KSP Restaurant Group is known for operating some of the most exciting Asian restaurant concepts in Atlanta (and beyond!), and now they’re applying their expertise to the foods found at a Korean night market. Their stable already includes poke and sushi at Poke Burri, ramen at Lifting Noodles and Korean fried chicken at Bok You. Now they’re getting ready to open Umbrella Bar this spring at the historic Ponce City Market, a space they’ve been trying to get into for more than three years.
Partners Seven Chan and Ken Yu combined their 20 years each of experience in business, marketing and all things restaurants to open the first Poke Burri in another Atlanta food hall in 2016. Now they have 20 to 30 different restaurants across their four concepts and have expanded from Atlanta to Houston, Philadelphia, Charleston, Raleigh, Duluth and Jacksonville. Lifting Noodles Ramen came next in many of the same locations, followed by Bok You and now Umbrella Bar.
Chan said the partners love to wander around the night markets of Asia and dreamt of bringing those flavors to Atlanta, but were looking for the right spot, as well as building their credibility and fleshing out the concept. “There’s a authenticity and excitement of discovering new things in a fast casual setting that I think we’ve been missing in the city, and we hope to bring the concept to life here in a way people have never seen,” he said.
So what’s on the menu? Dumplings, loaded fries, Korean corn dogs, bibimbap, kimbap and more classic street food. There will also be a secret menu, a signature of their other restaurants, of both food and, for the first time, drinks. Poke Burri’s secret menu includes kimchi arancini, ramen carbonara and sushi corndogs.
This is KSP’s inaugural experience in Ponce City Market, a spot Chan calls “one of the best in the city for anything” because of its location, layout and variety of offerings. In the years since they opened their first restaurant, Chan says, “we’ve learned that setting ourselves apart has been a huge factor in our success,” and that “for us, being successful isn’t being the best restaurant in the category alone; it’s about being one of the best restaurants in the city,” a title they’ve earned for their inventive food and inviting concepts.
Umbrella Bar should open sometime in the late spring. For more details, follow their progress and look out for the secret menu on Instagram.
AUTHOR
Sarah Strong is a New York City based writer who holds a master’s degree in food studies and is obsessed with television. You can follow her on Instagram at @feedsstrong to see where she eats, what she cooks and what sneakers she’s wearing.
NEXT ON THE DISH
