That's right: Kyochon Chicken is coming to California (if it isn't already here and this is just the first time I'm noticing it.) The location, by the way, is at the food court of a famous shopping mall in a high-end community. In other words, though there be Koreans here, this is not Koreatown.
It's a good thing, I suppose, so now first-generation entrepreneurs have something to aspire to other than just sushi shops (not that that's a bad thing). And speaking of sushi, don't expect to find much of it in Pyongyang for the time being, not that that has anything to do with anything.
I wonder if Kyochon will do 24-hour delivery. I wonder also if they'll run those controversial ads on Korean-language television.
One thing I especially like about Kyochon Chicken, in addition to whatever addictive chemical they put in their sauce, is that they use a K instead of a G. McCune-Reischauer is not dead! (Even though Messieurs McCune and Reischauer are.)
UPDATE:
I forgot to mention that I find the Kyochon chicken's experimentation with cannibalism to be a bit off-putting. In fact, that propensity for marketers to use beef-eating bovines (this is how Mad Cow Disease got rolling), pork-eating pigs, poultry-eating chicken, and seafood-eating fish was brilliantly satirized in this classic Saturday Night Live "commercial" for the fictitious Cluckin Chicken, featuring the late, great Phil Hartman.
And speaking of Phil Hartman commercials...
Oh, I miss that guy.
http://kyochon.com/usa/overseas/history.asp
ReplyDeleteThanks. So since 2007 they've been opening up restaurants on the West Coast (four of them so far) and the East Coast (two of them so far). The picture in this blog may be the fifth or sixth in the west.
ReplyDeleteThe ones prior to this, all in California, are in Torrance, Serrano, Rowland Heights, and Garden Grove. The ones in New York are in Flushing and Springfield.
I don't know anything about Springfield NY or even Serrano CA, but I understand the other locations have a strong presence of Japanese and Koreans (Torrance), Chinese (Rowland Heights), or primarily Koreans (Garden Grove and Flushing).
The location I visited is ethnically very mixed, with a strong presence of Koreans. While Kyochon may rely on a Korean presence to get the ball rolling, that would not be enough to guarantee success, and I think they know that. I suppose Kyochon Chicken may, taste-wise, have appeal to other Asian immigrant groups as well.
You found this vid way before I stumbled across it. What do you think of the Samsung notebook commerical?
ReplyDelete