Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, on assignment for the Winooski News
Just east of Rotary Park, a new Korean restaurant opened its doors this spring. Inside, the servers race from the kitchen to the tables, the food sizzling. You can smell fried mandu dumplings as they pass by and, depending on your seat, watch the sunset over the Winooski River.
But Donwoori Korean isn’t entirely new. Before it moved to 65 Winooski Falls Way, the business had spent two years on Williston Road in South Burlington.
Winooski locals Summer and Khoi Cao, sister and brother, own Donwoori.
“Our family has (long) been talking about our dream of opening a small restaurant business in the state of Vermont,” Summer said.
The siblings, originally from Vietnam, thought Vermont was lacking in food diversity and wanted to fix the problem. So when the opportunity presented itself, they took the chance.
Summer, 26, formerly worked at a bank and during college worked in the restaurant business. Khoi, 21, is a student at the Community College of Vermont studying restaurant management.
Though they originally opened the restaurant in South Burlington in late 2023, the duo had always wanted to be in Winooski, where they live.
“We’ve been eyeing this specific building for a long time since we’re Winooski locals,” Summer said.
When the space became available in late 2024, moving in was a no-brainer.
The restaurant business can be grueling, and the pair sometimes work 15 hours a day, they said. But they feel good about the venture.
“At the end of the day,” Summer said, “it’s all worth it.”
So far, the restaurant seems to be settling in well in Winooski.
“It seems like it has already generated good buzz,” said Melissa Pasanen, food writer for Seven Days. “I am looking forward to seeing how their business grows.”
Donwoori is not the family’s only presence in the Winooski business scene: Summer and Khoi’s mother owns a nail salon just across the street.
The restaurant offers dine-in and take-out options, with a menu that includes their signature KFC (Korean fried chicken) and surf-and-turf fried rice.
Summer had worked in a lot of Korean restaurants, she told Seven Days last fall, so the move to open shop made sense, especially given the sparse options for Korean cuisine in the Vermont food scene.