Like so many other people in the spring of 2020 — right as COVID-19 was becoming a pandemic — KFire co-owners Ben Kim and Eddie Hwang didn’t imagine it would take longer than a couple of weeks to go “back to normal.” “They handed us the keys to start construction in March and at that time, no one really knew what the pandemic was, so Eddie and I were like, 'Oh, it’ll probably be over in two weeks, right?'” Kim said with a laugh. “We asked our landlord ‘Hey, is this something we should be worried about — a lot of people are just halting opening businesses.’ But everyone said, ‘No, this will be over in a month.’” Kim and Hwang proceeded to open their Logan Square fast-casual restaurant specializing in authentic traditional Korean BBQ in July 2020 — while many existing restaurants were in the throes of pivoting their entire business model. They’ve now hit the five-year mark and are one of the many pandemic-born restaurants in Chicago being honored by Grubhub’s Established 2020 program for reaching the milestone. Tap on our bio link to read more. ----- Photo: Orders of spicy chicken are prepared at KFire on June 2, 2025. ? Zareen Syed / Chicago Tribune ?️ Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune
June 3, 2025
Like so many other people in the spring of 2020 — right as COVID-19 was becoming a pandemic — KFire co-owners Ben Kim and Eddie Hwang didn’t imagine it would take longer than a couple of weeks to go “back to normal.”
“They handed us the keys to start construction in March and at that time, no one really knew what the pandemic was, so Eddie and I were like, 'Oh, it’ll probably be over in two weeks, right?'” Kim said with a laugh. “We asked our landlord ‘Hey, is this something we should be worried about — a lot of people are just halting opening businesses.’ But everyone said, ‘No, this will be over in a month.’”
Kim and Hwang proceeded to open their Logan Square fast-casual restaurant specializing in authentic traditional Korean BBQ in July 2020 — while many existing restaurants were in the throes of pivoting their entire business model.
They’ve now hit the five-year mark and are one of the many pandemic-born restaurants in Chicago being honored by Grubhub’s Established 2020 program for reaching the milestone.
Tap on our bio link to read more.
-----
Photo: Orders of spicy chicken are prepared at KFire on June 2, 2025.
? Zareen Syed / Chicago Tribune
?️ Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune
“They handed us the keys to start construction in March and at that time, no one really knew what the pandemic was, so Eddie and I were like, 'Oh, it’ll probably be over in two weeks, right?'” Kim said with a laugh. “We asked our landlord ‘Hey, is this something we should be worried about — a lot of people are just halting opening businesses.’ But everyone said, ‘No, this will be over in a month.’”
Kim and Hwang proceeded to open their Logan Square fast-casual restaurant specializing in authentic traditional Korean BBQ in July 2020 — while many existing restaurants were in the throes of pivoting their entire business model.
They’ve now hit the five-year mark and are one of the many pandemic-born restaurants in Chicago being honored by Grubhub’s Established 2020 program for reaching the milestone.
Tap on our bio link to read more.
-----
Photo: Orders of spicy chicken are prepared at KFire on June 2, 2025.
? Zareen Syed / Chicago Tribune
?️ Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune
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