Eric Shin believes that food, like music, is a gateway to understanding a culture.
Food is how his parents, who are originally from Seoul, shared their Korean culture when Shin was growing up in Atlanta. They ran an upscale Korean restaurant there called Garam.
“I remember how the Korean community just flocked there, and how powerful food is. The people who weren’t Korean were so enamored by the food. It was an amazing thing to see as a kid,” he said.
Shin grew up. He went to Julliard and became a musician. Now he is the principal percussionist for the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., which he describes as his dream job.
But musicians also love food, and Shin saw another opportunity to share his culture, the same way his parents did, except in a fast-casual format.
“This was around 2014, 2015, and there was this big renaissance with fast casual in D.C., with Sweetgreen and Cava and even Five Guys,” he said. Fast casual was what consumers wanted.
In 2016, Shin launched SeoulSpice, a fast-casual Korean concept that allows diners to build a bowl on a base of purple rice or japchae noodles, for example, topped with thin-sliced bulgogi beef (his mother’s recipe), soy-garlic chicken, spicy pork , braised tofu or crispy fried chicken.
SeoulSpice offers signature or customizable bowls. |Photos courtesy of SeoulSpice.
There are vegetable options, based on traditional bonchon, and, of course, kimchi. Bowls can be topped with five sauce options, from gochujang to sesamiso and various garnishes, like fresh cilantro or roasted seaweed.
There’s even a soft-boiled jammy egg that has been marinated in soy and garlic, which replaces the fried egg that might appear on a traditional bibimbap bowl. Dishes are priced by protein and run about $11 to $12.
There are American touches. Shin created a cilantro-lime ranch dressing, for example, because he admits an “unhealthy addiction” to ranch. It works with the flavors, he said, though is mother wasn’t terribly happy about it. “It’s East meets West.”
But there are also very Korean elements. Shin said restaurant staff are trained to hand bowls to guests with two hands, for example, which is a sign of respect.
A key differentiator for SeoulSpice is the fact that all ingredients are made in house, even the sriracha and kimchi, said Shin. There are no bottled sauces.
When the first unit opened, he said, “My mom used to sit in the kitchen and supervise and teach them how to make kimchi. And now you see people from all walks of life learning how to make kimchi in our restaurants.”
A unit opening in Rosslyn, Virginia, with lines down the block. | Photo courtesy of Mary Mathis.
With Korean flavors growing in popularity across the country, it was the right time to grow the brand.
SeoulSpice now has eight units, including seven in the Washington, D.C. area, and the brand recently opened its first unit in Chicago. All locations are company owned and there are no plans to franchise.
Two more units are under construction in Chicago and are expected to open before the end of summer. Shin also plans to add more in the D.C. area.
SeoulSpice also last year won an investment from Invus Group, an investment advisor to the private equity firm Artal. Invus is also a backer of brands like PopUp Bagels and Call Your Mother, and it was an early investor in Cava, which went public in 2023.
Shin declined to characterize the investment, but said it will “make SeoulSpice a category-defining national brand.”
SeoulSpice Chicago opened in March. | Photo courtesy of Mary Mathis.
Other brands are also looking to capitalize on the mainstreaming of Korean flavors, like Columbus, Ohio-based Bibibop Asian Grill, which has about 75 units, founded by Charley Shin, who is not related.
The four-unit fusion concept Seoul Taco is reportedly partnering with the Chinese-American brand 3LP for co-branding in Chicago. And the Korean chicken chains Bonchon and Bb.q Chicken are both plotting national growth.
“I love that Korean is on the map right now. It’s long overdue,” said Shin.
He’s growing SeoulSpice while continuing his music career. He notes that his father was also a software engineer while running the family restaurant in Atlanta. “We thought it was perfectly normal to have parents that did restaurants and multiple other jobs,” he laughed.
Shin also created a software company (when he was in high school). So for SeoulSpice, he designed proprietary technology that eases operations, taking on back-of-the-house tasks like inventory, for example, giving restaurant teams more time to devote to scratch cooking and hospitality.
Because fundamentally, that’s what it’s all about, he said. “Food, like music, is a connector of people.”