Sonya Mi Lee, armed with five years of experience running a coffee shop in Korea, launched the first Ugly Donuts & Corn Dogs location in Queens in 2021. Specializing in Korean-style street foods and snacks (including, fittingly enough, donuts and corn dogs), the business was a family affair: Ms. Lee’s husband, Young Joon Kim, went into business with her and managed the location. Ms. Lee and Mr. Kim quickly found success, and not only set about expanding the business to more locations, but set up a company, HQ Ugly Foods and Service Corporation, to be the sole supplier for each Ugly Donuts & Corn Dogs location. Ms. Lee is the 100% owner of this company.

Ms. Lee and Mr. Kim approached Renaissance in September 2023, as they needed funding not only to purchase extra inventory to help fund their ongoing expansion, but to make necessary repairs following a fire above one of their existing locations. That December, Renaissance provided HQ Ugly Foods with $50,000 in low-interest capital to purchase inventory, and in the time since, Ms. Lee and Mr. Kim have continued to build a growing and thriving brand: Ugly Donuts & Corn Dogs has opened two new locations, one in New Jersey’s American Dream mall, and one in Texas.

Ugly Donuts & Corn Dogs now has six locations total, three of which are family-owned and three of which are franchisee-owned. In total the six locations employ 30 full-time employees – and critically, provide those employees with living wages averaging well above NYCs $16/hour minimum. Renaissance is proud to support businesses like Ms. Lee’s and Mr. Kim’s, that serve as true engines of community economic opportunity and development.

‍

Visit Ugly Donuts

‍