This Bass Lake resort is in a Korean documentary as an example of the American dream

Kyusun Choe and his wife Sun Wha Choe used to eat at Ducey’s on the Lake, back before they ran the place.

They owned a motel at the time, a 30-unit Days Inn just in Oakhurst, and would sometimes take the quick drive just to spend an evening looking out over Bass Lake.

“They would joke about how cool it would be to have a place like this,” says son Mark Choe, standing in the dining room of the restaurant, part of Pines Resort and Conference Center, which his family has owned for the past 10 years.

The resort — and the story of the entrepreneurial spirit that led the Choe family to take a risk on the business — was recently featured on “Against the Odds - CEO,” a documentary series for the streaming service OnDemand Korea (think Netflix, but for Korean television and movies).

The series follows five Korean-American entrepreneurs as they navigate business during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Korean immigrant and entrepreneur

Kyusun Choe started his first business shortly after he moved to the United States from Korea in the late 1970s. He’d landed in Minneapolis where his sister was living at the time and quickly went to work — literally. He worked two two jobs to save enough money to open Suns, a retail store in downtown Minneapolis, near the music venue First Avenue.

Originally, Suns was an odd mix of retail, mostly items Choe could import cheaply from Korea. But he noticed that rock-and-roll merchandise — the AC/DC T-shirts or Metallica posters — sold really well.

So, he added more until the spot became the place to get your rock and roll paraphernalia.

Suns Rock ‘n’ Roll remained well known even after Choe sold the business to a friend.

He then opened a second business, a Mail Boxes Etc., which was sold so he and his wife could move to California in the early 2000s. They chose Oakhurst because of its proximity to outdoor recreation, including Yosemite National Park.

“My dad doesn’t like actual camping,” Mark Choe says, “But he loves places where you would go to camp.”

The Pines Resort at Bass Lake

When the family bought The Pines in 2010, it wasn’t without risk or sacrifice. The country was just getting out of the great recession and the Choes were selling their motel and cashing in any thoughts of retirement on a new venture in which they had little experience.

Mark Choe moved from Vancouver, British Columbia, to join the business and had to adjust to life outside a fast-paced urban landscape.

But the resort had a lot going for it.

There were 84 chalet cabins and 20 lakeside hotel suites on 14 acres, plus a restaurant, bar and conference center — and a long history in the area including visits from Hollywood (the 1988 comedy hit “The Great Outdoors”).

“We definitely knew it was a crazy good deal,” Mark Choe says.

“And we know it was really important to a lot of people.”

Still, “the first few years were just surviving.”

“The resort is non-stop maintenance,” he says, though the family was eventually able do some upgrades. They remodeled all 84 ]chalets and have partially renovated the hotel suites. They replaced furniture and the resort’s air conditioning, and upgraded the Wi-Fi.

They also worked to bring back community events, like the Bass Lake triathlon and Halloween festival, and started hosting concerts on the back landing each week.

Triple hit: Coronavirus, wildfire, wind

When the coronavirus pandemic struck last year, the business suddenly became very uncertain again, Mark Choe says.

The family quickly pivoted its focus and resources in a way that actually allowed the resort to grow its visibility in the market.

“We made a very deliberate decision we were going to stay open,” he says.

So, the resort didn’t close at all during and was able to mostly maintain staffing levels, with some furloughs. When indoor dining was restricted, the restaurant shifted to family-style meals, with delivery to the chalets. It became one of the only places in the area that had food, other than the grocery store.

The resort also kept up on their social media and marketing budgets, the opposite of what many others in the industry were doing at the time, Mark Choe says.

California’s wildfires did close the resort for a short while.

The resort shut for a full month during the Creek Fire last September. Luckily, the fire never crossed the ridge into Bass Lake proper. Looking out the deck of The Pines, one wouldn’t know the fire burned through 379,895 acres of Sierra Nevada forest, or that it hit so close to the resort.

Then, in January a massive wind storm caused major damage in the area and closed the resort for a week. Several large trees were toppled and there was no small amount of cleanup, Mark Choe says.

He doesn’t quite shrug off the challenges of the past year, but he sees them as part of the learning curve in creating a business with longevity.

“As an entrepreneur, most of the time, you figure things out on the fly,” he says. You can make the right decisions, or you can make the wrong decisions.

“The worst thing you can do is make no decision,” he says.

Since November, the resort has actually seen a surge in business and is now operating above pre-pandemic levels. Staffing has remained steady, though they are currently have trouble finding workers going into the busy season.

And they are looking to grow.

The Choes have recently began moving into vacation rentals and now own two cabins near the resort. They also purchased an additional 10 acres of land and have plans for an expansion there, though it’s too early to share details, Mark Choe says.

The resort is keeping with those community events — like periodic cars shows and the annual fireworks show over the lake. The Fourth of July will be the single biggest day of the year, Mark Choe says. It’s also looking to double its wedding business with full service packages — ceremony and reception — and micro weddings, with indoor or outdoor options. If all goes as planned, they will host 100 weddings for the year.

Mark Choe was married there himself in May.

All of this while the resort continues to reach out to new markets, because, yes they are still people who don’t realize that the resort is an hour away from Fresno proper, Mark Choe says.

“It’s a destination. But a close destination.”