Recently we received an email from Anne, the Corporate Chef at Sur La Table HQ. Anne told us about a new cooking class being developed. She creates class themes and menus for their 23 cooking class programs around the country. She had the opportunity to try KOi Fusion a few months back when she was in town and wanted to feature us as one of four food carts/trucks in this specific class theme called “America’s Food Truck Cuisine”. We worked with her to develop an at-home friendly version of our Spicy Pork Tacos.

Looks like April 2nd is one of the dates this cooking class is available at the Portland location. You can view it here.

Let us know if you plan on attending the class and where you’re from!

K’headz!!!! We are announcing a new KOi truck soon to open doors KOI on Divison Street at D-Street Noshery cart pod, located on SE Division by SE 32nd (not 39th like in the video)! We’re so excited to join the community of other diverse food carts including Oregon Soup Works, Flying Fish Co., Slice Brick Ove Pizza, Fuego de Lotus, The Pie Spot, Captured by Porches Brewing, Herb’s Mac & Cheese and Awesome Cone!

A covered area with seating and heat lamps is also available! We plan on opening up our doors officially next week. We know all you cool, hip eastsiderz want to come #getsome.

Chef Bo prettying the truck up for her big debut next week …

So everyone can see! Come #getsome KOi, Widmer and shop for some new gear and eyeglasses. Each pair of prescription glasses purchased ($95 – that’s it!) Warby Parker provides a pair to someone in need.

We are constantly brainstorming new ways to keep our customers engaged. Sometimes we get so crazy with our ideas that we overlook the essentials … besides hip-hop parties and renegade KOi stops, we would also like to give back to our most loyal customers – and that’s simply MORE KOI!

Coming soon (hopefully in a week) to all locations will be frequent eater cards! A basic stamp system where we’ll be giving back to you for supporting us. Just a handful of times for lunch, a few late night stops and you’ve got yourself another free burrito!!!! Or tacos … or quesadilla … or sliders!!!!

In addition, we’ve finally set up an e-mail subscription to better let you know of upcoming events we’re involved in and specials or discounts we’re offering. Especially in the summer time, it gets k’razy busy at KOi HQ! We’ll shoot you a short e-mail every now and again to let you know what’s up! And there may be an itty bitty surprise in it for you!!!

And between you and I, we gots some new menu items (and a new location) in the werkz!!!!

So whatcha waiting for? Look to the right of this page and enter in your e-mail addy. Then head on over to one of our trucks or KOiosk to check out the frequent eater card!

Yesterday, we received some nice media coverage, courtesy of John T. Edge over at the New York Times. You can read the article here. It follows a trend of past coverage that both KOi and Korean fusion as a genre have received over the last year, and it now appears that the concept of “fusion” has become a full-on epidemic in the US. Following the original Kogi model, trucks have started popping up over the past year, spanning the country– from Midwestern locales like Indianapolis and Oklahoma, all the way to Atlanta, New York, and of course California. Our very own city, Portland, has even received some increased competition over the past year, as no fewer than four Korean barbecue competitors have rolled into town.

What does it all mean? It’s something we as a team have talked about more recently. When we started, the concept of the Korean taco was strictly the domain of Kogi and LA. We were one of the first to take Roy Choi’s pioneering vision and mold it into our own concept; using his blueprint, we ran with the idea and re-invented the recipes so that they tasted uniquely KOi. One of the reasons we’ve been successful in this new sea of competition has been a consistent adherence to our original vision.

By sticking with the homemade marinades that only Mama Kwon knows the recipe to, using locally-sourced tortillas and tacos, only buying fresh, local vegetables, and only selecting the highest quality meats to buy, we’ve been able to consistently deliver the best Korean BBQ in Portland, even as we’ve expanded over the past year.

Everything we serve is cooked to order, and when you come to KOi, you know everything you eat has been grilled, chopped, diced, and prepared that day. It’s not a marketing gimmick–it’s the only way we know how to do business, and we refuse to change our commitment to those ideals.

As the genre continues to grow and expand, we’ve prepared ourselves for the inevitable increase in competition by making sure we continue to do the best everyday. As Bo said to the New York Times, we’ve built our business not on trying to be just another Kogi, but by taking the idea of the Korean taco and “Portlandizing” it. Our marinades, tortillas, meat, and recipes are unique to KOi. We have much love for the growing legion of Korean taco trucks across the country; but for us, it’ll always be a KOi and Portland way of doing things–and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Love, Peace, and Taco Grease,

Scott, Team KOi

RIP.

-Team KOi