Long hours, hard work no problem for refugee turned pastry king
Nearly every day for more than 14 years, Tony Oeung has opened his Family Donut Shop in North Seattle during the morning's wee hours and greeted customers with a smile.
Starting at 5 a.m., or earlier, he typically works 10 or more hours a day, and his only days off are major holidays. In 2006, he took his first vacation.
Yet, there's no complaining from Oeung, who fled Cambodia at the tail end of the Khmer Rouge regime, an era of mass Cambodian genocide during the late 1970s.
"It's not too bad," Oeung said of the long hours. "Where I am from, it was a pretty tough life. So to be here and talk with customers and drink coffee and eat my doughnuts is pretty good."
Oeung's journey from northern Cambodia began in 1979, when he and his wife, Vanna, left for Thailand.
"We wanted to get away from the Communists," Oeung said. "We felt that country wouldn't do us any good."
They lived in a refugee camp for more than a year and then went to the Philippines to learn English. In December 1981, the couple immigrated to San Diego, where Oeung continued to study English and was hired to do assembly line work on personal computers for the minimum wage.
Seeing no future in his job, Oeung started working at a doughnut shop owned by a family member.
After learning the trade, he opened his own store in La Mesa, Calif., and then he moved to Seattle in late 1993 to open his store here.
Regulars of Family Donut, at the end of a small strip development at 2100 N. Northgate Way, say Oeung's shop is a home away from home.
"It's like an old barbershop. People can come in and joke around," said Mark Kessler, one of the regulars who stops by with his adult son, Jonathan. "I don't know what he does with them, but they are really good."
Family Donut has more than 20 pastry choices, and the cost is pretty reasonable.
A doughnut goes for 65 cents to $1.25, depending on the confection, and it costs $6.95 for a dozen doughnuts. The shop also sells coffee, milk, juice and soda pop.
Customers say they travel from all over the Seattle area to buy his doughnuts, and Oeung said some customers have taken his treats on plane trips to Chicago.
Bruce Belew, who works at the nearby Nexus Hotel, said he's been going to the Family Donut shop almost daily for 10 years because the doughnuts are handmade and taste better than those of a chain.
Oeung, 49, said he used to make the doughnuts, a process that begins around 1 a.m., but the responsibility of creating up to 100 dozen doughnuts a day has been handed over to his brother-in-law so Oeung can focus on managing the store.
The doughnuts are made with one mixer and a single fryer and frosted on a 7-foot-by-3-foot table in the back of the 850-square-foot shop.
The only other employee is Oeung's wife, who met him in Cambodia a year before they left the country. The couple will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary on Oct. 17.
Vanna Oeung said she works in the afternoon and early evening so the store can stay open until 7 p.m., and so her husband can break away for his daily workout.
Only on Sundays does the store close early -- at 5 p.m.
Oeung, who became a U.S. citizen in 2001, said he likes to keep the operation small, and there's no point to complain about the daily grind.
"It's a little too late to do something else," he says with a laugh. "Sometimes I am tired and I get up and moan and groan a bit, but someone has to do it."
Vanna Oeung said family members have encouraged Tony to slow down, but he dismisses such talk.
"We will not make a million in this business, but he just enjoys it," she said.
"He doesn't want to do anything else."
P-I reporter Craig Harris can be reached at 206-448-8138 or craigharris@seattlepi.com.
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