At Bill’s Market on 63rd St., after you squeeze through the door under the unassuming green and yellow sign, you’re as sure to be met with the aroma of freshly made sandwiches as you are to hear your name announced by Kimey Moon, the matriarch of Bill’s Market, before you’re even inside. 

After 16 years of filling students’ stomachs, Kimey Moon decided to pursue her dream of owning a restaurant.  

Although she’s known around Hawk Hill for her overstuffed sandwiches, Kimey Moon’s new restaurant KORI, located in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, features Korean-American barbecue food, a cuisine she has a background in and a passion for. KORI opened the third week of July, but Kimey Moon did not leave her post behind the Bill’s Market counter until last week. 

As excited as Kimey Moon, affectionately known as ‘Miss Kimey’ among St. Joe’s students, is for her new opportunity, leaving a community she was so deeply entrenched in will not be easy. 

“No matter where you go, you have to make friends,” Kimey Moon said. “It doesn’t matter how much experience you have, you have to make a friend. So, I’ve been here 16 years, I made a lot of friends and that makes me feel so special. They graduate, get married and still come back to see me.”

Kimey Moon saw her market as a way to help people and support the community. She said if a group of kids came in and one didn’t buy anything because they didn’t have money, she’d say “Don’t worry, pay me later when you make money.” 

Bill’s Market was known for its affordability, something Kimey Moon did because she knows the struggles of making ends meet as a college student. She said helping people was always her priority. 

“Sometimes for people [it’s] too much [about] business and making money,” Kimey Moon said. “But, I don’t feel that way. I try to keep [the prices] the lowest I can. I don’t want to be [about] me all the time. Money’s not everything. I wish I could help them more, but sometimes I can’t.”

For Stephen O’Malley ’22, a regular at Bill’s Market, he wanted to help her by giving her business because he saw how hard she worked to help others. O’Malley said Kimey Moon was not just a welcoming face behind his favorite food, but also a friend and a light in the often stressful lives of college students. This was indicative of how so many St. Joe’s students saw their relationship with ‘Miss Kimey.’ 

“If I knew at some point in my day I was heading over to Kimey’s, I knew that’d be the highlight,” O’Malley said. “It went beyond food, it was more about helping out a genuine and nice local business woman.”

O’Malley, whose go-to order was a cheesesteak and fries, said Kimey Moon would hear his voice on the phone and already know what she was about to put on the grill. But it was actually walking into Bill’s Market that made it special.

“Just hearing the words ‘Mr. Steve’ when I walked through the door was the coolest thing ever,” O’Malley said. 

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Kimey Moon is on a first name basis with most Hawks, both current and former. That was her trademark. Whether you were in Bill’s Market every day or had just followed friends inside once, she’d ask for your name and, without fail, would remember it. Kimey Moon said that for most college kids, it’s their first time being away from home, and she needed to give them a sense of comfort. 

“I feel like they trust me and I trust them,” Kimey Moon said. “I like to make them [feel at] home. I try to make it comfortable for them.”

Michelle Raccuglia ’04, who went to Bill’s Market at least once a week while at St. Joe’s, said Kimey Moon “treated all the college students like her own children.”

“To me, because I know everybody individually, you get to know them like they’re my son and daughter,” Kimey Moon said. 

Her daughter, Michelle Moon, was happy to consider everyone who frequented Bill’s Market her siblings and said it’s difficult leaving the community behind.

“It’s like moving away from family,” Michelle Moon said. “St. Joe’s and the community of West Philly has been our family for so many years and we are so grateful we were able to be given the opportunity to be a part of it throughout the years.”

Bill’s Market will continue to stay open and feed the needs of college students as well as the Overbrook community under new ownership. However, without Kimey’s iconic face behind the counter, a void will be left in the community. 

“She will be missed from that neighborhood, and honestly, I’m sad for the St. Joe’s kids living on 63rd without her,” said Kate Jennings ’11, who visited Bill’s Market a few times a week as a college student. “We would have starved without Kimey.”

Kimey Moon’s impact extended beyond St. Joe’s. Michaela Lofton, who graduated from Drexel University, said she met Kimey Moon through her boyfriend, Markell Lodge ’19, who frequented Bill’s Market. 

“She was the sweetest and most reliable person ever,” Lofton said. “She always made me laugh and always had my order ready, making going to class and work so much easier. We will be visiting her restaurant.”

KORI displays keepsakes from Kimey Moon’s time at St. Joe’s, with a wall in the front lobby dedicated to photos of St. Joe’s and newspaper clippings, a way Michelle Moon said, “to create a space sharing memories of our roots.” 

The wall is representative of the bittersweet transition. Kimey Moon already misses the camaraderie she built with so many people in the St. Joe’s community and had a message for St. Joe’s students.

“I’m wishing them lots of luck and to be safe,” Kimey Moon said. “I’m going to miss all of them. Hopefully they come to KORI and stop by once in a while, but I’m going to miss them.”

For so many St. Joe’s students, as well as for the Moons, Bill’s Market was more than a sandwich shop and convenience store. Kimey Moon was more than just the person behind the delicious food. 

“I love you guys,” Kimey Moon said. “I love this place.”

KORI is located at 709 Sumneytown Pike, Lansdale, Pennsylvania and is open from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.