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A barbecue shrimp dish, served with a side of rice.
For Katsuta and Jung, who both have
a Samoan background, the restaurant’s
offerings are a reflection of their culture.
“We wanted to represent our culture
and our culture is about serving. We try
to make everything as close to being in
Samoa and getting that experience as
possible,” Jung said. “Granted, we’re
the only Samoans in our community so
we’re teaching our employees our way
of serving, our way of cooking, while
introducing all that to the community.”
Jung is the entrepreneur and business
side of the duo, while Katsuta is the star
chef, hence the restaurant’s name.
“I’m an entrepreneur, so I had dreams
of opening a restaurant but I’m no cook.
So when Queen and I got together, I
pitched it to her. She never looked at
her cooking as something that people
would like but she has a very expensive
taste so she would make normal meals
into gourmet. I was like ‘I’m pretty sure
there’s something here,’” Jung said.
Barbe-Queen is located in Ocean
Park on the tip of the Long Beach Pen-
insula. Jung and Katsuta originally
hoped to have a food truck at the Port of
Peninsula.
“It just happened overnight. We were
supposed to be a food truck but the
opportunity presented itself for Queen
and I,” Jung said. “It was new for us but
with the support system we have, we
were able to make our first year a good
year.”
The restaurant will soon expand to a
food truck in Long Beach. In early June,
the Long Beach City Council approved
a request to create an outdoor food
court, featuring Barbe-Queen and other
restaurants’ food trucks.
The next obstacle for the pair was
traffic, with few making the drive to
the tip of the peninsula. “We pride our-
selves on marketing and driving traffic
up north. If there’s no traffic, we’ll cre-
ate it ourselves,” Jung said.
The pair plan on adding more dec-
orations to their Ocean Park restaurant
over the upcoming year. “We don’t want
to be just a restaurant, we want it to be
an experience. One thing Queen is really
great about is interior design. When you
come from the outside, we want the
inside to look like an oasis,” Jung said.
A popular feature at Barbe-Queen is a
world map where visitors can add a pin
that shows where they’re visiting from.
The restaurant has received visits from
travelers near and far. “The response
from the community has been outstand-
ing. It’s been a huge success for us,”
Jung said.
THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 2022 // 19