Today we’d like to introduce you to Geonwoo (Gavin) Lee.
Geonwoo (Gavin), we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Hi, my name is Geonwoo (Gavin) Lee from The Bite of Korea! To begin with, my wife and I started our first business as a cafeteria in an office building in March 2020. Literally a week after we signed the lease, the notorious Covid & quarantine hit us hard. Absolutely nobody was coming to the building, and we had to close the store right away with lots of uncertainty.
A few months later, we reopened it but still, there weren’t enough customers to keep the business running, let alone making profits. There were many grant programs for businesses that were affected by COVID-19, which we applied for several times only to receive responses saying we were not applicable because we started business in 2020 even though we were struck by it straight.
Considering the fact we were newly-wed less than a year back then, that period of time was the darkest moment in our life with massive amounts of stress and frustration. However, we did not want to just give up. We refused to wait on customers forever inside the building getting frustrated and not knowing when they would come back. So, we took on a mission to seek a breakthrough. In September 2020, my wife, Chloe, suggested the idea of doing a pop-up store. Naively enough, I asked her “What is a pop-up?” I had no idea what pop-up was, so we started learning about it right away. After doing our research for a month, we decided to give it a try because there was nothing to lose, and we had to do something to make sales.
We set out to do our very first pop-up in October 2020 serving Korean/Korean fusion dishes. We launched our popup brand as The Bite of Korea (The BOK, in short, meaning ‘fortune’ in the Korean language). Nobody knew about our brand, but as we did more pop-ups, the brand quickly started to gain fandom and support.
On top of the operations in the cafeteria on weekdays, we did more than 200 pop-ups in and around the Metropolitan area of Atlanta within a year and a half. During this time, gratefully, we have met so many good customers and received a ton of support and love. A significant number of our customers, no matter where we go, started asking us, “Where’s your store at?” and telling us, “Please build one for us, so we can go any time.” Those encouragement and requests led us to believe that we are ready to build a brick and mortar store for our guests.
After a considerable amount of effort to find the right spot for us, we found a great location right next to a new Publix mall in Tucker, GA. We fell in love with the spot right away and proceeded to sign a lease in Nov. 2021. One of the reasons we chose Tucker for our first location is because we saw the city is up and coming. Secondly, we were going to be the very first Korean restaurant since there is none of it, and we’d love to become pioneers in that aspect.
The Bite of Korea, in the form of brick and mortar, finally opened its door to guests in Tucker, GA, on October 7th, 2022. Ever since our opening, with our deepest gratitude, we have been deeply welcomed by the local community.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It was far from smooth because pop-ups required a lot of physical labor; also, uncertainty about demands/sales hit us hard with harsh reality. There were even some days we spent 6-7 hours for opening, operating and closing, and ended up selling only $100 worth of food.
We’ve been impressed with The Bite of Korea, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Hi! We are The Bite of Korea(The BOK), and we serve Korean/Korean Fusion dishes! Our cuisine ranges from authentic & traditional Korean food to fun, delicious Korean Fusion. We proudly serve imported Korean alcoholic beverages and crafted cocktails as well. Our mission statement is to become a good bridge between Korean culture and our guests. We strive to provide our guests with great food and excellent service, and eventually, we’d like to bring the ‘BOK’ (good fortune in Korean language) to our guests through our dishes.
How do you define success?
To live a life with intentions and goals to achieve that we design. It doesn’t matter what scale your goal is; it’s about finding happiness in achieving whatever you intend to do in life.
Pricing:
- Appetizers below $10
- Main dish $13 to $34
- Lunch special $13 to $17
Contact Info:
- Website: www.biteofkorea.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/biteofkorea
- Facebook: facebook.com/biteofkorea
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-bite-of-korea-tucker
- Other: https://www.ubereats.com/store/the-bite-of-korea/NplUiFwvWn6buNP0ooialw?diningMode=DELIVERY&pl=JTdCJTIyYWRkcmVzcyUyMiUzQSUyMjUzNSUyME4lMjBIYWlyc3RvbiUyMFJkJTIyJTJDJTIycmVmZXJlbmNlJTIyJTNBJTIyYTNmYzI4YWUtZDdkYy1hMGFlLTJkY2QtMDI4MzAxYjQ3YTBjJTIyJTJDJTIycmVmZXJlbmNlVHlwZSUyMiUzQSUyMnViZXJfcGxhY2VzJTIyJTJDJTIybGF0aXR1ZGUlMjIlM0EzMy43OTE1NjclMkMlMjJsb25naXR1ZGUlMjIlM0EtODQuMTk0MzI3JTdE&utm_source=menu-maker
