Ina Jungin Lee is behind more than six Korean restaurants and bars in San Francisco (via eatersf)
Of course, San Francisco’s Korean dining scene has strengthened in the decade and change since Lee took over Bibimbar. The city is home to the first Korean American chef to win a Michelin star, Corey Lee, who began his ascentwith Benu and most recently opened upscale Korean barbecue restaurant San Ho Won in 2022. Trendier San Francisco diners may think of Queens and Um.ma when they think of the city’s more casual Korean dining options.
That trip, in 2002, marked the first time she saw Korean restaurants in the United States. It wasn’t lost on her that they were in big cities — not Boise. But she wasn’t thinking about owning Bibimbar or creating a community of Korean immigrants just yet; she was just exploring. The long ride got her thinking in terms of “days on buses away from Idaho,” so she decided to move to Utah to keep pursuing her studies in visual communication and design, just over a day’s worth of riding from Boise.
When Lee took over her first San Francisco restaurant, she says she felt there were few Korean dining options in the city. After she felt comfortable, she began to incorporate a quicker, trendier approach to service, implementing cafeteria-style counter service and easy-to-understand menu prompts, which led to higher cash flow. Getting that style down pat is thanks, at least in part, to Lee’s right-hand person, Corey “Cori” McGee. McGee grew up in San Francisco, but the only Korean food she knew was kimchi.
One location of Lee’s restaurant Matko is located inside a larger food hall on San Francisco’s Market Street. When Lee hosted a big party at the new Korner Store location in early December, a teaser for the proper reopening in February, more than 200 people showed up. Many came up to her to thank her for opening her businesses. A young woman came to her after eating at BoBop, her newrestaurant in the Mission, with a story about the food transporting her to her childhood. “She said she couldn’t stop thinking about the food,” Lee says. “She started crying, then I started crying.
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