Hospitality Series Pt. 3: Simon Kim on Breaking Steakhouse Rules, Redefining Fried Chicken, and Going Global!!
3/30/202640 min
It’s part 3 of our series on restaurant hospitality, and this week Adrienne and Joe are joined by James Beard nominee Simon Kim, the man behind COTE Korean Steakhouse and COQODAQ. In this episode, we discuss:
Reinventing the steakhouse by blending Korean BBQ with classic American fine dining
Building COTE and COQODAQ and redefining what a modern restaurant can be
Betting on yourself: overcoming investor doubt and financial pressure
The role of the restaurateur as a “producer” behind the scenes
Creating the perfect dining experience
Balancing creativity with b...
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsAdrienne Cheatham· Host0:00
[gentle music] This week on The Chef's Cut is part three of our three-part series on hospitality. And this week, we have Simon Kim, who for the past 10 years has risen to the top with his iconic restaurant empire that includes Cote Korean Steakhouse and Cocco Da. On this episode, we're asking Simon about reinventing the steakhouse.
Simon Kim· Guest0:22
Koreans always had Korean barbecue, but how about we actually created something that is a little more developed?
Adrienne Cheatham· Host0:28
He's gonna come clean about going through tough times before reaching the top.
Simon Kim· Guest0:33
Everyone thought that I was rolling, you know, pretty nice, but little did they know I genuinely had less than, like, couple hundred dollars in my checking account.
Adrienne Cheatham· Host0:41
And he tells us about his worst customer experience.
Simon Kim· Guest0:45
They said, "But can a white person open this bottle of wine?" And I think that, like, hit me really hard.
Adrienne Cheatham· Host0:51
Don't forget to leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. Let's bring in Simon Kim. [gentle music] Simon, you definitely ushered in a new wave of steakhouse, modernizing that concept, but how did you know? It seems so obvious now that Korean barbecue, American steakhouse, that that would be a home run. But were you so sure when you started off that that was gonna resonate with guests?
Simon Kim· Guest1:21
I mean, I wanted to do this regardless of what was happening on the, on, of the moment, right? I've been working on this concept