Xin Wei, the owner of Corner 17, W Karaoke Lounge and Lulu’s Local Eatery, recently completed his Master of Business Administration degree at the Olin Business School. 

Ambitious restaurateur Xin Wei graduated from the Olin Business School’s Masters of Business Administration program. (Photo courtesy of Xin Wei)

Wei is a restaurateur who has been involved in the industry since 2007, when his family opened their first restaurant. In 2013, Wei’s family opened Corner 17, a Chinese restaurant, on the Delmar Loop. In 2018, he opened W Karaoke Lounge. Most recently, he and his family took ownership of Lulu’s Local Eatery, a vegan restaurant, in 2020.

However, Wei didn’t have the easiest path to the restaurant business. “I grew up in…a pretty rural area of China,” Wei said. “My sister, my family and I made a living by picking up Jasmine flowers for tea in a field.”

After immigrating to the United States when Wei was 17, the family opened their first restaurant. All of Wei’s subsequent business ventures have been family-owned as well.

“Why we came to the United States [and] what we want to pursue in the United States is all about family and family values,” Wei said. “Family is pretty important to me and to a lot of Asian people.”

After the opening of Corner 17, Wei’s family was given the opportunity to expand the restaurant by renting the adjacent space. While a risky decision, the growth of the St. Louis Asian community convinced Wei that expansion was the right move.

“[Expanding] was a hard decision within our family because my parents didn’t really want to take that higher risk because the current model [of] Corner 17 was making money,” Wei said. “We finally made an agreement…Now, Corner 17 is three times bigger than it was.”

Wei chose the name Corner 17 as a reminder of the age at which he immigrated to the United States. 

“When I came to the United States, we had nothing, and we did not speak English,” he said. “We had to work in restaurants and make a living to make our life better. I want to remember those difficult times and kind of remind [myself], ‘No matter where you are, you don’t want to forget where you come from.’”

Wei’s family opened popular Chinese restaurant Corner 17 in 2013. (Photo courtesy of Xin Wei)

With goals of expanding his restaurant business across the United States, Wei decided to pursue a business degree. After receiving an undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri St. Louis in 2009, Wei enrolled in the Washington University executive MBA program in 2019.  

“I knew that if I want to expand my business, if I want to do more restaurants, I just have to get more education,” Wei said. “I just felt [that] with my business experience, I just need to get balanced or get polished by higher education to be better prepared for my future expansions or my future long term goals.”

Wei believes the program has helped to supplement his business experience and intuition with formal critical thinking training.

“Sometimes when you make a decision, you have to rely a lot on data analysis,” he said. “But I feel like sometimes when you are doing business you can’t hundred-percent rely on business or rely on data or critical thinking—sometimes you really have to be bold. Go with your intuition.”

Wei said that he was impressed by the MBA program’s rigorous instruction. “WashU had great professors,” he said. “Especially the management part, I learned a lot from class professors and I applied it to my whole team. . .our teamwork is much better than before.” 

Wei described his restaurants and food as a source of pride and happiness. However, he and his staff have experienced bigotry and discrimination for running Asian restaurants.

“The struggling part is still going to be the racists—especially lately with the Asian hate, people getting discriminated against by a lot of crazy people out there, people getting unfair treatment occasionally from some crazy customers,” he said. “When that kind of moment happens, it’s pretty emotional for us. That’s the low moments.”

Having now graduated with his MBA, Wei has both short- and long-term goals, including opening a second Lulu’s Local Eatery and potentially a Corner 17 on the Danforth Campus. 

“My long term vision—it’s kind of big—is to open up Corner 17 or one of my other businesses throughout the United States,” he said. “I don’t want to just stick with one or two or three restaurants. I am still doing a lot of things for our Asian communities, but I feel like whenever you are getting stronger and more successful, you’ll probably have more power to speak for your people and speak about unfairness in society.”

Editor’s Note: We have updated this story as of June 1, 2021 at 7:25 p.m. with clarifications about the ownership and timeline of Wei’s restaurants.