Hey everyone, it’s Julie Young for Korean American Story and Not Your Average,
We are on location in “Filth-a-delphia”
with Chris Cho at Seo Ra Bol Restaurant
Chris, I’m so excited to be here
Let’s get the soju going
Pretend like we didn’t already have some
Okay, so Chris and I met through Danny Chung
Danny, you should be here now
I’m, like, really upset that you’re not
Yeah, Danny’s a great friend, he’s a great connector
I think half the people in the room…
knows through Danny
Jae-Il
All here through Danny
Cheers, gum-bae
Alright Chris, this has been a long time coming
I’m really excited to be here
Seo Ra Bol, your father and your grandfather
No - your father and your uncle started it
How many years ago?
About a good 16 years ago
To be honest, we were never really counting
Cause we’re been in it for a while
But about a good 15-16 years
So you grew up
within the restaurant business
Yeah, so we had this spot for 15-16 years,
but we had another restaurant
for like seven-eight years
Where?
Uh, this is like Northeast Philadelphia
and then we just expanded to a bigger spot
Alright, so you were born where?
Korea. I was born in Korea
And how old were you when you came here?
Maybe like seven or eight?
Oh really? Yeah
So I was like
I started at first grade here
And I hated it
Being in the first grade when I was eight
So I was beating everybody up
But so you remember that, when you came here
I do, yeah
To me, going to school was exciting cause I got to
eat, like, American food
Like you know how people say school food is, like, bad?
What does that mean, like burgers and fries?
Yeah
To me, I never had burgers and fries ever in my life
you know? It was like
I was like, “Yes! I don’t gotta eat mom’s food anymore”
Why did your parents come here?
For a better life. You know, like
I actually didn’t have my dad around growing up
He was gone for like good, like, three-four years
He was in Iraq for a little bit
They flew him out so he was there
And he used to cook for like, I don’t know,
I guess a couple, like, a couple hundred Koreans there
Cause they needed to eat Korean food there as well
So he’s always been a chef
Ever since I was born my dad and mom… was a chef you know?
Which I never grew up thinking it was cool
It was just like
That’s their job, right
Cause I know you’d never really thought you were gonna get into the restaurant business
No, never
Or my parents never wanted me to get into it
Cause they work so hard they could-
You know, this job is like,
You gotta grind 12 hours a day
Much as people think being a chef is amazing and cool it’s like,
You gotta stand on your feet 12 hours a day
From when did that, like,
when did you decide to start to join the family business?
It wasn’t even like much of a choice
I don’t have this crazy story behind it
But it was more like, my mom was going to Korea
and I was like running my own business then,
and she’s like, “Can you cover for me in the front?”
And I was just helping out a little bit, but
I think my dad,
he was just working so intensely at one point,
he went, like, went to the hospital
like, emergency
So I was just there like,
Man, what can I do to help him?
And I was like, “Hey, why don’t I just jump in the kitchen on my
free time to help him out a little bit,” you know, like
And how many years ago was that?
It was about, like, five-six years ago
It’s weird
This is, like, weird and I say it with my own
you know, like, but…
I was really, like, nice with it
You know, and I was just, like,
and I enjoyed it too
And I was like, “F*ck, how come I never wanted to do this before?”
You know
Cause you have no formal training or anything
All your chef skills you learned from your dad or your uncle
And my mom
I mean, just at home, I just knew how to cook Korean food
No but, like, a man who can cook
that’s a…
Mmm
That’s how I get
That’s how, you know, that’s how
It’s what I tell the girls you know, like…
So you
You did not finish high school in the traditional manner
No, not at all
So talk to me about that
You know, it’s funny
I got kicked out like six months before I graduated
So it was like bull sh*t
I was so mad
Come on
You know,
I think I’m a pretty positive person now
When I was young I was the most negative person too
Like, I went to take an SAT
and then the teacher’s like,
“Oh, you’re not allowed to flip back”
But I was so negative, I’m like,
“You telling me I’m f*cking cheating? F*ck you then!”
And I just walked out
I literally just walked out
I ripped my paper,
and I was like,
“F*ck you God, I’m trying to do best and you ain’t never there for me”
I was so negative back in the days, you know, like
I felt like everybody was against me
Much as all the positive energy and the things that I do now
are very thankful that I’m living the way I am,
cause it could’ve turned out to be the bad energy, you know like
Which trips me out too, but…
And do you think joining the family restaurant business
was sort of a turn for you?
I mean, I think I matured up by then anyways,
but I
I think I took it to the next level, becoming more and more Koreanized
I took off my earrings working here,
I stopped wearing necklace, like, my rings…
And at first I was like, “Man, f*ck that”
But later on it’s like, “Man, I’m here serving for the customers”
And I had to change, like
There’s a stereotype that, like, all the elders have
and there’s no way to change that
But instead of me being like a idiot, trying to fight,
like be a rebel and fight against it, I said,
“Hey, what can I do to be liked by the elders as well?”
And I wasn’t trying to like…
Like, spit on my parents’ face either, you know but
I learned to be really calm here, like…
Like, really calm
And the truth is, I don’t think the kid I was when I was 18
would like me right now
But I think that’s kinda always the case
Hopefully we’re all a lot more mature than we were at 18, right
But so you know what
We were just filming some B-roll with you and your dad in the kitchen,
and I personally, honestly, I was so moved by that
because um you know, as an adoptee, we got issues
But like sometimes I get really struck by
um, intense like family,
Korean family moments
And it…
You know, there are a couple of reasons for it, like…
Just seeing both of you together, working side by side,
but also thinking of what your dad went through
to build this business
I mean, it’s hard work in that kitchen
You know, you’re on your feet
like you said, 12-14 hours a day
It’s loud, it’s noisy, it’s like lots of stuff, fast paced and all that stuff, like
It was pretty intense for me, like, I got a little emotional
Do you ever, you know,
I mean, you’re so busy when you’re in there,
but what’s that like for you to work, you know,
side by side with your dad and…?
I think when I’m in the kitchen, we never think about it
We don’t have time to get emotional,
we have to get -get it going, you know?
But being in the restaurant, I think about it more, like,
“Dang, he did so much for me”
Then where I gain my po-
like, when I get empowered is I’m like,
Damn, he did it for 40 something years, you know?
And I’m like, “Damn, I’m b*tchin”
He’s still doing it, he’s still doing it…
Being in the restaurant, I got to really see everything
I try my best to be his best friend
Like, when he goes home,
after all this troublesome,
he need a friend to talk
So now, you know,
you bring this whole new young energy to your family business, right
You’ve got, I don’t know how many followers
on like, your muk-bangers, your Facebook page, your Instagram, your YouTube, all that stuff
They’re aware of that?
That you’re doing -like your dad’s aware of all the stuff you’re doing?
He likes it
He likes it, you know, like,
even the other day, he was like,
“Hey, the two council men and women came up to me and they were like,
’Hey, I’m you know, like,
very proud of your son
He took a video and we’re on it, we’re featured’ ”
For Korean American Day? I saw that, that was sweet
But I love that too cause
it used to upset me, the fact that my-
I used to embarrass my mom in front of her friends,
that I was a high school drop out
But now I feel so happy that my parents take, like, pride-
My parents, my dad, doesn’t know how to share stuff,
so he shared to hundred people individually, like, my video
You know, that’s pretty, like, intense you know, like
But that’s so much love
He does this to every video
I bet he’s gonna share this
I’m not trying to be somebody in New York and LA
I’m trying to continue to rep here cause
most of the talent in Philly leave to New York and LA,
that’s why I don’t think we grow big enough
And I feel like my life is a, uh,
like a underdog story
Cause being Korean is a underdog in America,
being from Philly’s a underdog story
So I’m like, fighting all motherf*ckers
I’m like, “F*ck it, let’s go”
And I feel like video’s the only thing that I could do
to reach out to the people, like,
“Yo, I’m out here grinding just like y’all”
I basically want my kids to grow up a lot cooler than I was
Like, when I was young, when we used to have to pack kimbap,
which is like a sushi roll
So I would actually kinda, like, hide and eat it
You know, like
Cause you were embarrassed?
I was. It’s like, it was new, you know
Like, they’re like, “What are you eating?”
And I used to just fight when they just asked me
“Like, what are you eating?”
“What the f*ck you say?”
I was just insecure
Like, man, you know, like
But I want Korean food and Korean culture
to be a point that it’s like,
“Oh, you eat sushi?
My mom and my dad took me out to a sushi restaurant”
I want my kids to grow up like,
I want all the Korean-Americans just like all of us
to grow more confident at what we’re doing
And if I could be a 1% change to that,
not even 1%
You know, whatever it coulda
be to move to the next step for the next generation,
I think that would mean a lot
And I feel like,
somewhat, like, we all have to work on it right now
And even right now,
like how we’re shooting through this
and everything else that we’re doing,
it’s gonna…
It might not even make an impact sometimes,
or maybe it might make an impact
But we gotta just keep doing it
you know, like, cause…
Who else then? You know
Danny always says, “If not us, who else?”
Alright Chris, thank you so much
Let’s do another, uh
One last shot together
before we have, like, an entire dinner
But thank you so much for having us
Thank you
Thank you for coming
Gum-bae