Ron Hsu And Aaron Phillips
Lazy Betty, Humble Pie, and Juniper Cafe | Atlanta
april 2023
For Ron Hsu, hospitality is in his DNA. His parents owned three Chinese restaurants, and he would chip in everyday after school (his mom bribed his school’s superintendent with Chinese food to get the bus driver to drop him off at the restaurant instead). Hsu went to the University of Georgia to study business, working in restaurants part-time. Knowing he wanted to be in the kitchen, he dropped out and enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu in Sydney, Australia. Hsu worked the line at Dish, rising to sous chef, and then chef de cuisine. In 2006, he relocated to New York’s Le Bernardin, where he would meet friend and future business partner, Aaron Phillips. For the next seven and a half years, he worked as executive sous, while also acting as a consulting chef to Chef Eric Ripert. After a short stint at Le Colonial, Hsu returned to Le Bernardin as creative director, where he fell in love with running a business.
Originally from St. Louis, Aaron Phillips attended the University of Missouri to study business, but knew it didn’t feel right. He went on to graduate from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York at the age of 20. He relocated to New York City, and joined the team at Succession, before moving to Bouley. At 21 years old, he took a position at Le Bernardin, working his way up to sous chef. Over the next six years, Phillips’ love for fine dining grew while he embraced the challenges and rewards that come with running a large-scale restaurant. In 2017, when Hsu mentioned he was moving back to Atlanta to open his own restaurant, Phillips gladly went with him.
In 2019, Hsu and Phillips opened Lazy Betty, named after Hsu’s mom. Two years later, they went on to open their second spot together, Juniper Cafe, a casual Vietnamese eatery, and then their third, Humble Pie, a neighborhood restaurant offering chef-driven, American dishes. Together, Hsu and Phillips are committed to supporting the Atlanta hospitality community—from providing mentorship opportunities to establishing an equitable wage model across their restaurants—with the goal of opening more restaurants that offer safe, welcoming environments for their staff.
