A culture convergence: K-pop and Korean food come together in Charlotte this weekend
This weekend, if you notice someone wearing over the top fits and carrying backpacks or handbags with brightly-colored stuffies dangling off of key chains, chances are you’ve just spotted a K-pop fan.
K-pop, or Korean pop, has taken the world by storm in the last few years. Between 2018 and 2024, K-pop streaming on Spotify has grown 180% in the U.S. and 360% worldwide. In 2023 alone, there were 2.2 billion first-time listeners to Korean artists on the streaming platform. Even if you’ve never listened to BTS or Blackpink, you’ve likely heard of these global superstars.
And that’s not even counting the popularity of Korean dramas, such as the global smash “Squid Game.” One in four Americans watched that show’s first season in 2021. Then there’s “Parasite,” Bong Joon Ho’s 2020 Oscar-winning film.
All this is to say that many people are surfing the hallyu, or “Korean Wave” of culture. This weekend, that will include not just Queen City natives but visitors like me coming to town to see the K-pop girl group aespa (pronounced “ES-pa”) on Saturday, Feb. 8 at the Spectrum Center. Many of us love to prep for the concert by getting our fill of some delicious Korean food.
While not as big as in some cities like Atlanta, the Korean food scene in Charlotte is vibrant and growing — in no small part due to the rise in interest in Korean culture.
From K-drama to K-cuisine
Libby Yee, a Charlotte native, had always eaten at Korean restaurants. But she began to go more regularly in 2018, when she became a fan of boy group BTS and the K-drama “What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim?” Now, she estimates that she eats out at least twice a month and regularly cooks Korean food at home.
Nancy Yang, another K-drama fan in Charlotte, said the shows often contain enticing shots of food that make her hungry for Korean dishes.
In romance dramas, which are more demure than Western shows, eating even serves as a euphemism for more risqué content, she explained. “When the guy wants to ask the girls to spend the night, they don’t say, ‘Will you come spend the night?’ What they say is, ‘Will you come over for some ramen?’”
Pepero, a longtime stalwart restaurant in Matthews, is Yang’s favorite, as she prefers more traditional dishes such as her go-to seafood tofu soup. Yang and her husband also like the more modern Anju — in particular, its sweet and spicy fried chicken appetizer called dakgangjeong and the tteokbokki special, with braised rice cakes in a sauce flavored with gochujang, Korean chili paste.
“I know my husband would not have tried tteokbokki if he did not see it a million times in K-dramas,” Yang said.
Yee also goes to Pepero for traditional dishes. As part of a group of K-drama fans who meet every few months to talk plotlines and favorite actors, Yee has the opportunity to keep trying new places and new dishes and posts regularly about it on Instagram at charlotteseoulmates.
“There’s a lot of different places to try, and everybody deserves a little bit of love,” Yee said.
There are the wings at Choi’s Korea & Wing and Bonchon – the latter, she said, tasted even better than chicken she had in Korea. Bimbimbap, the rice bowl with beef and vegetables, is of course the speciality at Bibim, whereas 704 KBBQ’s is the place to go for traditional Korean barbecue.
Yee’s love of K-dramas and K-pop even changed her palate.
“I’ve always been an adventurous eater but never was fully into the fermented stuff,” Yee said. Now, though, she regularly enjoys kimchi — the spicy fermented cabbage often served as a side dish or in fried rice — and sometimes even has doenjang-jjigae, a stew made with fermented soybean paste.
How Korean food in Charlotte has changed
Minae Choi, director of operations at Choi’s Korea & Wing, can usually tell when a K-pop group is coming to town by a spike in orders the week before — often placed by concert crew looking for a taste of home.
In fact, Choi’s had the honor of catering for the group Tomorrow by Together (TXT) and their crew when they performed at the Spectrum Center in May 2023, shutting down the restaurant for two days to accommodate the massive order.
“It was very rewarding,” she said.
Like Pepero, Choi’s Korea & Wing has a long history in Charlotte, first opening in 1996. (The restaurant briefly closed from October 2021 to April 2022.) Over the years, the popularity of Korean culture has led to a shift in its menu. Choi initially served more Chinese dishes, such as General Tso’s chicken and lo mein, since those were more familiar to locals. Now, though, those dishes are less than 10 percent of the menu. But as Choi pointed out, one of the restaurant’s notable dishes, noodles in a black bean sauce called jjajangmyeon, is actually a Korean Chinese dish created by Chinese immigrants to Korea.
A more recent addition to the menu is budae-jjigae, also known as military- or army-base stew. This Korean-American fusion dish developed as a result of the U.S. military’s presence during the Korean War and features American ingredients such as Spam, baked beans, sausage and cheese.
“I feel like our dishes … have a little bit of the Carolina touch, too. A little sweet, a little salty, a little sour. Vinegar, sugar and salt is what we play around a lot. That kind of fits Charlotte for us, and that’s why we love Charlotte,” she said.
While Choi, who came to Charlotte with her family from Korea at age 7, is more of a fan of “first-generation” K-pop – groups like H.O.T. and S.E.S. that were popular in the late ’90s and early 2000s – her staff and her customers are increasingly teaching her about the latest in K-pop trends.
“The younger generations come, and they just can’t wait to tell me about all their concerts,” she said. They’ve even introduced her to newer trends in K-pop like collecting and trading photocards with your favorite K-pop idols.
“Sometimes they’ll just speak to me in Korean,” she said. “It’s just been so nice to see a growing number of people knowing about the culture.”
She’s really noticed a rise in the number of Korean restaurants in the Charlotte area over the last decade, which she also appreciates. “It’s good for the city and good for the community,” Choi said.
Given that Charlotte’s Korean population remains low – it makes up less than 1% of the population and isn’t among the top 5 Asian ethnic groups – it’s a sign that it’s not just Korean-Americans driving the interest, but people like me just obsessed with Korean culture.
I can barely wait until this weekend. I’m not sure what I’m more excited about: the tteokbokki or the concert.
Uniquely Charlotte: Uniquely Charlotte is an Observer subscriber collection of moments, landmarks and personalities that define the uniqueness (and pride) of why we live in the Charlotte region.
This story was originally published February 6, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
