05/10/2026
Happy Mother's Day to Mama Sue!! She may have not won Butler County's "Employee of the Year", but she's definitely OURS!
Here is her Nomination Letter:
My name may be on the door of the restaurant, but that does not tell the full story of our success. The truth is that much of what makes our restaurant special exists because of my mother.
When I first opened the restaurant, I was working fifteen-hour days completely alone. During that time, I would talk to my mother on the phone while driving to and from work. When she realized how long my days were, she offered to come up from Virginia to help with prep for a couple of weeks. She refused to leave my side, working those very long hours with me every day. Two weeks quickly turned into two months.
Eventually she “told” my father that they would be moving to Saxonburg because she didn’t want me doing this alone. Now, they live in a home just 300 yards from the restaurant.
The restaurant is open five days a week. My mother works seven. Whatever time we open, she arrives at least two hours early—before anyone else—to begin preparing for the day. When we close at 10:00 p.m., she is still there waiting while I finish paperwork and turn off the lights.
In her past life, my mother owned a successful hair salon. After decades of work, she retired, planning to spend her time enjoying family and church friends. What she did not plan on was returning to a seventy-hour workweek- on her feet in her late seventies.
Perhaps the most remarkable part is that she doesn’t particularly enjoy cooking.
Cooking has always been MY passion, not hers. Yet, every day, she stands at the prep table pinching Hundreds of Mandu (our handmade Korean dumplings). Because she shares my commitment to authentic home cooking, she knows the choice is simple: either the dumplings are handmade by one of us, or they come off the menu. Frozen is never an option.
So she makes them—hour after hour, day after day.
And people drive from surrounding counties to Butler just to eat six of those dumplings.
When she is not making dumplings, she is doing dishes. In the early days of the restaurant, she insisted on being the dishwasher so that I could save the money of another employee. If someone tries to help her by washing a dish, she cranes her neck to say her famous line, “I’ll do it!”. Just recently, I hired our first dishwasher, because she demand for dumplings has increased with our growth.
Her second most famous phrase is heard constantly throughout the dining room: “You wan’ more?”
Her generous hospitable nature wants every guest that steps into the restaurant to leave full and satiated. She is ever asking me and our guests “You wan’ more?”. This is so known amongst our patrons, that it is the motto on our T-shirts.
What two lines would an employer want to hear from their employee other than “I’ll do it!” and “You wan’ more?” She is the embodiment of selflessness.
She’s just nebby enough to ask about a regular if she hasn’t seen them in a couple of days. She urges me to reach out to make sure that they’re ok. She treats our guests not simply as customers, but as part of a community.
Her tireless work ethic, generosity, and extraordinary commitment are a large part of what makes our restaurant what it is today. And for that reason, I cannot think of anyone more deserving of “Employee of the Year”.
