A TAXI DRIVER STAPLE OF SOUTH KOREA HAS INSPIRED A NEW RESTAURANT
Opening in Noho in 2022, the Korean drinking spot, C as in Charlie, tells the story of who the owners are: Koreans who moved to Atlanta and grew up sipping sweet tea, and later soju, in the South. The restaurant serves playful spins on their Korean Southern heritage through dishes like gruyere grits with galbi jus and a dessert made to look like a bagel, earning them a Michelin Bib Gourmand last fall.
Their second restaurant is a story about their homeland.
Kisa, short for kisa sikdang (also spelled gisa sikdang), or “driver’s restaurant,” opens Saturday, April 20, at 205 Allen Street, at Houston Street, on the Lower East Side, an homage to Korean diners that emerged in the ‘80s, catering to taxi drivers. Unlike boozy C as in Charlie, where shots flow freely, this isn’t a drinks-first restaurant, though they’re part of the menu, but like most diners, it’s about a satisfying meal for a good value.
The follow-up restaurant – the only kisa-style diner in NYC – comes from C as in Charlie partners, David JoonWoo Yun and Steve JaeWoo Choi (who were born in Korea and moved to Atlanta when they were kids), joined by Yong Min (YK) Kim. The 36-seat spot echoes kisas in Korea, with its vintage TVs, wall-mounted fans, Korean calendars, and a coin-slot coffee machine that dispenses (in this case, free) coffee for drivers on the go. It’s entirely for walk-ins.
At Kisa, chef Simon Lee, formerly of Jua, is overseeing a baekban homestyle menu with orders served on trays. Meals include jeyuk (spicy pork), thin sliced and marinated in gochujang sauce; bulgogi, marinated in a sweet soy sauce; bori bibimbap with barley rice, yeolmu kimchi (radish stem), gosari (frenbrake), shitake mushroom, and balloon flower roots; and jingeo bokkeum (spicy squid), stir-fried in a gochujang base, with carrot and scallion. Sets are around $30.
While coffee and tea are on offer — catering to drivers, as it were — it’s also a gathering spot for post-shift, so there is a brief menu of beer, soju, and cocktails, though there is no bar.
South Korea has over 300,000 taxis, with perhaps half in Seoul. Between rides, this type of restaurant is a mainstay, allowing drivers and those in search of an inexpensive, nutritious meal to fuel up and take a break at all hours. With Kisa located down the street from another cabbie favorite, Punjabi Deli, it’s an auspicious time to focus on restaurants catering to transit workers, with shows like Keep the Meter Running, following New York taxi drivers’ favorite spots and drawing in millions of views on social media.
“The gisa sikdang is to Seoul what the taco truck is to L.A.: Eat where the drivers eat, and you’ll get an unvarnished taste of working-class Seoul, far from the neon glow of tourist hot spots and towering phalanxes of gleaming skyscrapers,” the Los Angeles Times reported. And like the decline of the yellow cab, there is some concern among fans in South Korea that the era of the kisa sikdang is on the wane.
While a standard kisa sikdang might be open closer to round-the-clock, Kisa’s opening hours will be Tuesday through Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m.