The daughter of Korean immigrants who started Santa Monica’s SM Pier Seafood, Yunnie Kim Morena has rebranded the restaurant – now officially known as The Albright – and launched a second career for herself. Morena started out in fashion, working as a part-time stylist and eventually operating Fred Segal Couture in Santa Monica. After more than 15 years there, Morena, along with her husband, Greg, is now focusing on the food business. Along with looking after the restaurant her parents started, she has plans to launch a catering company later this year. Morena recently spoke with the Business Journal about starting a new career, fusing her fashion skills with the food business and building on a family legacy.
Describe your morning routine.
My day starts off with coffee. My routine has changed a little bit now because I have a 1-year-old. So my husband brings me coffee every morning. Then, I go straight into mom mode, and I make breakfast for the family. I make lunch for my son, and I drop my older son off at school or camp right now. After that, I go right into my emails. I start doing all my email correspondence and phone calls. Once I do that I go back to my younger son, and I spend some time with him. Once he goes down for a nap, I go back into work mode and do anything that needs to be taken care of out in the field.
What does a typical day involve for you?
A typical day is cooking for my family and taking meetings, so usually meeting with our social media team or taking meetings with the management staff at our restaurant, and then really being a mom. It’s just really exciting to try something new in my life. I spent a lot of time on the sales floor in fashion, and it really taught me how to stay in touch with the consumer. I have experience in operations in terms of learning to build a great team of people. I have a great team at the restaurant which allows me to be a little more available for my family because I now have two children. I need that time during the day.
How do you maintain work/life balance?
The best way for me to balance it is by making time for me and my husband and making sure I find time for myself. The way I do that is with the support of my family. Greg and I both grew up in Santa Monica, so we’re locals. Fortunately, for that reason, we have a lot of our family around us, so we have a lot of support from both sides of our family.
What is your greatest accomplishment?
In my personal life, it’s my children. The fact that we can carry on because my father is not with us anymore. So I really always think about how proud my father would be if he were here because he really always wanted someone in our family to take over the business. That’s the one thing I wish that my father was around to see – that we were able to take it over successfully and keep the integrity of the business. I really think that might be my greatest accomplishment.
