Chum Chum Onigiri's team lead Ikai Haynh (left) with a taro boba tea and manager Cassandra Gossen holding onigiri and musubi (Photo by Jay Paul)
Debuting at 2820 W. Cary St. last summer, Chum Chum Onigiri is the fourth venture from entrepreneur Hang Pham, also the owner of Perception Organic Spa, Sen Organic Small Plate and its namesake farmers market. Known for its specialty drinks, including milk tea and boba, as well as snacks like onigiri, musubi and chicken dumplings, the shop is operated by a small, women-run crew, including manager Cassandra Gossen and team lead Ikai Haynh.
Richmond magazine: How would you describe Chum Chum to a first-time visitor?
Cassandra Gossen: We’re a friendly boba tea and snack place and offer onigiri, which is a Japanese rice ball with fillings; bubble tea; organic options — and we’re eco-friendly. Our utensils, straws and cups are all biodegradable.
RM: What can you share about Chum Chum’s owner, Hang Pham?
Gossen: Ms. Hang is absolutely amazing. She always treats everyone with respect. She knows how to lead and is very passionate about what she does.
RM: Tell me about some of your favorite snacks on the menu.
Gossen: Salted duck-egg bao, that’s my personal favorite. It’s a bun with pork, sausage, mushrooms and a duck egg in it.
Ikai Haynh: I think one that’s underrated is the chicken skewers, which comes with seasoned rice and kimchi. Also the takoyaki. It’s a fried octopus ball, and we put on top our signature Chum Chum sauce, bonito flakes and a choice of Kewpie mayo — spicy or regular — and it’s just really delicious.
RM: What is Chum Chum sauce?
Haynh: We sell it at the market. It’s an organic, gluten-free soy sauce-based sauce that we serve on a lot of our items, such as chicken katsu and garlic-butter salmon. Ms. Hang likes to have a lot of vegan options as well as organic everything.
RM: The shop has a really unique and memorable design influenced by kawaii, the Japanese aesthetic of cuteness. Where did that vision come from?
Gossen: Ms. Hang just has a vision for her business. She wanted it to be very open, very friendly, so it’s really just her and her passion for her businesses. It’s very kawaii.
RM: What can you tell me about the people you meet here? Who are your customers?
Gossen: Whenever there’s an anime convention or cosplay, we’ll get a group of cosplayers, and that’s just the coolest thing because they’re so excited and they’re like, “Oh, you have onigiri, I see this in anime.” We have all different types of customers — old, young, people who have lived in Japan and say, “I’ve been searching everywhere. I lived off of onigiri when I was in Japan,” and we get our regulars.
Haynh: We have a lot of people who work in Carytown. They’ll rush over here on their breaks to get their onigiri fix. We love each other, and we all support each other.
RM: I’d love to know what you think makes Chum Chum Onigiri special.
Haynh: Being Asian myself and coming from Northern Virginia, Chum Chum Onigiri is one of the few places I’ve been to that sells vegan boba drinks, vegan milk teas, which is very unique. All of our ingredients, everything we use are all organic.
