 How did Korean barbecue go from $10 to $30 to $300 per person in a span of 10 years? Why is it so expensive? I remember there was this spot in LA Koreatown called Marangsae. Man, that was pretty cheap. It was $8.99, all you can eat. Um, Andrew, we gotta talk about this viral article from Eater. It's called, The Next Wave of Korean Barbecue is Here. From centralized wood-fired grills to classic upsells like truffle and uni. Korean barbecue spots are firing things up. Wow. So we're gonna talk about its journey, Andrew, from the $10 to the $30 to $300 price point. Make sure you like, subscribe, and turn on your notifications, Andrew. Um, but also check out another sauce. Smala sauce, guys. Check it out. Shipping out right now. Everybody loves it. Check out the Instagram at Smala Sauce. From Sichuan, in Sicily. Andrew, we are talking about spots like Coat. This Coat kicked it off. Shout out to Simon Kim. I know him. And now it opened up in 2017, Andrew. Andrew, we've had dinner at Coat when it was like $2.75 a person. It was, it was very expensive, man. And, but I think they kicked it off. The reason why Coat kind of started, I think, popularized the expensive Korean barbecue. There was probably a few expensive Korean barbecues. But they were, they were fails, right? But nothing that gave you that experience and also attracted non-Asians to it. They took the business, Andrew, from that private equity dinner steakhouse expense card. Coat justified it. I'll tell you this. Coat, it is worth it. It's expensive, though. It's not like, I don't, I don't go all the time. But, but David, let's rewind the clock because we lived in LA, K-Town, about, let's just say 12 years ago, where you could get all you can eat for lunchtime, lunchtime, all you can eat. But you talking about Marangse. You could get that for $8.99. And I believe dinner was like $11.99. We got so chubby in the beginning years of living in K-Town because that was literally the cheapest, greatest deal like ever. No, we used to see Far East movement there all the time. I think they went like every day. We're saying $10. Yeah, you didn't have Calbee. You only had brisket as far as the beef. And then you have, uh, Senggyeopsal. Senggyeopsal. And that was it, essentially. Maybe bulgogi. I think it was bulgogi, chadol, yeah. But for $10, it is insane. Obviously, with inflation, meat prices, everything's changed. I don't even think Castle BBQ is around anymore. But if it is, it probably is like 23. Castle BBQ was like $12.99. I believe the cheapest all you can eat barbecue in America right now is $25. But at one point, it was $10. I'm sure there's some city out there delivering it for $20 at lunchtime. And we're also talking about San Juan in San Francisco. They grill it and then bring it to your table, but they grill it over leachie wood to give it like a special impact effect. AB Steak is in Los Angeles. And we're talking about places like Jeju, Portland. Obviously, it really depends on how much you lean into the wine menu and the drinks menu, but you could have a meal there easily like $300. Right, right. So I think real quick, before we get into the comments section and other people's views, let me know in the comments down below, what is your favorite pricing of Korean barbecue? Have you been to the very high-end ones? Do you like to just do the cheap ones, the $20, $30, $40 all you can eat? There's nothing wrong with that. And you know what I noticed is some of the mid-tier all you can eat are doing now? They'll have a base level for $35 and then a $45, a $55 and like a $65 or even a $75 level, depending on what cuts you want. Yeah, but let's talk about why Korean barbecue is oftentimes getting so pricey because I had to look this up and there's actually a lot of posts about it because some people are like, yo, Korean barbecue, why is it so expensive? You're saying the jump was pretty astronomical, right? Yeah, number one, let's think about it. You get your own individual grill. Even building out that restaurant costs a lot of money. Let's be honest. It's like a whole bunch of kitchens from the back. They're now forward in front of you, right? So that still costs money. Obviously, there's a lot of labor and service if they're always constantly replacing the grill. Maybe it's at a spot where they're grilling it for you. That is extra service that they're going to factor in. Obviously, you get a lot of panchan, the side dishes. That's usually unlimited to an extent, right? If you get five re-ups, then you're kind of like, what are you doing? But also, it's the cut of meat, the quality of meat, right? Whether you have Wagyu or you just have regular brisket. Obviously, there are different qualities of the same cut of meat. And even the gas cost to transport the meat went up, right? So there's a whole bunch of costs involved. And inflation, let's just be honest. Now, not factoring the wine list, the drinks list, the other dishes. David, a lot of Korean barbecue spots are not just based around the barbecue. They have other dishes. Oh, you can get this special Korean uni dish. The bacon at coat is crazy. The special bacon at coat is really good. Or you can get your cheap japchae and all the little cheaper dishes. Right. Well, I mean, if you look at it, and the article goes on the list, Andrew, Korean barbecue was once reserved only for royalty, beginning in the Gorgoro era, which is 37 BCE to 668. Over several hundred years, it's sort of evolved into bulgogi. And then obviously in Korea, Andrew, they were focusing on pork for a long time because they didn't have access to as much beef. And then it turned into the all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue. And then it sort of turned into a symbol of like prosperity because it was like cheap, but it was all you can eat. And it was mostly people drinking soju, eating brisket, the chattel. You want to know my hot take? You know why Korean barbecues can justify that price? The omakase, man. Omakase's eff the game up. Oh, you're saying Japanese sushi omakases? Japanese sushi omakases. First of all, they're delicious and there's some very affordable ones right now. You can get them under $70. But usually the really affordable ones are Fujineso. Bro, you can pay. Like, you're getting a slice of fish and rice and you're paying $200 a person at omakase. So if you're... And it's like, it could be just 12 pieces, right? Yeah. And now the fish is rare, cut by a Japanese samurai, whatever. Like, we are... Or a Japanese passing person. But I'm just saying, yeah, for how much meat you get in an omakase for the price, that's pretty pricey. So of course, if you're opening a nice Korean barbecue spot, you're like, oh, well, we're giving people so much more meat and we're cooking it for them. We can justify $150 a person. Right, right. And the truth is, if you build them in a way like, quote, and some of the other successful high-end barbecue restaurants, it will be worth it because the audience and the consumer base will respond by letting you know we thought it was worth it because I'm coming back for every sort of business dinner or business celebration. Because there was, Andrew, some expensive ones in the past. I believe what was a crystal grill? Crystal belly was, I don't know if it was from JYP, but it opened up seven years ago in New York City and you grill it on a crystal top. But a lot of people said it wasn't any better. It was hyper-expensive, so it ended up failing. But now, since then, I think other Korean barbecues have kind of hit that 150 mark. Like, John Rowe, you can stop 100. I always tell people, man, as long as you make it worth it, as long as you can understand the customer, deliver the value, the customer will let you know what their checkbook and their frequency and their ability to tell other people, like, whether or not you're delivering the value for the money. So, David, what to you makes a Korean barbecue worth $200? I think it's, you're never gonna make it up. Like, $30, all you can eat right now, the most ubiquitous one that is the only national chain I believe in America is Jen BBQ, right? Shout out to Jen, I love Jen. I love Jen BBQ. I'm gonna say dinner's 35, maybe lunch is 30. A weekend's is gonna be, like, 40, but... Right, right, right. But I'm saying that, like, is it always gonna be 10 times better if you drop, like, 300? Right, but like... Food's never like that. 150 even if it's gonna be five times better? I don't know, but it could be five times better of the experience, maybe not just on a pure meat from meat level. If you compare Coke to Jen BBQ, those are two spots that I like. Obviously, one is, like, four times, five times as much in pricing. But Coke, they have a really cool cocktail bar. They got great cocktails. They got great wines. It's dark, it's seen-y. You can, like, network there. Well, you can close, like, venture capital deals there. You're not gonna do it at Jen. But at Jen, first of all, you're probably gonna smell a little bit like BBQ even outside of Coke, right? Because there's just no way you can avoid it. The grill's right in front of you. But Jen, Jen, I mean, let's be honest. You might pull a moonwalk on the floor because the grease is splattered on the floor. Jen, you're definitely gonna smell like it. So you better wear your second great B-level clothes there. But you're gonna get full for, like, 40 bucks. So ultimately, Andrew, what do you think? There's three levels here, right? Because we still, even though they're vanishing, you have your ultra-budget tier, your low tier. Which is, like, what, $20? Some people will even put Jen in it. Okay, but in New York, you have to understand the price is a little higher. But let's say in some part... Because the Madang Seys are gone. No, let's just say... The Castle BBQ is a vanish. Well, in Colorado, they probably have, like, a $25 all-you-can-eat per person. Right, anyway, let's put that in the low tier. Then you've got your mid-tier spots where there's a ton of them. There's a ton of them in 6, 2, 6. Let's say, for example, Andrew, let's meet right here. All you can eat for the base level is 50. There's Gangnam Station, Korean BBQ, and LA. Obviously, brothers, BBQ, they have a... It's all you can eat, but they have 90 for the diamond level. That's a mid-tier. And then you're still not closing business deals there. You might hang out with your business partner, but you could close business deals at Coat, and, you know, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I'll just pop up the other... Right, right, right. So there's three levels. Yeah, there's three levels of Korean BBQ now. Yeah, ultimately, I guess, what's your favorite? For me, I'm still going with the middle. Like, I still like the middle, you know what I mean? Because I just think, like, for me, I don't work in private equity, that, you know what I mean? Like, I mean, I... It's not one of those almost like banking financial fields where, oh, yeah, the company got it. Don't worry, it's 400 a person. How about this? If I'm with Korean people, you cannot do anything but middle. You say middle and up. My Korean friends will not go to Jen BBQ. No offense to Jen. I will go to Jen. I like Jen BBQ. They won't go. But I will go to Jen BBQ with non-Koreans. I will not try to drag my Korean friend to Jen BBQ. But David, I have some sum up questions. How much do you think to haul you, the Korean media wave, played into the pricing of Korean BBQ? Or do you think it's not... It didn't play a huge impact? It certainly coincided with it. So it's tough to say that it didn't all become more upscale altogether. You know what I mean? Like, K-pop is way more upscale than it used to be, too. And I think the things that people like about Korean culture, the pinguiness, the zeal for life, I have this theory like, you know, to me Japanese culture, Andrew, it feels like some weird mix of like French, German, and Scandinavian culture. You know, like Japanese stuff. Minimalistic. We're going to triangulate it. To me, Chinese culture feels a little bit like Greek, Roman, and like a little bit like Russian culture. To some extent, you know what I mean? Like the influences and stuff like that. But Korean culture, to me, feels like Italian and it feels American. Those are like they quote, unquote, like European cultures. If you consider America a European culture to triangulate it with, like, I would consider Korean culture to feel like, to me, American culture and Italian culture. Chinese would feel like Greek, Roman, and Russian ancient, right? A little bit esoteric, but like a lot of stuff going on. And then Japanese would be like French, German, and Scandinavian. So it's like it's, those are the ways that I would just explain it to people. So obviously that's why Korean culture, whether it's Hallyu or the Korean barbecue, it just mixes with America really well. Oh, yeah, because I think it's great because even if you're a white person and they're like, hey, you know, we got to close this deal. You want to go get barbecue? They're like, oh, yeah, barbecue. It's Korean style, by the way. But it's barbecue. Yeah, it's barbecue. Let's go. You know what I mean? And real quick, we just get to get in the comments section. Somebody said, it was a source of pride in my little Korean friend group when Anthony Bourdain proclaimed that Korean food was the least meth with immigrant cuisine out there. A decade or so later, my same friend group is sharing this article now with the same feeling of pride. Just funny to me how things change after a decade plus of Korean soft power, Hallyu. Do you think that's true that Korean food is generally very not tampered with? You mean compared to what you get in Korea? Yeah, because me and you have been to Korea. We've been to Seoul and I've eaten at number of Korean barbecue restaurants there. I would say the only big difference is they have a lot of leaves, like perilla leaves and different types of herbs over there. But essentially, it is very similar. Yeah, nowadays, the nice Korean barbecue spots, they're starting to do it here. Yeah, I could see that. It's hard to mess with kimchi. Kimchi is kind of like... I feel like kimchi kind of keeps Korean food honest in the sense that because it's kind of this pungent, fermented vegetable that you got to rate it on the kimchi. Kimchi keeps Korean food very authentic. It's kind of like my theory is what I'm saying. Right, right, right. Somebody was saying that they're really glad to see that Korean food made the jump from like rose cream tapoki even though that's like pretty popular as well as like a drinking pocha food. You know what I mean? And basically was just saying that, yeah, obviously the Korean cuisine arc in America is just way different than other cuisines. Yeah, yeah, it is. Hey, shout out to them, man. I feel like Koreans just got a lot of cylinders in their culture banging in unison right now. They did the work, they deserve it. Yeah, I mean, I would say for me though when it comes to a Korean barbecue spot, I will go there for the barbecue and not for the other dishes because there's so many other good Korean restaurants that focus on just other dishes. Yeah, I think the soups are actually really underrated. Yeah, but I'm saying like, would you go to a Korean barbecue spot and rave about their soup? Like if someone's like, oh, we got to go to this Korean barbecue spot. They have the best steamed egg and kalguksu. I'm like, but how's the barbecue? Because that's what I want to go there for. I'm going to smell like barbecue no matter where you go. So if I'm going to go there for barbecue, I want the barbecue. Right, you wouldn't necessarily go to a barbecue spot in America and go get like jambalaya and gumbo. Yeah, no one's like, oh, you got to go to PD's ribs. You know, they have the greatest cornbread for Texas. Yeah, you just go there for the cornbread. I'm like, no, I'm going to go there for the meats and the brisket. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Different things, different places for different things. Anyway guys, let us know what you think about the journey of Korean barbecue. Do you go to the ultra expensive spots, the 200 tier? Do you go to the $50 tier or you still looking for the $20 tier? And what are your major differences and things that you've noticed? Of course there's differences. Let us know what you think in the comment section below. Shout out to KOTE. Until next time, we out. Peace.