(코리아타운뉴스) “L.A. Koreatown is the Food Mecca”

Boiling Crab owner Bach Hoang

Customer flocking in from the Valley
Bayou BBQ to open next week

Boiling Crab, which opened six years ago in L.A. Koreatown, is a Cajun seafood restaurant. It became an instant hit quickly after opening. The Korea Daily met with Boiling Crab owner Bach Hoang to talk about why the chain restaurant chose Koreatown as one of its prime locations.

When asked about the inspiration behind Boiling Crab’s success, Hoang began talking about Jjukku Jjukku and Honeymee.

“Everyone questioned if those businesses would work, but both are flourishing now,” Hoang said. “If the idea and product quality are clear, any food business in Koreatown could work. Koreatown has established itself as the mecca of eateries.”

After opening in 2011, Boiling Crap has quickly became the restaurant with the longest wait line in the entire neighborhood. Its rise is especially notable as the success happened at the exact location where Korean soup and beer businesses have failed after just a year or two.

“There were many people who tried to convince me not to open a restaurant in Koreatown,” Hoang said. “Koreatown is already a popular location for food and I noticed that people don’t hesitate to go through hectic parking situations. So I was convinced that a business here would take off. Now, we have customers coming in from the Valley and South Bay.

So how much does Boiling Crab sell during its business hours—3 to 10 p.m.—in a day?
“On a weekday, probably from 500 to 600, but 1,500 on a weekend,” Hoang said. “The best year so far has been 2016. That proves that Koreatown is becoming multiethnic.”

Hoang says that only 20 percent of Boiling Crab’s customers are Koreans. A bit less than 50 percent of the customers are Asians, while blacks take up about 30 percent. There is now an established group of foodies enjoying the unique dining experience with Mississippi or Louisiana style spicy seafood contained in a plastic bag. It is also notable that the millennials are the majority of the customers at Boiling Crab.

“When we have customers lining up outside after 7 p.m., we often have to give them a warning since we may not have the food to serve them,” Hoang said. “We could expand our business hours, but that would be inefficient from a business standpoint.”

As the line continued to get dragged out, Boiling Crab in Koreatown even opened a next-door location to just serve customers ordering takeout.
The number of employees also reach up to 60.

Hoang even opened an office space on the third floor of the same mall after Boiling Crab’s Koreatown location continued to take off. He plans on opening Boogie McGee’s Bayou BBQ on May 16.

“We’re going to try to entice customers with a unique way of cooking BBQ,” Hoang said. “But it’ll probably be difficult to beat the current Korea-style BBQ.”

Hoang added: “In Koreatown, the food has to be unique for the business to do well. Word of mouth has to be the base of your attraction. Even the ones who start off well end up fading once the quality of food, service and employee maintenance aren’t managed properly. This may sound like textbook answers, but that’s exactly why we’ve done well.”

Boiling Crab first opened in 2004 by a Vietnamese couple—Dada Ngo and Sinh Nguyen—in Garden Grove. There are currently 15 locations throughout the country. The restaurant allowed franchising until last year, but has limited itself to only locations directly managed by the headquarters.


By Brian Choi