Second Kitchen is the restaurant that bringing about changes in Hannam-dong, the newest Gourmet Street in Seoul. Under a high ceiling of two-story brick building, the casual American dining kitchen coexists with Second Café, a take-away coffee bar, and Ministry of Wine, a wine cellar with distinguished concept.
On April 20, 2013, Second Kitchen celebrated its 2nd anniversary. The restaurant has been renewing itself continuously, making changes in its food menu five times and wine menu three times. For spring/summer season 2015, they launched ‘Brunch Collection’, a fresh and distinctive recreation of the gourmet dishes around the world.

Congratulation on your second anniversary.

We feel gratitude for the love our customers have shown us from the very day of the opening of Second Kitchen. Our intention was to create a place that is worth visiting both in day and night, semi-formal but not too intimidating, therefore suitable for various occasions ranging from romantic dates to business dinners at the same time. What we have dreamed was a place for a casual, intimate dinner with a glass of wine, and for a business dining. In fact, our guests are people with different background and nationalities, and of various age groups ranging from 20s to 70s. The assortments of people who eat in Second Kitchen are also varied from individuals who eat alone to the large groups of people. We are glad that we are reaching our goal with our restaurant. JOH & Company’s intention was to create a restaurant which will be there for years and years to come, and remain as the one place if you ever visit Seoul. To make it last, Second Kitchen’s location, spacing, cleanliness, music, and parking service as well as the quality of food and services are designed with extra attention. We chose to be neither too modern nor too classic, so that the restaurant will not become out of date even after decades. Typical Korean restaurants before Second Kitchen had been rigidly categorized, therefore failed to satisfy customers’ various occasions ranging from romantic dates and family occasions to business dinners at the same time. That’s why JOH & Company started a restaurant that is worth visiting both in day and night, semi-formal but not too intimidating, and comfortable for visitors of all ages and nationalities.

Casual Dining is not an easy concept to explain, isn’t it?

The location, the atmosphere the building creates, fabric napkins and wine glasses set on the tables, and our busy staffs in formal shirts; to some of our customers, the place might seem like a very refined fine dining restaurant. For our customers’ satisfaction, we offer exclusive services including wine decanting, change of plates and cutlery, and valet parking, but by default, we oriented “casual dining” where everyone can enjoy casually. In other words, ‘casual dining’ aims to provide a comfortable service in a comfortable atmosphere at reasonable prices, which many customers have respond favorably.

Second Kitchen has been famous for its distinctive feature.

I guess that’s because it is duplex type building, which is rare feature for a restaurant. Cross-gabled roof, the story height of 11 meters that extend our sense of space, and logo painted on the wall instead of hanging up traditional sign, the exterior of the restaurant is remarkable and unusual in Korea. Daylight coming through the skylight naturally reflects the changes of weather and time onto the floor. Choices of music and lighting help create the very different atmospheres for each of the restaurant’s aspect. Second Kitchen serves brunch menus in the daytime, but it turns into a dining restaurant in the evenings and a bistro bar late at night.

New season menus have been introduced for last five seasons.

We have introduced the new menus to use in-season ingredients for the dishes of the season, showing our will to become a long-loved restaurant at the same time. Resetting the menus requires many processes other than making new dishes. After first round tasting Chefs and staff have meeting to decide menus. All staffs of the Second kitchen taste new menus and evaluate evaluating them carefully. After reflecting the evaluation to the menus they are introduced to the customers and the responds are collected for the further adjusting process. Whole process takes at least 3-4 months and we do this 3 or 4 times in a year, which make our staff conceive new menu all year round.

Not only for the kitchen staffs but also for the service team the tasting and education process is required, since the service staffs are supposed to introduce or recommend dishes to the customers. Every staff gather to taste new menus and give out feedbacks. Only the staff who are well-acquaint with the new menus can serve them.

Tell me about this season’s new menu.

We have changed the brunch menus. As we figured out and pay attention to the different brunch styles among the countries, we aimed to reinterpret and introduce them with our new American dining style.

The French Brunch loved by female customers. After baking a brioche bun dipped with egg mixture, top it with torched grapefruit and banana, dusted with brown sugar. Serve it with mascarpone cream, yogurt custard, berries and nuts. It has a nice blend of soft, moist brioche and the sweetness of the fruits.

The San Francisco Burger, a signature menu of the Second Kitchen. You can taste a great mix of a thick, soft patty and oven-dried sliced tomatoes and avocadoes. It is served with a side of French fries in paper bag, which is as popular as the burger itself.

The Asian Brunch is inspired by the global trend of using Asian sauce and ingredient. A brioche bun is topped with deep fried sous vide pork belly and served with Asia Slaw with a kick of fish sauce. This Asian style dish might be sort of unfamiliar to Korean customers, but Second Kitchen decided to include it in this season’s menu since it is a global trend nowadays to actively create and introduce Asian style gourmet dishes.

The Italian Brunch is consist of baked eggplants, squashes, and Italian meatballs with amatriciana sauce mingled with port wine to add sweetness. Served with some mozzarella, a couple of porched eggs and pesto sauce.

We have changed dinner prefix course. Six course menus are added to existing four courses to meet the needs of formal or special occasions. As they consist of Second Kitchen’s signature menus, they can satisfy those who want various menus. We have extended wine pairing menus with a dessert wine along with newly introduced dessert menus such as cheese cakes, Pavlovas, and Operas. Customers who were fond of ‘Sorbet Box’ are highly recommended to try this season’s renewed Sorbet Box.

Squid Ink Risotto with grilled cuttlefish. A soft, well-cooked cuttlefish tastes great with rich mouthfeel of rice.

Sorbet Box, the signature dessert of Second Kitchen, is fun and tasty as well as visually eye-pleasing. Lifting up the metal lid of the lunchbox, you’ll see the colorful blend of kiwis, berries, oranges, lime sherbets and meringue. Listen carefully before opening the box; you’ll hear the cheerful crackling of popping candies inside.

Many costumers come back for the kind services.

The ages and needs of our customers are varied. Each of them has own taste, so as the staffs who serve. Service manual can include all the details. Second Kitchen’s service team try to offer best service for the costumers’ various occasions. Friends gathering will need cheerful service whereas formal occasion will need polite one. The answer is ‘what satisfy costumers’. We have a principle that only ready regular employee can receive costumers. But we don’t have manual for specific situations. Recently our service team try ‘assigned server system’. Like in a hair salon where assigned designers will take care of their own customers’ hair, customers can have their own assigned servers who know customer’s tastes in Second kitchen. When making reservation, customers can designate servers.

Wine is an essential factor of Second Kitchen.

Like we need Kimchi in Korean meals, Wine itself is a part of the meal for western cuisine. We can hardly talk about western food without wine. While preparing Second Kitchen, we tried to introduce ‘wine naturally going with food’ and ‘wine for the taste, not for the price’, excluding ‘difficult and expensive wine’.
Due to the wine boom, we can buy wine in supermarket in Korea. However Koreans still have prejudice for wine that they need to know enormous kinds and difficult terminologies. If you enjoy wine casually, you have to choose wine in restaurants according to the prices. As wine consumed as luxury in wine bar with fruits or cheese, the pairing wine concept isn’t familiar in Korea, unlike pork belly with Soju, or fried chicken with beer.

So we planned Value Wine Selection when opening Second Kitchen. We have carefully chosen wine with quality from all over the world and offer them at the same price. Customers can enjoy wine according to tastes and the ‘Mariage’ with food. In addition to the ￦59,000, and ￦95,000 value wine, we have wine list that has various wine going with different tastes and occasions. We have achieved 10,000 bottles sale for a month due to the virtuous cycle of good wine with reasonable price. In Korea red wine sales is overwhelming, but in Second Kitchen, white wine and sparkling wine take up half of the sales. Not only because of the pairing but also because of the trend that people enjoy lightly the flavor of wine.

Ministry of Wine, the wine cellar in Second Kitchen, is a Value Wine Selection that offers 25 bottles for ￦59,000 each and 50 bottles for ￦95,000 on regular basis. The selection consist of sparkling, red, white wines and champagnes from all over the world.

Through the Value Wine Selection, we introduce unknown wine with quality and recommend wine fitting the menus and tastes.

Please recommend wine that goes with your season menus.

We want to recommend ‘Sophia Blanc de Blanc’ which is suitable for spring. It was the present famous film director and wine lover, Francis Ford Coppola made for his only daughter in his own winery. The fresh apple and honey flavor, as well as the soft bubble and acidity of fruits make taster feel good. The pink color also goes well with spring.
For the family gathering or special day, we recommend ‘Cuvée Laurence’ from Chateau neuf-de-pape 2008 vintage produced by Domain du Pegau. from Chateau neuf-de-pape is famous for strong, thick and spicy wine. Domain du Pegau produce delicate wine though. Twenty or thirty years old wine tastes like fresh produced one, going well with lamb rib or Pork forelegs menu.

What are the menus’ features other than wine?

Unlike the recognition that coffee offered in restaurants are not as good as in coffee shops, we serve decent coffee by resident baristas. We use rich flavored beans for Americano and hard roasted ones for Latte. In addition, unlike most coffee shops that serves coffee at 90-95°C, we serve coffee at 70-80°C, therefore our customers can enjoy it right away, without waiting for it to cool down, or risk having a burn.
From this season we offer beers pairing food menus. Beers getting attention recently or from micro breweries in wine glass give deep flavor. After choosing menu, server would recommend suitable drinks on request.

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Vanilla Bean Cappuccino has dense milk foam on the coffee with torched and caramelized home-made vanilla sugar on top of it. Like a Crème brûlée, the hardened sugar crust cracks perfectly when you brittle it with a spoon.

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Grapefruit Squash, sparkled grapefruit juice, is served with orange foam on top of it to enhance the fresh mouthfeel. Vegetable Soda is a sparkling blend of ginger ale and freshly squeezed green juice from kale or rucola. Popular beverage menus include Special Mojito, available in both alcohol/non-alcohol options, and Earl Grey Lemonade.

What is your expectation for the future of Second Kitchen?

Thanks for customers, second kitchen make it here with various trials. We wanted it to be the ‘must- exist restaurant’ among enormous restaurants in Korea. The idea was inspired by decade’s old must-visit restaurants in Tokyo, New York or Hong Kong. From the planning stage, we dreamed a comfortable restaurant sustaining for twenty years or more. That kind of restaurants have more than a few strengths. From the food and service with quality, to mood, location, hygiene, music and parking services, every factors need to be harmonious. The ‘familiarity’ and ‘freshness’ always need to be in balance, not too modern not too classic. The same is true to interior, accessories and cutlery. Second Kitchen is not there yet, by complementing weakness we want it to stay as ‘restaurant loved for long’.