Dear Donuts in St. Charles aims to be late-night hangout with Asian-style treats

Sue Park was interested in neuroscience and also studied nursing in college while still enjoying her hobby of baking pastries, specifically Asian desserts - when she could.

Park, a 2014 Geneva High School graduate, also was helping her parents operate the Mr. Samurai Steak and Sushi House in St. Charles. It was a family commitment she had been part of since 2011.

Fast forward six years, and Park left Loyola University because her parents needed more help at the restaurant.

Turns out, it was a good thing she maintained an interest in her baking hobby and had learned more about operating a business. It ultimately led to managing and operating Dear Donuts, a coffee shop/bakery the Park family opened at 570 S. Randall, in the same St. Charles retail strip as Mr. Samurai.

Dear Donuts came about in many ways because a potential buyer approached the Park family about Mr. Samurai's availability.

“There were only four of us working at the restaurant at the time, and when the buyer showed up, we just said, let's do this,” Park said.

The family sold the restaurant, leading to Park's mother, Young Shin, a year later signing off as owner of Dear Donuts through the family's limited liability company. She turned over management and daily operations to Park and her sister Sophie Kim, a 2020 St. Charles East High School graduate.

Dear Donuts opened three weeks ago, and the sisters have already established the location as a place for people to enjoy coffee, tea and Korean brioche doughnuts.

“We always baked as a hobby, and right now in Korea, these cream doughnuts are really popular,” said Park. “I have seen them on the West Coast, and they are popping up on the East Coast, but you don't see much like these brioche doughnuts around here unless you go to Chicago.”

Dear Donuts represents a nice landing spot for 27-year-old Park, who came to Geneva from South Korea when she was 10.

“In growing up here, we noticed there wasn't a place to purchase Asian products or desserts,” she said. “You would have to travel to Glenview or the Schaumburg area.”

After the sale of Mr. Samurai, the opportunity came for Park, as the manager, to pursue her vision of opening a cafe locally so that people who like the brioche doughnuts wouldn't have to travel to find them.

The option to buy these cream-filled treats and enjoy coffee or boba (an Asian tea) was just part of the equation for Park and her sister. They had another goal related to their younger patrons.

Park, a resident of St. Charles, lived in Glenview for a year. She noticed “these boba places that were open to 11 p.m., midnight or even 1 a.m. and the kids would hang out there.”

Knowing there was nothing like that in the St. Charles or Geneva area, she wanted to open a place where kids could hang out to talk, eat snacks, read or study during the school year and finish late-night homework. Thus, Dear Donuts is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.

“It's a safe place for the kids with coffee and boba,” Park noted. “Kids have been telling me that the library closes at 9 p.m., and they don't have anywhere to go together, so they must return home.

“I wanted to offer something to the community for late-night snacks and other things, and coffee - if you need some caffeine,” Park said.

So this is a coffee shop with doughnuts that isn't open first thing in the morning? Well, there's a good reason for that, beyond Park's desire to be open late at night.

“Everyone thinks of doughnuts as something really early in the morning with coffee, but for us, with our brioche doughnuts, they take a lot of proofing time for the dough,” Park explained. “With our hours closing late at night, it is hard to close and then open early the next day.”

Park's father, Mok Kim, has turned in his Mr. Samurai apron for doughnut baking. He starts making the dough in the wee hours of the morning, and that dough needs “multiple proofing stages,” Park said, referring to dough rising and being rolled down and formed several times before baking. “And we try to come in as early as we can to start baking the doughnuts.”

“Everyone is asking if we can open earlier and close earlier, but that was not my vision,” Park added. “We only make the doughnuts in small batches, and when they are sold out, we can't continuously make them.”

One look at the doughnuts on display - vanilla, choco crunch, lemon meringue, ube cream, strawberry milk cream and one called “everything but bagel” - and you can see why these might not be easy to bake all day.

“These are made with fresh creams every day, and they can spoil,” Park said. “I recommend to people to consume them that day for the best quality. That is why I try not to make too many, so there are no leftovers.”

Patrons are also enjoying the Korean corn dogs at the cafe. Park introduced those as a menu item, knowing corn dogs are popular and that her doughnuts would be sold out during the day. The corn dogs are available all day, but Park views them as the perfect late-night snack, along with soft serve and smoothies.

The cafe sells stationery and other items while featuring a “community gallery” in which patrons are invited to write notes or draw pictures for the hallway display.

“I wanted people to come in and be involved with the cafe, and it has been a good mix of adults and kids drawing or writing something,” Park said. “It is something for them to look at while they are waiting for their order.”

Mostly, Park wants people to know more about her “Korean aesthetic cafe” and find it to be a comfortable place for a doughnut and coffee - and for kids to hang out.

“It's not just a doughnut shop,” Park said. “And the kids have been really good.”

dheun@sbcglobal.net