“I’ve always felt like people who want to do things find good reasons to talk themselves out of doing things,” said Doinks Burger Joint co-owner Bonn Rassavong. “That’s something that I personally have done in the past, but if you just start tackling tasks instead of overthinking, you’d be surprised at what the outcome will be.” Rassavong did something big recently, in fact, opening Doinks 10 months ago in the Waterloo Arts District of Cleveland.

He was working as a chef at Cleveland’s renowned Lola Bistro when the pandemic hit and restaurants shut down. Like so many others, Rassavong was unsure how long the shutdown would last and how to pay his bills in the interim. One day in March 2020, he sat with his friend Peter Brown, owner of local, small-batch coffee roaster and cafe Six Shooter Coffee, which also was closed. They were trying to figure out what the future would look like, and Rassavong had an idea: “Hey, while we’re trying to figure this out, would you like to sell burgers and fries with me out of my garage on the weekends?” So they did, posting on their social media pages along the way. That first weekend in June, they sold 120 burgers, and they sold out every weekend until the end of the year.

After COVID restrictions lifted, they returned to their day jobs. It felt like the rational thing to do, but their community wasn’t willing to let go of the burgers as easily. “We had handfuls of people asking us to do it again,” Rassavong said. So, still thinking of it as a side gig, Rassavong and Brown started doing pop-ups around Cleveland and they developed an even larger following. “Our audience was growing. We had an established social media page just for our burgers, and it has some real traction,” Rassavong said.

And so, they pushed past their anxieties and opened their own brick-and-mortar restaurant.

Thanks to a Kickstarter campaign, the 30-seat, 1,200-square-foot Doinks Burger Joint opened in July 2023. It has been profitable since the beginning.

ICSC Small Business Center contributing editor Rebecca Meiser talked to Rassavong about pushing past doubts and the community’s role in the business’ success.

Why did you believe that this restaurant would work in the Waterloo neighborhood of Cleveland, where there aren’t a lot of other eateries?

People want to eat, and [Waterloo] is an arts district mainly. We have a ton of really fantastic galleries. In our unit alone, there are three art galleries. Art and food complement each other very well. I knew it would work well because our core base was our community. Our customers were our friends and people who knew who we were. I think you really need both to thrive. One of the things that gave me a ton of hope for our business was we started a Kickstarter. We set a goal and had a month to fulfill it [in order to access the donations], and we hit our goal in just one week. Beyond the monetary value of that Kickstarter, it showed me that people wanted [the restaurant] and they wanted to support it.

How did you decide to use Kickstarter in the first place?

It was just Peter and I doing this whole thing. We had to bring in a little bit more cash, and the Kickstarter, I thought, would be a very fun way to pledge money from our friends and our supporters in the neighborhood.

Is that the only financing you received to start the business?

We had a small business loan through Huntington [bank], as well. And that was it. We DIYed the rest of this restaurant. I was laying floor, painting. I traveled surrounding states of Ohio to find equipment and decor. We were on a very small budget. It took a lot of careful shopping and a lot of time to pull this place together with our budget.

Would you recommend Kickstarter as a funding mechanism to start a small business?

I do because of what we received from it. People shared it a lot on their Facebook or Instagram. It was marketing. It felt like a pop-up before starting a business. It was a way of seeing if people would embrace what we were doing.

And you rely on social media for marketing?

Social media is a very large part of our success. That’s our main avenue for marketing. We’ve had a ton of social media food reviewers come in here, which has been really great for us. Their reach has been really nice. Our branding is kind of quirky, a little weird, and I think that that works well on the internet.

Why did you choose the Waterloo Arts District? Why was that location important?

This is our home. These are the people that supported us from Day 1. I live here with my wife. We’ve set up our home roots here. Our friends are here, so it only made sense to set up our business here. I would hope to see more. Waterloo is a place that I hold very close to my heart, but it definitely has a lot of growing that it needs to do. I hope to be a catalyst for it. I hope people can see: “Hey, these guys are here and they’re doing very well. I have a concept that’s great, that’s even better than theirs that I feel comfortable investing in.”

Did you do all the renovations yourself?

I did a good portion of it. The contractors were family friends, and my stepfather is a plumber. He did the plumbing for the restaurants, and a guy that he works with did a lot of HVAC work. The landlord was close friends with a carpenter who did a lot of our carpentry work, but it was definitely an all-hands-on-deck kind of a thing. That’s why I stress community. There’s always someone in your community who can help you do something if you take the time to talk to them.

What was your vision for the space?

It’s a very large, open kitchen. That’s how our pop-ups were. We were just behind a portable propane flattop. You could walk up and just chitchat with us and get your burger served and hang out and drink, so I wanted to re-create that feel. The restaurant is in a 1,200-square-foot space. We hold about 30 people. I can sit behind the grill and I can scream to the very far end of the restaurant and still have a conversation with someone. I wanted a comfy space, a place where you come in and everything’s very simple. There are five items on the menu. We also only have four or five options for soft drinks and beer. We have only a handful of liquor options. I just wanted a place where people could turn off for a second and enjoy.

You’ve been open 10 months. What has the response from the community been?

It’s been amazing. We’ve gone beyond the people who have always been there like our friends and networks. We’re getting a ton of repeat traffic from people outside of the neighborhood, but I’m very excited to see families in Collinwood respond. It’s been great building those relationships.