What happened to Burger Seoul? Owner shares update on food truck and new restaurant
For eight years, the simple awning Young La built around his food trailer often overflowed with customers waiting patiently for a juicy Fire Soul or Bulgogiger with Fire Fries. As of late February, the trailer was gone, leaving a sharp void in the parking lot of this convenience store and in Tacoma’s heart.
Burger Seoul, which wooed fans with Korean-American comfort food and the owner’s endearing brand of hospitality since 2015, has closed — this chapter, anyway.
Fortunately we won’t have to wait long to experience both again, only next time it will happen inside a brick-and-mortar restaurant located one mile north at 1701 Division Ave., the gateway to the Sixth Avenue business district.
La and his mother, who helped him behind the scenes with recipes and daily prep, hope to reopen Burger Seoul there by late spring, he told The News Tribune in a phone call on Monday, the day after officially sharing the news on Instagram. They signed the lease last year and construction is about halfway completed, he said.
“I’m very grateful,” he said of the city’s embrace over nearly a decade. “This journey has been great, full of so much love and support that I won’t ever forget.”
Though the road got a little bumpy toward the end, he remains excited for this next big step. “Hopefully we can do even better,” he said.
TACOMA FOOD TRUCK CHALLENGES
Following speculation that the shutter was only temporary, La finally shared on Instagram in late February that the trailer would not return to its original location.
“After eight years of experience, it has come to an end, and I don’t know what to say to you about it,” he wrote. “So many memories and experiences that I’ve never dreamed of in a million years. Something that started with three people with hope. Then a little fire became something from nothing. What a journey we’ve achieved throughout these years.”
He thanked Dave’s Meat and Produce (Burger Seoul’s supplier of freshly ground beef) and Franz Bakery for putting up with his “specialty order.” He also praised his employees and the owner of the 19th Street Grocery and Deli he worked with to get the trailer off the ground in 2015.
That business and the property has twice been sold during his tenure — first in 2018 and again in 2021, according to county property records. He alluded to that and other challenges that were somewhat out of his control in his Feb. 25 post.
Burger Seoul was unique in the area as a food trailer that did not move from where it served. La had been able to use an approved commissary kitchen — a requirement for any potentially mobile food business — inside the convenience store. Within the last two years, that situation became less viable: The city wanted the building to upgrade its grease interceptor, a common hurdle for area restaurants and one that can cost tens of thousands of dollars to meet the demands of current environmental code.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department visited the convenience store two days before this past Thanksgiving, shutting it down until the grease interceptor was replaced.
“Per city of Tacoma, the sewage disposal system serving this food establishment is not approved due to improper size of grease interceptor and lack of required maintenance and reporting,” the inspector wrote in the report.
The health department also shut down Burger Seoul that day, issuing the official cause as faulty plumbing, in reference to the convenience store kitchen.
After rushing to find another commissary kitchen, which also did not work out in La’s favor, he ultimately decided to move on from 19th Street and focus on opening the brick-and-mortar. He is seeking support through a GoFundMe campaign for the loss of income during this time.
The Burger Seoul trailer is now parked outside the Division Avenue restaurant, a little teaser of what’s to come. He hopes to keep it running but with its very own menu of boonsik: Korean snacks like tteokkbokki, kimbap and fish cakes. Really more than what Americans think of as “snacks,” he said, think of it as “gourmet Korean express food,” he said.
When the counter-service restaurant opens, expect the same awesome burgers and sandwiches with, he hopes, lower wait times thanks to bigger griddles. He also plans to add miniature versions of house favorites (a.k.a. sliders), while the popular loaded Fire Fries will expand to other styles inspired by the likes of Italian, Mexican and Middle Eastern flavors.
BURGER SEOUL
▪ 1701 Division Ave., Tacoma, instagram.com/burgerseoul
▪ Popular food trailer has closed for now, but brick-and-mortar restaurant targeting a late spring 2024 opening
This story was originally published February 27, 2024 at 10:58 AM.