A Korean favorite with a California twist.

Lisa and Leo had already built a life together after years when they lived in different places, with Lisa in Canada and Leo in California. During a period when Lisa was away from teaching, the couple spent more time preparing food at home. They both loved hotteok. Their experiments gradually became handmade Korean pocket pancakes with their own savory identity, built around a dough that they allowed to ferment for about ten hours.

They wanted the food to be enjoyable to someone already familiar with Korean street food while remaining welcoming to someone encountering it for the first time. That balance became central to the business: a rooted idea presented in a new, approachable format.

Lisa and Leo launched HO TOK at the Old Town Tustin Farmers Market in October 2025. The earliest setup was simple: a basic booth, a small menu, and the two of them handling most of the work. Leo focused on cooking and preparation. Lisa explained the product, spoke with customers, took orders, and managed the business side at the booth.

Because so many people had never heard of a Korean pocket pancake, the explanation became part of nearly every customer interaction. More than a dozen people from Leo’s church came out to support that first market. Their presence helped the couple get started, but the bigger question remained: would people outside their circle want it?

The first encouraging answers came from customers who tried the food and then returned.

Over the following events, Lisa and Leo began seeing customers come back with friends and ask where HO TOK would be selling next. That behavior mattered more than simple curiosity. People were not just willing to try an unfamiliar dish once. They wanted another. The response became especially clear during pop-ups at the Mar Vista Farmers Market. HO TOK sold out after serving approximately 250 orders in about four hours.

The couple was invited back and sold out again. Long lines of customers, including people experiencing the dish for the first time, showed them that their homemade idea could find a much wider audience.

Success quickly brought new opportunities. Markets and event organizers across Orange County and Los Angeles began offering Lisa and Leo more places to sell. At first, they tried to say yes to as many as they could. That sometimes meant operating two markets in one day, driving long distances, and preparing food late into the night for the next event. Production and staffing were being stretched to meet the calendar they had created.

Eventually, the couple recognized a problem. A full schedule did not automatically mean a stronger business. An event could look promising and still require too much travel, preparation, labor, or money for the sales it produced. They started paying attention to the complete cost of each opportunity rather than treating every invitation as a reason to add another date.

Lisa and Leo began tracking sales, booth fees, staffing costs, travel time, preparation needs, and customer response by location. The information helped them focus on markets where the product was connecting with customers and where the work made sense for the size of their operation.

They also adjusted how HO TOK appeared at different kinds of events. At high-volume festivals, a simplified menu made it easier to serve customers quickly. At weekday lunch markets, they considered items that were convenient to eat during a shorter break. The product remained recognizably HO TOK, but the operating approach became more thoughtful about the setting.

The couple also improved the details customers could see and the systems customers never saw. They made their branding clearer so people could recognize HO TOK as California-style Korean street food. Menus, signs, sauce names, packaging, and displays became more deliberate.

Behind the counter, they developed packing checklists, assigned staff responsibilities, tracked inventory, and prepared as much as possible before arriving at an event. None of those changes was as dramatic as a sold-out market. Together, they made a noticeable difference in how reliably HO TOK could serve customers without overwhelming the people making the food.

A customer receives a handheld meal, but Lisa and Leo understand the hours that support it: dough preparation, ingredients, cooking, packing, travel, setup, service, cleanup, and recovery. They learned that part of respecting the quality of the food was respecting the capacity of the business that produces it.

HO TOK’s growth has therefore involved two parallel jobs. One is making a Korean-inspired product that customers enjoy. The other is deciding where, when, and how the team can serve it well. The couple still values trying real opportunities and learning through direct customer feedback. They have also learned that becoming more established sometimes means turning down an event so they can do the right ones better.