Pandemic-born restaurant KFire brings Korean barbecue to Chicago's masses
On a recent day, KFire owners Ben Kim and Eddie Hwang had 13 catering orders for lunch and not enough delivery drivers at their fast-casual Korean barbecue restaurant in Old Town. So Kim made an unexpected delivery to the University of Chicago Law School in Hyde Park.
“Everyone wants lunch at the same time,” he said.
For the two friends, it was just another day of navigating the challenges of running restaurants. But KFire’s existence was tested even before opening.
Kim and Hwang launched their first KFire location in Logan Square in July 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many restaurants struggled when government lockdowns crashed business. They grappled with challenges including soaring inflation and supply chain delays.
KFire weathered the turbulence, and in 2023 opened its Old Town location, where much of its catering business is now based. Last year, Grubhub, the Chicago food-delivery company, awarded KFire $5,000 in recognition of restaurants that started during the pandemic.
KFire's catering business is growing at double-digit rates and accounts for one-third of sales besides takeout and dine-in.
"We were surprised at how big it got,” said Kim, who previously worked as a financial analyst in New York.
May, recognized as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month, is KFire’s busiest time of the year. It’s booked solid with catering orders from companies, medical offices and universities for workplace AAPI celebrations, parties and weddings.
The growth of its catering business might be driven by employer incentives to used food to lure employees back to the office following the pandemic, Kim said. But orders continue to swell. In the past eight months, weekend catering has tripled.
Whatever the reason, customers want Korean barbecue, especially KFire’s signature dish: kalbi, or beef short ribs. Korean food and kalbi have special significance for Hwang, who grew up in Morton Grove, and Kim, who's from New Jersey.
“Some of my fondest memories as a child are family gatherings for special occasions," Kim said. "Those were the times we’d bring out the kalbi. It was a special meal we shared when everyone was together like at a family picnic or camping trip.”
Hwang has fond childhood memories of waking up on Saturday mornings to his grandmother pounding raw short ribs to tenderize them and the floor covered with newspaper.
“Korean food is everything to me," Hwang said. "The flavors and smells of Korean barbecue ignite many core memories of my life.”
His father grilled kalbi at Sunday picnics after Mass.
“Kalbi was not an everyday meal," he said. "It’s expensive now and was always the more expensive cut back in the day as well."
KFire also offers barbecued pork belly and chicken with Korean red pepper hot sauce as well as vegan offerings like marinated mushrooms. Special items include a risotto-inspired kimchi fried rice ball and bokki “fries” — KFire’s take on tteokbokki, a street food of stir-fried rice dough, typically with Korean chili paste.
Kim said KFire doesn’t make bowls, dishes for which ingredients are mixed like a salad. And while Korean food has become more mainstream in recent years, he doesn't know of any other fast-casual Korean barbecue in Chicago or anywhere else.
He also points out that Hwang loves to barbecue. “He has five grills at home. He’s always grilling something,” Kim said.
“People love the primal side of cooking in fire and the unique smoky flavors,” Hwang said. “Grilling definitely relaxes me and takes me to my happy place.”
Business planning with strollers
Kim moved to Chicago in 2018 and met Hwang through friends. Later, at a friend’s poker game, Hwang joked that they should start a restaurant together, and the idea took off.
Hwang was then executive sous chef at caterer Truffleberry Market. In a restaurant career spanning two decades, with training from Le Cordon Bleu in Chicago, he had also worked at Nomi Kitchen and Charlie Trotter’s. He started Ch’ava Café near Uptown in 2009.
Kim graduated from the University of Chicago with an economics degree and worked in finance for 16 years, initially at Citigroup. But he had an entrepreneurial side, inherited from his father who owned a corner deli in Philadelphia that sold cheesesteaks.
“While I enjoyed working in finance, I just felt like I had another calling in life,” Kim said. “I always wanted to build something of my own, but I didn’t have an idea or product to sell until I met Eddie.”
After the idea of a restaurant hatched, the friends spent months planning. They would meet at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Glenview, after putting their young children to bed. On weekends, the two talked business while pushing their kids in strollers at the Northbrook Court mall.
But Kim had never worked at a restaurant. His wife suggested he get some experience, so he applied for entry-level restaurant positions. Kim had interviewed for plenty of finance positions but never a restaurant job, so Hwang coached him. He got only one interview — at a suburban fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant— and worked there for eight months, making minimum wage.
“I was motivated to learn,” said Kim, who did everything, including preparing food, assembling meals, serving customers, washing dishes and cleaning bathrooms.
“It was a great way for me to train and learn how to operate a restaurant," Kim said. "It also helped me see things from an entry-level worker’s perspective and learn how managers communicate expectations clearly."
He said he learned how an effective, well-respected manager runs a restaurant.
In early 2020, as Hwang and Kim were getting ready to open in Logan Square, news of a mysterious virus began to make headlines. That March, they got the keys to their space. Days later, COVID-19 lockdowns went into effect.
In spite of fear of the virus and shifting safety policies, the friends “never seriously thought about walking away. We had spent so much time working on it,” Kim said.
At KFire’s launch, “We couldn’t even let customers come inside our restaurant, so we would take orders through our takeout window while everyone wore masks,” Kim said. “It was a crazy feeling that here we are celebrating our grand opening but not being able to let anyone walk inside.”
If life wasn’t already busy enough, Kim’s third child was born one month after KFire’s opening.
“It was very difficult, to be honest,” he said. “And, yes, we didn't get much sleep at all.”
No beef?
Kim said KFire’s concept is “repeatable and scalable” and tht he hopes to open more locations.
“The way it’s been growing gives some confidence,” he said.
Still, inflation never eased after the pandemic, and tariffs added to higher costs from suppliers. “Even vegetables, such as cucumbers, cost 60% more than in 2020,” Kim said.
Now, the biggest headache is skyrocketing beef prices, which have roughly tripled since KFire opened.
“We talk about it every day,” Hwang said.
Beef has become more expensive because of smaller cattle herds due to drought, pricier feed and other factors.
KFire had to raise its kalbi price from $15 in 2020 to $24 in November 2025.
Hwang said the partners have discussed whether to “kill kalbi,” their bestselling item. Restaurants that serve bowls can substitute ingredients to control costs. “We don’t have that option,” Hwang said.
Asked whether it would have been easier to stay in finance, Kim said, “Sometimes, I question it. But, at the same time, it’s something that I’m passionate about. I’m proud of what we’ve built so far. It gives me the energy to keep going on this journey. It’s something we can call our own.”
Hwang is used to the challenges of restaurant life. “Things always break at the same time,” he said.
Recently, KFire’s air conditioner, circulator and water heater all broke within two days.
Two years ago, the oven broke when they had a 600-person catering order to prepare.
“Eddie was on the ground trying to fix it when he dislocated his shoulder and started screaming,” Kim said.
Hwang yelled at his friend to pop his shoulder back in, and Kim did just that.
They said they figured out how to get the oven working temporarily and cooked for four hours.
“Problems happen all the time,” Kim said. “COVID made us pretty resilient.”
Contributing: AP
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