Bryan: And the Bruce wrap.
Yeah. And Martins downtown, both in Roanoke. And we know you might come near and far to check out the town. You want to check either of those places out? You can. John, thanks again for being my guest, man. It's been a lot of fun.
John Park: Yeah, thanks for having me. I, I really had a lot of fun too.
