Food for Thought: Good Fortune Comes to Tucker

DOUG REYNICS

I’m a big fan of Korean food. When my wife and I hosted students from both China and Korea while our daughter was in high school, we would often find ourselves on a quest to find authentic Korean food. Though our students have since graduated, I’m sure they would be as excited as I am for the opening of Tucker’s first Korean restaurant, The Bite of Korea (BOK).

I recently talked with owners (and husband and wife) Gavin Lee and Chloe Jung about their journey to open BOK. Both were born in South Korea but immigrated a few years ago to Atlanta, where Gavin dreamed of opening his own restaurant. In March 2020, the couple realized that dream when they opened Clairmont Café, located in an Atlanta office building and serving Korean fusion dishes along with quesadillas and deli sandwiches. Unfortunately, two weeks after the opening, much of Atlanta along with the rest of the world shut down, and the office building where the café was located was suddenly empty of workers. When it became apparent that the pandemic was here for the long run, Gavin and Chloe decided to close the restaurant for two months. But rather than passively waiting on the pandemic to clear and people to start returning to offices and restaurants, Chloe and Gavin decided to take the lessons they had learned in their first restaurant attempt, and try something else.

They were familiar with food pop-ups, like food trucks in their mobility but bringing food to an existing restaurant or parking lot. They loaded their van with kitchen equipment, tables, tents, cooking utensils and several coolers filled with food, and started cooking Korean Fusion dishes in and around Metro Atlanta. They did over two hundred food pop-ups, and in that time created a menu of authentic Korean recipes adapted to an American palate. The dishes bring an authentic Korean experience to those who’ve never tried Korean food, or to those who reminisce about Korean food.

Combining their experience from Clairmont Café with their Korean Fusion menu, and with people coming back to restaurants, Gavin and Chloe began looking for a brick-and-mortar space. One of their food fans is a local realtor, who followed the couple on Instagram and began attending many of their pop-ups. The realtor was representing Hugh Howell Village on Hugh Howell Road, and suggested the location to Gavin and Chloe, who now call Unit 670 (at the end of the block with Publix, across from Urgent Care) home to their new restaurant.

Gavin and Chloe named their restaurant The Bite of Korea, or BOK, which means ‘fortune’ in Korean. Their mission is to bring good fortune to all their guests through exceptional food and excellent customer service. Some of their signature dishes include • Bulgogi, a Korean-style marinated ribeye steak, used in their quesadillas, rice owls and Japanese noodle bowl • Traditional Bibimbap, a Korean mixed rice bowl with various seasonal veggies mixed in with bulgogi, topped with a fried egg and house-made gochujang sauce to tie everything together. The purpose of the dish is to mix all the toppings together to create that harmony in a bite. • Sodduk Skewer is a flash-fried rice cake with pork sausage, smothered with gochujang sauce and honey mustard drizzle. It’s Korean street-food and a customer favorite. • BOK won’t have grills installed on each table; instead K-BBQ is prepared in the kitchen so the guests can enjoy the grilled meat off the hot stone plate along with many veggie wrap sides.

Gavin and Chloe are working towards developing some gluten-free recipes, but most of the BOK dishes contain soy sauce so the menu at opening will not be glutenfree. BOK won’t have its liquor license until after it opens, but in the meantime, guests are welcome to BYOB. Future drink menus include a set of fun Korean cocktails with Soju, Makgeolli (rice wine), imported Korean beer, and more.

Learn more about The Bite of Korea at biteofkorea.com or on Instagram.

DOUG REYNICS is a longtime Tucker resident and self-described “foodie.” Many know him as “Doug the Driver,” who provides rides to and from both the domestic and international airport terminals. (To date, his service has provided almost 3,000 airport rides!) If you have a food story or question you would like to see him write about (or if you need a ride!), email him at dougthedriver1@gmail.com or call him at 770.842.4261.

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