Judy's takes cafe, Galesburg viral

By Mike Trueblood

Published in The Burg Nov. 7, 2024

With over 15 million views on TikTok, about 38,000 posts on Instagram and 35,000 on Facebook per month, a write up in the New York Times and an appearance on Chicago's WGN-TV, it's an understatement to say Judy Wang has gone viral in the past few months.

But the woman who came to Galesburg from Beijing, China speaking no English in 2017 has become the hottest thing in putting the town on the map worldwide with her modest Judy's Cafe at 1195 N. Broad St.

Is she shocked? 

"A little bit, yeah," she says.

Her signature plea via video, "What are you looking for?" is now known everywhere.

And Wang, who originally arrived in Galesburg with no job, recently celebrated the fifth anniversary of her cafe with the now familiar packed parking lot and dining room not that long after her business survived the pandemic.

She took over the building in 2019 - once best known as Swedough's donut shop - after working at a local buffet for awhile. That's what lured her to Galesburg in the first place.

Why Galesburg?

"I opened a map and I said, 'Here's Galesburg'," she said with a laugh before adding,  "Looking for a job was so hard. I needed a job.

"This town it's OK, It's quiet and everybody's nice to me. I'll stay here."

Except for a recent exterior paint job, it still operates as an establishment serving traditional American breakfasts and Asian dishes from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day.

That changed after the pandemic when Wang explored advertising through social media. She eventually encountered Victor Dantas, a digital marketer and co-founder of Clear Profits Digital Marketing based in Monmouth, who is a Carl Sandburg College and Western Illinois University graduate.

In May the new partners began releasing internet videos and by July and August business exploded and the rest is becoming history. The new partners happened to tap into a trend that has seen low-budget internet comedy videos used in advertising and the funnier they are the better.

"We come up with ideas together," said Wang. "We're always talking and if I don't send ideas to him almost every day, I forget them."

Although Dantas handled the video production at first, she has assumed the duties and with the help of her 16-year-old daughter Linda on camera, now does them herself. Along with her job at the cafe, Wang tries to produce two videos a week.

"I go home and put them together and do the music," said Wang, who also has a son Hau, age 8. "Victor runs the accounts."

Their creations have included the humorous "I'm Judy where you go? I have the best pancakes," as Wang asks as she proudly displays two plates of them over her head. 

Another is shot from inside a car passing by in which the driver says to his passengers, "Don't look at her, she's going to try to sell us pancakes" while Wang runs to the curb holding and waving two plates of the pancakes.

The videos have drawn comments and customers from across the country including places like Nashville, Tenn., Salt Lake City and Chicago and Wang says she even got a inquiry from London, England. Many claim they will make the trip here just to sample the pancakes and a couple actually flew in from Chicago.

No surprise then, her pancakes are her best seller and over the past two years she has donated 2,000 orders to students at nearby Steele School.

Asked for special ingredients to her now famous creation she answers with a smile, "Judy's love."

The small, round sunglasses Wang often wears have become so popular, she sells them at the cafe along with high-demand coffee mugs, T-shirts and shopping bags displaying her cafe's name.

But even bigger things may be in the works. 

Wang says she has been contacted by potential investors although she won't reveal the details yet.

"We have a plan for next year," she said. "But we're working on it right now."