Swing Sandwiches and Pizza Interview

I interviewed Yoon Kim, the owner of Swing Sandwiches and Pizza, a new restaurant on Queen Anne. I love the pizza at Swing, and I thought it would be interesting to interview the owner and find out more about the business.

Q: What made you choose Queen Anne for the location?

A: That’s a great question. I looked at maybe 5 or 6 different places. I wanted to find a residential location where a lot of families lived and where people walk around. Upper Queen Anne is very walkable. That’s one of the biggest reasons why I picked this location, because I wanted to sell pizza but by the slice. If you want to sell slices you want foot traffic. It’s different from a pizzeria that might only do whole pizzas.

Q: What made you decide to focus on sandwiches and pizza?

A: My original intention was pizza only. The space here is limited, so while I wanted to do pizza only I wouldn’t be able to make enough pizzas fast enough to satisfy the needs of the customers. I walked around the neighborhood, and there are some restaurants, but they are not open for lunch. So, I was thinking that I could bake bread in the morning and make some sandwiches for lunch so that’s why I chose sandwiches and pizza. My passion was more for pizza, but sandwiches was an addition I thought of.

Q: What is your favorite pizza?

A: That’s a good question. I lived in New York for a little bit and that’s where I got in love with New York pizza style, which is thin crust, larger pies, and pizza by the slice. One of my favorite pizzerias in New York is L’Industrie Pizza. Here in Seattle, besides my own pizza, is Stevie’s Famous Pizza. They have a good New York style pizza. Other than New York style pizza, Delancey Pizza is a really good pizzeria. In terms of my favorite pizza topping, I still like plain cheese the best. I like burrata. What they do in New York is have a cheese slice and put fresh burrata on top.

Q: I love the cheese pizza here. Is there a secret recipe?

A: Oh yes, we put smoked scamorza in the pizza. I make my own tomato sauce, and I source great mozzarella cheese, and I add scamorza. It’s similar to mozzarella, but they smoke it. It tastes like gouda a little bit, but very unique. They are interesting to try. It melts really well and it will taste good.

Q: How did you come up with the name Swing?

A: Oh, that’s another good question. I get asked that question a lot. Obviously the Swing dance music. I wanted to do New York style pizza here, and swing music is kind of like old school culture built into New York. I like swing music which is kind of like East Coast vibe and the music is pleasant.

Q: How did you decide on the layout and décor?

A: This space used to be a cupcake shop, so the layout is the same. The things I did were to add posters and try to make it a little more fun. I didn’t think too much about the design and I don’t think I’m that good at it!

Q: What is the hardest part of starting a business?

A: Initially the permitting was really difficult. I needed to get a permit from the city of Seattle to operate my own business. The permitting criteria is a lot to get through. For example, there is a big pipe that passes through the dishwashing area. The person from the city said that we had to identify the type of pipe that it was. We ended up having to speak with a senior technician familiar with the building to help with that.

Q: What is the best part of running a business?

A: I talked to all my employees about this, things like this interview are things that I never imagined I would do. Obviously, it makes me really happy when I make the food and customers tell me that the food is great and the pizza tastes good. That’s the best part of being a business owner. So, I always try to look back and appreciate that. One of my employees told me that you came in and asked for an interview and that made me happy. I thought it was really cool that someone wanted to interview me for a school newspaper. A neighbor and her daughter came here a couple times and she likes the pizza so she drew a picture and wrote about it in her school journal and the neighbor shared it with me. Things like that make me really happy and it reminds me of why I wanted to open the restaurant because you make food by hand and people eat it and it makes them happy. That’s a really beautiful thing.

Q: Did you enjoy cooking as a kid?

A: I did. I think cooking was a thing I always really liked. Even through high school and college I was always known as the person who was making food for everybody. Back then I was making things like ham and cheese sandwiches or fried eggs and things like that, but I found out that cooking was something that I really liked doing so I went to cooking school, then worked in a bunch of different restaurants and now I’m here.

Q: What is your favorite Halloween candy?

A: That’s a curveball. I don’t know if this counts as Halloween candy but I like Snickers. Very classic. What’s your favorite Halloween candy?

Kennedy: I like M&Ms and KitKats.