Dancing and K-dogs: How to fully immerse yourself in a K-pop weekend in Charlotte

On Saturday night, I found myself — a soon-to-be 45-year-old woman — bopping around Seoul Food Meat Co.’s South End location, wearing sparkly hot pink shorts paired with black shiny tights and tank top until nearly 2 in the morning.

While there are probably a number of 45-year-old women who dance until 2 in the morning most weekends, I, with my bum knee and homebody personality, am not usually one of them.

I blame — or should I say thank? — K-pop.

I was in Charlotte last weekend to see the K-pop girl group aespa (pronounced ES-pah) perform their sold-out show at Spectrum Center. And, as usually happens when out-of-towners like me arrive in cities like Atlanta and Charlotte for K-pop concerts, I wanted to make it an immersive experience.

That meant eating lots of Korean food and attending pre- and post-concert events, like the afterparty at Seoul Food Meat Co.

So here’s a recap of my weekend, with some recommendations for things to do and eat next time there’s a K-pop concert in town.

Let’s eat at Mukja

Even before I checked into my lodging, I stopped at Super G Mart in Pineville for some K-snacks that I can’t easily get at home near Asheville.

I resisted the honey butter chips but did spring for some Pepero, a chocolate-covered biscuit stick that is the Korean version of the Japanese snack known as Pocky. Fun fact: Nov. 11th is “Pepero Day” in Korea, since 11/11 looks like two pairs of Pepero sticks. Friends, family members and lovers gift each other boxes, with special-edition flavors often coming out before the holiday.

For a proper meal, I went to the adjacent Alley 51 food hall. I had heard good things about Mukja – which means “let’s eat” in Korean – and opted for the tonkatsu, a breaded and fried pork cutlet that came with rice, miso soup and some Asian-style slaw.

I couldn’t get over how light the crunchy and flavorful pork felt: the same amount of fried chicken would have sent me home with a stomachache, but I practically devoured the giant piece of pork. And while I’m usually not a fan of Western coleslaw, the Asian cabbage had the perfect amount of (read: not too much) tangy mayonnaise to balance out the cold crunch. I paired the savory goodness with a can of Milkis, a sweet carbonated soda with milk and yogurt. I was surprised at how sugary it was, but the milk/yogurt combination cut through some of the sweetness.

My first K-dog

That evening, I headed out to Divine Barrel in NoDa for a pre-concert event with K-pop vendors, food trucks and a DJ. Kawaii Kove is the store where I got my sparkly shorts, but vendors sold everything from albums to handmade jewelry and press-on nails.

To pair with my half-pint of Czech Pils, I tried my very first Korean hot dog, or K-dog. Little did I know that the food truck, Cutting Board CLT, claims to be the first to bring K-dogs to the Queen City.

K-dogs, a popular street food in Korea, are essentially elaborate corn dogs with some key differences. The sausage or weiner is dipped in a batter made of bread crumbs rather than cornmeal, and often paired with melty cheese and sometimes even squid ink. K-dogs also often have toppings, including cubes of potato or a dusting of sugar. Cutting Board CLT, which appears to be a bit of a Latin-Korean fusion truck, offered Hot Cheetos as an alternative topping.

I went with the original, half-cheese and half-weiner, though I would probably just stick with just the dog next time. I’m just not a huge fan of the blander, bendier cheeses. The batter was great, though: a thin layer of crunch that wasn’t too greasy.

Dancing all day and night

On Saturday morning, I met up with a new friend at Stable Hand coffee, which I have to mention because the coffee was deliciously smooth. It was the perfect caffeine hit before I took my 44-year-old body to its first dance class in decades: K-pop at NC Dance District, every Saturday at 11 a.m. with Ifetayo.

It was a packed class that could have been intimidating had not all the amazing dancers been incredibly supportive of everyone. We learned a chunk of choreography from BTS’s 2018 “Fake Love” single, and I contorted my torso into shapes it hasn’t made since … perhaps ever. I had a ball, and I’m sad that I don’t get to go every week.

Afterward, I desperately wanted something that’s not very common in Korean cuisine: a salad. (Koreans usually include lots of vegetables in their noodle and soup dishes, however, and on the side in small dishes called banchan.) So I decided to try Bulgogi Box in the South End, since it was close to the dance studio and offered salad. I got the B.B. Salad with crispy tofu over a bed of mixed greens with pickles, Asian coleslaw, corn, carrots and radish. I loved the small, crouton-sized bits of tofu, and the ginger dressing was a nice touch.

I had no time for dinner before the show, arriving at the Spectrum Center just in time for doors to open at about 6:30 p.m. I found my new friend Kiki in the line – as often happens with K-pop friends, we met on a group chat for a previous concert and decided to go together to this one.

K-pop concerts aren’t like Western shows. For one thing, they always start — and end — on time. There are no opening acts. Each fast-paced song has detailed choreography to go along with it, and dance-cams often find and film fans who can nail the moves.

To accommodate for the costume and set changes, elaborate videos with an ongoing storyline — almost like a miniature K-drama — play at various points. (It’s also when most folks take a seat to rest after dancing along with the music.)

Many spectators hold lightsticks, or plastic battery-powered torches that are unique to each group and can usually be paired over Bluetooth to change colors and pulse along with the music. Almost as popular as the show itself are the merchandise booths, though I somehow lucked out and found a short line so I could get an overpriced but very warm and fluffy hoodie.

The aespa show was fantastically fun, in part because of how enthusiastic the crowd was. From its beginnings in the early 1990s, K-pop was heavily influenced by rap and hip-hop, and aespa’s takes those origins and adds some dance and trance sounds to it.

Put simply, there’s a lot going on in most K-pop songs, with hook upon hook layered over each other. Some of my favorites of the night were “Drama,” “Black Mamba,” “Armaggedon” and member Karina’s solo song “Up.”

But in some ways, the real highlight of the night was the afterparty at Seoul Food Meat Co. Not because the concert was lacking, but because the event made it possible to keep the high of the concert going that much longer.

While I had no appetite, I did enjoy my first taste of soju, a clear drink usually made from rice that’s often flavored. We shared a few bottles of yogurt soju, which added a sweetness that cut through the vodka-like flavor. But most of all, I enjoyed dancing and screaming along to some of my favorite songs with other people who love K-pop as much as I do.

Put simply, being a K-pop fan keeps me young. (And not just because it introduced me to K-beauty products.) I’ve made great friends through it. I wear outrageous things like sparkly pink shorts and don’t much care what anyone else thinks. I even got bangs for the first time. It’s also made me more adventurous with my taste buds, embracing spicier and more fermented food like kimchi in a way I never had.

So, the next time K-pop comes to Charlotte, you might try making a weekend of your own from it. I promise you won’t regret it.

This story was originally published February 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM.