On Oct. 26, The Irritable Bao celebrated its three-year anniversary. The Irritable Bao, formerly the food truck Dumps Like A Truck, opened in 2018.
The line for The Irritable Bao is often out the door, and the owner of the store, Whitley Dykes, can usually be found greeting his customers with contagious energy.
“I want to know my customers and their story,” he said.
He prioritizes getting to know the names of customers through interaction within the restaurant and on social media.
Dykes and his wife Kunyu Li started their business in a food truck and were able to deliver bao on their own time.
“In the beginning, it was more families, and we’d deliver to neighborhoods,” Dykes said.
He lived in China for eight years working with international students.
“I was doing mission work and working with doctors and nurses in universities and hospitals,” he said.
He met Li in China, and together they decided to move back to the United States.
“We felt like we could use our gifts and talents and resources for the Kingdom of God,” Dykes said. “We wanted to do more good. We wanted to make international students feel at home through food.”
The couple came up with the idea while on a date at Crepe Myrtle, a local crepe shop. They started off their restaurant on the corner of Glenn and Donahue, next to the Goalpost.
“We used to be open from 7-2 p.m. and work 80 hours a week,” Dykes said.
Some days, they would finish prepping for the day at 2 a.m. and be back in the restaurant at 4 a.m.
“We actually had to pull the stove out of our real house and into the restaurant to get the restaurant going,” he said.
With the new location on Magnolia Avenue, Dykes and Li love being able to be a part of the Auburn community, and have become friends with the owners of other restaurants downtown.
The Irritable Bao's menu changes daily. They have gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan options. They are also very active on Instagram and posts pictures daily. Dykes said he loves to interact with his customers, and their Instagram is loaded with pictures of customers enjoying their meals with smiling faces.
Dykes promotes the business by taking these pictures of his customers, planning exciting giveaways and collaborations, and going live on Instagram to inform his customers of upcoming menus and to connect with them virtually.
“It helps people to be seen,” he said. “It’s not the money, it’s not the food, it’s the people who come through the doors.”
They opened their new location during the pandemic, though it did not impact business too much, he said.
They are also committed to empowering local families and impoverished children abroad.
“We asked ourselves, ‘How do we break generational poverty?’ and came up with the idea of this existing mission run by locals,” Dykes said. “We get kids in school and educated and mentored."
Before the pandemic, the restaurant would plan mission trips in the spring.
”We call it a vision trip to open your eyes to what’s going on over there,” he said.
The business will be expanding to Atlanta by March, where it will be delivered only by app. Dykes said they plan to have multiple locations in multiple cities.
“The atmosphere is very chill,” said customer Jaci Land. “You walk in and you feel loved.”
The Irritable Bao decided to celebrate their restaurant’s three-year anniversary with lots of giveaways and collaborations. The biggest prize included a free pass to the front of the line and a year’s worth of free bao.
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