Inside the Kogi truck
Photo: Eric Shin
Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard about LA's Kogi trucks, which are drawing long lines of crowds hungry for Korean-Mexican fast food. To find one of the two trucks, you have to go to the official website or the Twitter page. Or you can just go to the Alibi Room, where this culinary phenomenon is also serving its unique fare. But aficionados – Kogi-ites or Kogians as you wish – like to argue that if you're not eating it on the street, you're not getting the real deal. We chatted with co-founder Caroline Shin-Manguera about the history of the concept and plans for the future.
Merrill Shindler: I've seen every manner of fusion cuisine come down the pike here in Los Angeles. Except for Korean-Mexican. With 20-20 hindsight, it was clearly inevitable. What took so long?
Caroline Shin-Manguera: I think it's a sign that the local melting pot is evolving, that a new generation is looking for something different. Actually, when you think about it, the cuisines and cultures are very similar. They're both based on family values – for Koreans and Mexicans, everything revolves around food and family being together. But until recently, Koreans have been very conservative – they rarely mixed their food with any other food, except for Chinese and Japanese. But the times are changing.
MS: Actually, there seem to be many points at which Koreans and Mexicans overlap.
CS-M: It's true. There are large numbers of Latinos living in K-town – you'll find them eating at the restaurants, especially the hole-in-the-wall places, where they use the more intense flavors. Our foods are different. Except we both love our spices, our onions, our peppers, our rice. So maybe we're not that different.
MS: What was the first day like – the first day the truck rolled onto the street?
CS-M: We were waiting to get permits, and we took it to West Hollywood to test it out. Everyone just stared at us like, 'What's this taco truck doing in West Hollywood?' We parked in the busiest part of town, lots of foot traffic. Nobody would buy a taco. So, we started giving out free samples. People couldn't figure out why we would do that to a good taco. They told us, thanks, but no thanks. It was like that for the first two, three weeks. For weeks, we made no money at all. I mean, nothing.
MS: So, what happened?
CS-M: We got the idea of going to the clubs, and giving free samples to the bouncers. They liked it, and they let us stay. And word started to spread. We never expected to get this popular. We thought maybe six months or a year till anyone found us. It just kind of…exploded.
MS: Was there one night that was the turning point?
CS-M: I think it was the first time we parked outside of a club called Green Door in Hollywood. People tried it before going into the club. Then, they came back for a second. And then, we got the idea of e-mailing food bloggers, and inviting them to give it a try. They started writing about us. And suddenly, we were slammed.
MS: So, you're a creation of the Internet?
CS-M: If it wasn't for the Internet, we'd be in the hole for who knows how much. The Internet made us. It was our lifeline. We all had other jobs, which we held on to. After our day jobs we went to the truck, worked till two in the morning. And then, we went viral. We were all over the Internet.
MS: The first truck led to a second truck. Which has led to a sit-down operation inside a bar. Is there a limit to growth? Will success spoil the Kogi?
CS-M: As far as we're concerned, the sky's the limit. Everything happened on a fluke. We got the idea after we got drunk one night. We had a friend who had an extra catering truck we could borrow. We didn't make it in West Hollywood, so we headed for the clubs of Hollywood. Which led to The Brig in Venice, and we became a regular there. We don't try to control it. It just has its flow, and we're along for the ride.
MS: But sit-down? Isn't that kind of bourgeois?
CS-M: The Alibi Room is a bar, which means there's alcohol, which goes very well with our food. It's also a central commissary for us, so it works very well – we can prep 500 pounds of meat at once, rather than going to the market all day long. It allows us to grow.
MS: Would this work in other cities?
CS-M: Right now, our two goals are a stand in LA and to do something in New York – a truck or a stand, we haven't figured out which. We've had a lot of good feedback from New Yorkers. I guess we'll find out if it's a complete fluke, an only-in-LA thing. We'll find out the way we've done everything – by trying.
MS: And do you get upset when people describe the truck as a roach coach?
CS-M: At first we did, because our food is better than that. But now we think it's funny. And anyway, the people who say it are the regulars on line. So how bad could it be?
– Merrill Shindler