DALLAS — Arlington, Texas resident Olivia Huynh has been greeting customers at Rocketbelly, her restaurant in Arlington, since she was 10 years old. It might become her most successful venture so far, but she’s been an entrepreneur since age 7.
Olivia opened her first company in 2019, selling mail-order baking kits for customers who wanted to make cakes at home without a trip to the store. Olivia used $3,500 from her savings account, which she earned from acting in ads for Havertys, Chili’s and Pizza Hut. The baking kit business quickly took over the family home.
“We cleaned out her bedroom and turned it into a cookie mix factory,” said Olivia’s mom Mary Huynh, who home-schools her four children. When the business took off during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mary Huynh and her husband, Joseph Nguyen, cleared out the master bedroom, too.
“We all slept in the living room,” Mary said. The family eventually transitioned the business from cake mixes to bubble tea, then closed the company altogether. It was overwhelming, Olivia said. But soon, Olivia was inspired to open another business.
“My kids are always asking,” Mary said, “Can we do swimming lessons? Can we do this, can we do that? Most of the time, if it’s doable, I’ll say yes.”
So Mary and Joseph let their most extroverted child open a restaurant in a quiet corner of Arlington in late 2022. Olivia used about $10,000 in profit from her former businesses, plus she raised $1,900 on GoFundMe.
Rocketbelly sells a smattering of Olivia’s favorite things — bubble tea, chicken nuggets, curry and cookies. The restaurant started as a lesson in business investments for Olivia’s home-school program but has blossomed into a real operation that’s run entirely by her immediate family members, who work 18-hour days, six days a week. Mary makes all the cookies, which come in a sugar rush of flavors: S’mores, candied bacon chocolate chip, blueberry vanilla lemon swirl, salty sea turtle and more. Joseph has a full-time job in cybersecurity, but he’s at the restaurant daily, frying chicken and stepping in when Mary isn’t there.
The parents say Olivia is “the boss” and that she doesn’t cook. In a phone interview with The Dallas Morning News, Olivia could be heard greeting customers and working the computer. “Have a great day!” she said to one bubble tea buyer. Then she was back to answering questions about her growing business.
While Texas Child Labor Law says it is illegal to employ a child under 14, an exemption allows kids to work at their parents’ business. Mary says Olivia isn’t an employee of Rocketbelly; she owns the business.
Rocketbelly hasn’t turned a profit yet, Mary said. For months, the restaurant didn’t have much traffic, and the family preferred it that way.
“A lot of restaurants want fast turnaround time so they can make a lot of money. We are opposite; we want people to hang out ― play board games. We want to be a safe place for anyone,” Mary said.
After WFAA wrote about Olivia’s restaurant in mid-June, the restaurant saw an influx of customers that rocked Rocketbelly’s day-to-day operations. (“We were very, very unprepared for that,” Mary said.) The shop was closed June 18-28, while they traveled to a family reunion.
Rocketbelly reopened June 29, and Olivia is cautiously optimistic about a potential “boost” of customers who recently learned about her business.
“I like making people happy,” she said. She’s proud that the kids who come into Rocketbelly are often seen playing games or talking to their parents, not looking at their phones. She’s got big dreams for Rocketbelly:
“I want to open a lot of stores, and then move to different parts [of the country],” she said. “I want to make people happy all over the world.”
Rocketbelly is at 100 W. Pioneer Parkway, Suite 156, Arlington, Texas. The restaurant is closed Wednesdays. Open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Open until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
