The COVID-19 pandemic was detrimental to small businesses across the country and restaurants were not spared from the loss. Since March 2020 more than 350 businesses in San Luis Obispo have been forced to close due to the pandemic; 22% of those were restaurants. But amongst all the closures and restrictions, some restaurants have found innovative ways to keep their business afloat.
My partner Victoria Lachnit and I were looking for interesting small businesses surviving the pandemic in San Luis Obispo, and we came across Bap Jo’s after a recommendation from our professor. Bap Jo’s was actually founded in March 2020 during the height of shutdowns. The founder and chef Matt Yoon was able to not only get the business off the ground, but built it into a thriving pop-up restaurant.
Matt was kind enough to let us record him in front of his pop-up location at Benny’s Pizza, which gave a great background for his interview. On the day Bap Jo’s was cooking Matt’s unique Korean-American cuisine, and we were allowed to film inside the kitchen and watch the process unfold.
The video portion taken by Lachnit captured the day Bap Jo’s was serving Korean Hot Chicken Sandwiches: A piece of fried chicken dipped in a spicy Korean sauce. This made for great visuals that are really difficult to watch if you’re feeling hungry. “There’s definitely a shortage of Korean food in SLO, and Matt’s food combines the appeal of American and Korean cooking styles, so it’s no wonder why Bap Jo’s has been such a success.” Lachnit said.
Yoon had also noticed the lack of Korean food in San Luis Obispo, so for years he had been cooking it for himself. With the help of his wife he turned his homemade style food into a product they could sell to the community.
“I had been making my own Kimchi and cooking a lot of Korean food and doing a lot of indulgent-style Korean food. With the pandemic and the opportunity to have a pop-up restaurant, it was just what we kind of naturally went into.” Yoon said.
The written story featured a deep dive into Matt and how he came to found Bap Jo’s. Growing up he wasn’t the biggest fan of Korean food, so running his own Korean restaurant was something he simply never saw himself doing. The success of Bap Jo’s is thanks to Matt’s ability to innovate and be flexible with his business model during the pandemic.
Featuring Bap Jo’s was an important spot of optimism among all the sad news that most small businesses were suffering from the pandemic. We felt this story was a great way to show the innovative way that Matt built his restaurant with a model that could not just survive the pandemic, but thrive in it. Bap Jo’s serves on select Saturdays from 4-7pm and accepts pre-orders online.