The Journey
Formerly known as DON DON NY, the founders (husband and wife team, May and Kyle) have moved to Santa Monica, CA and are finally ready to open DON DON LA with Chris Phan who helped tremendously at DON DON NY.
DON DON LA creates delicious Japanese curry and rice bowls, a staple in Japanese home cuisine. Japanese Curry is flavorful, filling, and heart-warming and it’s everywhere in Japan. At DON DON LA, we make our Japanese Curry from scratch and have created a delicious recipe that is vegan-friendly, but still tastes like the curry from our childhood.
Debuting in 2016 at Hester Street Fair, DON DON operated out of a commercial kitchen in Brooklyn, NY and used the subway and UHaul as our company cars. We popped up at various events like Grub Street Food Festival, Queens Night Market and Broadway Bites with Urbanspace.
May Matsuo-Rose
Age: 32
Nationality: Japanese-American
Favorite DON DON LA Menu Item: Sweet Potato Katsu Curry Bowl: I love the texture explosion of the creamy sweet potato and crunchy panko for the katsu. Japanese Curry is so heartwarming and I love eating it.
Background: 2016-2017 Owner/Chef @ DON DON NY in Manhattan; Bartender/Key Manager @ North Italia in Santa Monica; prep cook and noodle chef @ Google Newport Beach; Lead Server @ Maialino; Operations Manager @ Baking for Good. Communications Major at UC Berkeley (Go Bears!) and founder of Main Stacks Dance Team (old and retired dancer over here!)