Convenience retailer Hank Kim and food-truck owners Anna and Jon Goree were each facing business dilemmas.
Kim, a seasoned c-store and restaurant operator, was struggling to decide how to best use the extra space in his eight-pump Exxon station in Silver Spring, Md. An auto-repair shop? Expanded merchandise? Maybe a quick-service restaurant?
Meanwhile, the Gorees had been trying to expand for nearly a year but couldn’t find an affordable space to rent. When Kim, a former classmate of Anna’s, came across Seoul Food on Facebook, he saw a potential solution for all of their woes.
“When Hank called, it was serendipitous, to say the least,” said Jon. Kim and the Gorees decided to join forces. Seoul Food D.C., the Gorees’ healthy, Asian-inspired food truck, moved into Kim’s empty 528-square-foot space, which had previously been used as a restaurant. They ordered some new equipment, got the necessary permits and opened for business June 3 of this year.
A Different World
Overall, the transition was smooth, but it hasn’t come without its challenges, one being that normal gas-station clientele is starkly different from what the Gorees are used to. “Food trucks have intensely loyal customers who are happy to wait in a long line in bad weather,” Jon says. “Gas-station customers would rather not be in a gas station. They usually pay at the pump, so if for some reason they come inside, they are usually in a big hurry or they have tunnel vision for lottery tickets or cigarettes.”
To mitigate this issue, the Gorees have concentrated on using their décor to attract customers. Seoul Food’s new location is squeaky clean and bright. They get fresh-cut flowers from the local farmers market on Saturdays and play a good variety of music.
“We make our space into an oasis,” Jon says.
Seoul Food offers counter seating facing the kitchen for three and bar seating facing the outside window for seven. “We thought it would be mostly takeout but soon discovered people wanted to stay,” Jon says. He added three tables and can now seat 20 people inside.
The Gorees are also taking advantage of the large Facebook and Twitter followings they carried over from their food truck. They have a large A-frame chalkboard in the gas station that encourages patrons to connect with them online. They’ve maintained a five-star Yelp rating, which Jon says brings in a lot of customers.
Seoul Food’s business has been increasing every week since June, and Kim’s gas traffic and inside sales have gone up as well. Customers often buy drinks and desserts from the station’s traditional convenience offering to go with their Seoul Food meals.
“It’s a win-win situation,” Kim says.
Stay True to You
A dedication to whole, fresh, sustainable ingredients is one of Seoul Food’s defining characteristics, one the Gorees don’t want to lose sight of as they dabble in convenience. Their menu, developed by Anna and inspired by her upbringing in South Korea, is crafted from local chicken and grass-fed beef, organic tofu, cage-free eggs and 100% pole- and troll-caught skipjack tuna. These “honest” foods, as they call them, are important to the Gorees from a moral standpoint, and also from one of health.
“We don’t need so much salt and fat. We don’t need foods to be so processed that you don’t recognize the ingredients,” Jon says.
In the food-truck industry, which is seemingly dominated by sandwiches, the Gorees grew comfortable being the black sheep. “So being in a gas station with their roller dogs and honey buns doesn’t faze us at all,” he says. “We have so many new converts from people going outside their normal comfort zone.”
Jon finds many c-store customers pleasantly surprised by what they taste at Seoul Food. The surprise factor is exactly what interested Kim in Seoul Food in the first place. “Seoul Food is fusion Korean food not typically found in this area,” Kim says. “If the food is unique, then it is worth adding in a store to create new customer flow.”
Saving money on rent and advertising affords Seoul Food the opportunity to get the highest-quality meats and produce the Gorees can find. With their limited storage space, they order ingredients almost every day, causing customers to constantly comment on the food’s freshness.
“When they see us, they almost have to pinch themselves and rub their eyes, because we seem so out of place,” Jon says.
The Gorees still run the food truck in Arlington three days a week, but they leave it parked in front of the gas station when it’s not in use. The truck is great advertising for the restaurant, and the restaurant is a great “staging area” for the truck. Eventually, the Gorees would like to open a larger flagship restaurant and franchise Seoul Food, but for now, they have more than enough on their plate.
Today’s Specials
▶ Bibimbap, one of Seoul Food’s specialties, is a large bowl of sticky rice topped with mixed baby greens, carrots, daikon and red radish, a cage-free sunny-side-up egg and a choice of meat or tofu.
▶ Korean Superbowl, another popular menu item, is made of sticky rice topped with a choice of meat or tofu, jalapeno and serrano relish, caramelized kimchi, scallion, queso fresco, cheddar and Korean salsa roja.
▶ Burrito Bowls are made of sticky rice topped with avocado and fresh kimchi with a choice of meat or tofu.
Meet the Gorees
Anna Goree’s culinary sensibilities have been shaped over her lifetime. The influence of her South Korean upbringing is easy to taste in her creations. She graduated from Sogong Loyola University in Seoul and then from L’Academie de Cuisine. She interned as a pastry chef at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and worked as a pastry chef at Whole Foods Market, where she met her husband, Jon.
Jon Goree grew up on the shores of Lake Superior, hunting, fishing and working as a chef and meat cutter. As a student at the University of Wisconsin, he developed an appreciation for sustainable land use and a profound respect for nature. These passions are evident in the way he does business.
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