Seoul Michelin Bib Gourmand Restaurant Gebang Sikdang Is Opening in LA | Eater LA
"A Seoul-based ganjang gejang (soy-marinated crab) specialist that earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand earlier this year is opening a permanent location in the former Hibi, which closed on March 2, in Koreatown, after an initially planned limited-run pop-up was so successful the team decided to stay. The Los Angeles outpost will be operated in partnership with Kaizen Dining Group, the hospitality group that founded Hibi, and benefits from Kaizen’s import-export arm; Solomon Lee, the chef and co-founder of Hibi, says the delay bringing the concept stateside came down to “a matter of sourcing the same crab that Gebang uses in Korea and finding a way to bring that over to LA without compromising quality.” Known in Seoul for serving some of the best raw-marinated crab in South Korea, the restaurant will—like the original—serve exclusively female blue crabs rather than mixing male and female crabs, ensuring that “each piece is full of flavorful crab roe.” The pop-up has served a set meal with a choice of either soy sauce or spicy marinated crab, and each set comes with rice, miyeok guk (seaweed soup), dongchimi, and banchan; for customers who don’t want to deal with shells there’s a crab roe bibimbap served with both marinades. Lee says he “always knew that [the current Hibi location] was just too small for [Hibi],” and that he was “thinking of a lot of different things that we can do for that space.” On the original plan he explains, “Originally, we were just going to see how the pop-up does, go back to doing Hibi for a month or two, and if the pop-up was [a success], then we would’ve made plans to go ahead to change Hibi into Gebang,” and because the Gebang owner had expansion plans and Kaizen already had crab in transit, Lee adds that “It would’ve been a waste just to have it be used for a three-week pop-up.” Early demand was strong—the pop-up sold out of crab midway through the dinner shift on its third day open. After the pop-up ends on March 23 the spot will close for a few days to repaint and lightly touch up the interior, then reopen with an expanded menu that more closely mirrors the Seoul location plus an LA-exclusive dish likely to be a spicy marinated and charcoal-grilled crab. The opening is part of a recent wave of South Korean restaurants establishing LA locations, including DamSot, Jjampong Zizon, and the forthcoming Hojokban." - Fiona Chandra
