OUR STORY.
We hope that when you sit at our table, the food makes you feel like home, even if it’s a home you’ve never been to. We hope that you look at local produce with renewed gratitude and possibility and that you have a greater understanding of Korean cuisine and beverage. We hope that you want to come back over and over because our community is yours.
Cam and Thom first met in Chicago in 2013, sharing friendship, workplaces in two different major cities, and occasionally rent. Over time, as they developed complementary skill sets and an aligned vision for what restaurants should be, the rough idea that would become Threshold slowly took shape.
While Thom and Cam worked together at Sumi Robata in 2015, Pete walked in and sat across the bar from Cam, neither anticipating that they would go on to marry. Two years and three trans-continental moves later, Cam and Thom ran into each other on the street in Brooklyn in 2017 and a renewed friendship solidified. When Pete and Cam purchased a restaurant with living space above in Livingston Manor in 2023, opening a restaurant together was inevitable.
Restaurants have played a pivotal role in each of our lives - Cam followed their mom through restaurants as a kid and later worked in bars; Thom started waiting tables during college and went on to cook afterward; Pete found a sense of belonging while on the road as a young consultant. Marrying the familiar dishes of Pete and Thom’s Korean American childhoods with our shared loved of hospitality marks this next chapter. We’ve saved you a seat.
Our values
Our food is emphatically Korean.
All people deserve access to beautiful, local food and excellent service.
Plant-based eaters should have robust and interesting options.
We buy local whenever possible, and Korean whenever essential.
Front- and back-of-house workers all deserve dignity of labor and income.
That means…
Our dishes and meal structure seek to bring traditional Korean cuisine into our local community and context. Our team will help you build a meal you’ll enjoy if you’re unfamiliar!
You will always find affordably priced items on our food and drink menus. We come from working class backgrounds - having affordable offerings, even if they’re less profitable, means we get to feed our people. It’s not charity, it’s community.
There will always be vegan options in every section of the menu and they will change seasonally. Plant-based eaters are not an afterthought here.
Our menu showcases local produce purchased directly from farmers whenever we are able. When no comparable product is available locally or there is a compelling reason to do so, we buy Korean products. When we have to, we buy commercial.
All workers are paid an hourly wage above the standard minimum wage and tips are split among all staff, both FOH and BOH. We collaborate to create a workplace with clear expectations, clear paths of progression, and healthy work culture and we solicit 360 feedback in service of those goals.
thom chun
Chef Thom (he/him) is originally from Cerritos, California and began his professional career in Chicago, on to San Francisco, and finally to New York City where he helmed the 1 star Michelin kitchen at Oiji Mi as Chef de Cuisine.
He learned about food first in his grandmother’s backyard garden as her little helper, rooting out weeds, harvesting garlic chives, and collecting sesame leaves for dinner. Although he was unaware in the moment, his mother and grandmother taught him the importance of cooking through the food they prepared and harvested from the garden, and that feeding others was a labor of love.
As Chef Thom’s career has taken him to some of the finest kitchens in the country he has increasingly found that food tastes best when experienced as a story of love. He is excited to share his journey with you; to honor his grandmother’s memory and to connect with you by cooking the food that most matters to him and his family.
cam shaw
Cam Shaw (they/she) grew up in rural Michigan and learned about food through the lens of their grandfather’s garden and their mother’s kitchen. Their restaurant career began in Ann Arbor while studying engineering, continuing in Chicago and New York City. Cam’s career has primarily focused on high end and fine dining with stints across the spectrum, from bar manager of a casual basement bar to Assistant General Manager of a 1 star Michelin vegetarian restaurant in Manhattan.
Cam’s love of food and hospitality runs deep. A third generation restaurant worker, some of Cam’s earliest memories of their mom, Susan, are following her through restaurants. Eating open-faced tomato sandwiches with a slice of Velveeta with their grandfather in his garden after pulling weeds was where they fell in love with fresh, farm grown food.
Cam is an operations and ethical business practices specialist and brings those skills to Threshold, in addition to being the creative force behind the bar. They love super savory cocktails, spreadsheets, and building high functioning, healthy teams. They’re thrilled to get to share all of those things with you at Threshold (well, maybe not the spreadsheets).
PETE CHOO
Pete (he/him) is from the Cleveland suburbs, where his parents eventually settled down after moving to the States in the late 60s. His earliest memories of food are shaped by his mother's home cooking - a mix of traditional Korean dishes and her quick command of American classics. Mul-naengmyun in the summers, pancakes and omelettes on Sundays, tteokguk for New Year's, block parties and Boy Scout breakfasts.
Pete's parents also instilled an appreciation for the deep connection between food, family, and community. Knowing what it was like living abroad themselves, Thanksgivings were often spent hosting other families and international students. Today you can find them in the outskirts of Houston, ministering to refugees and continuing their own life of service.
As a member of the Threshold team, Pete's job is mainly behind the scenes. His work in consulting means he’s interested in Threshold's operations and finances, but he is most excited about being a flex player, learning what needs to get done from Cam and Thom and helping where and when it's needed.
You'll likely find him behind the bar or bussing tables, but in either case excited to welcome our new guests and neighbors to the space the team has built together.
