Crackle Crème

After working as an automotive refinisher for nine years, Daniel Wong decided that he was ready for a career change. Looking for a change of pace, he enrolled in culinary school. “I figured that even it I didn’t want to do it as a career, cooking was a good life skill,” he recalls.

After finishing cooking school, Daniel looked for his niche in the restaurant business. He discovered that there were aspects of the industry he didn't like – transient front-of-house staff, hot-tempered chefs, and so on – so he decided to open his own small business and “see how it went.”

“It was difficult to decide what to do, though, because so many things have already been done in Vancouver," he explains. "In one of the courses I took in culinary school, we had covered crème brûlée, and I knew there was a lot of potential in that. It has a similar base to ice cream, so it can be endlessly adapted with different flavours.”

After settling on a concept, Daniel chose to set up his specialty dessert shop in Chinatown on the Union Street strip. “It’s really a trending area that is becoming more interesting and diverse, and downtown is just way too expensive,” he explains. When he found a location that faced onto green space, and could accommodate a small patio out front, he was thrilled. “Often, businesses face other businesses, so I’m really happy to have a park across the street. It’s nicer to look at, and it’s more relaxing.”