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byrddogs
Joined: 19 Jun 2009
Location: Shanghai
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 Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 8:02 pm Post subject: |
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| Steelrails wrote: |
How about a nice fresh salad bar type place like a Chop't? There's enough processed greasy crap. How about something that leaves one feeling refreshed?
And Coldstone just needs to be voided from existence and back to the depths that spawned it, Comcast, Doritos, Mountain Dew, and fish cake. |
Ummm...let's see. People aren't exactly looking to eat veggies at all times (especially accompanied with livations) when they can eat that every single day by eating local. Haven't you heard (ad-nauseum) how healthy local food is?
Seriously though, there are many healthy options there when going to "real" restaurants. I wouldn't expect a place like you mentioned to be popular/succesful as a fast food option in Itaewon. |
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sojusucks
Joined: 31 May 2008
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| Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 8:04 pm Post subject: |
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| So, you're saying that the location is ideal for food people eat when drunk and when sober? What does that include? |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 8:05 pm Post subject: |
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| northway wrote: |
| dairyairy wrote: |
| That McDonalds in Itaewon is doing blockbuster business in its current location. It's hard to believe that so many people travel all the way to Itaewon and then decide to eat at McDonalds, what with so many other food choices, so it must be comfort food for those who live far outside of Seoul. |
I think it's more local foreigners, military, and Koreans. While I'm sure there are some people who go there due to lacking McDonald's in the provinces, that doesn't explain it being bustling even on weeknights. |
I'm in the provinces and there are plenty of McDonald's around. We have a couple. One is even a drive thru. We have a couple of Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, KFC, Popeyes Chicken, Outback, Pizza Hut, Dominos, TGI Fridays, and the like. Provinces aren't so isolated anymore. That said, subway and Burger King seem scarce. Also, would dearly love to have some Indian and Mexican food out here. SO, Itaewon still draws me for those things along with some foriegn food items. |
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byrddogs
Joined: 19 Jun 2009
Location: Shanghai
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| Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 8:45 pm Post subject: |
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Maybe some confusion with the use of "there"(?). I was talking about Itaewon in general, not that specific location. I do think that location is more suited to not so healthy fare.
Which brings me to this fond memory of the 'twon. Upon stumbling into the hood during my more adventurous years back in the mid 2000s there was this wonderful nugget of a place (a simple stall with a happy woman serving up good grub) just down from that corner on the corner leading up to "the hill". We called her "egg sandwich lady" as many others probably did as well. She catered to both my late night and next day needs (satisfied the livation induced need for grub and provided satiating nourishment the next morning), as I would usually order 2. She disappeared in the night sometime in the next year or so, leaving a hole in my heart and a rumbling in my stomache. I have fond memories of "egg sandwich lady".
Btw, whatever happened to Pita Time? Are they still around Itaewon or Seoul? |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:23 pm Post subject: |
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| byrddogs wrote: |
| Steelrails wrote: |
How about a nice fresh salad bar type place like a Chop't? There's enough processed greasy crap. How about something that leaves one feeling refreshed?
And Coldstone just needs to be voided from existence and back to the depths that spawned it, Comcast, Doritos, Mountain Dew, and fish cake. |
Ummm...let's see. People aren't exactly looking to eat veggies at all times (especially accompanied with livations) when they can eat that every single day by eating local. Haven't you heard (ad-nauseum) how healthy local food is?
Seriously though, there are many healthy options there when going to "real" restaurants. I wouldn't expect a place like you mentioned to be popular/succesful as a fast food option in Itaewon. |
You wouldn't expect a place where you could get romaine lettuce, beets, artichokes, avocado, asparagus, kalamata olives, feta cheese, red onion, sundried tomato, and more to be popular?
Combine something that offered a full range of western salad ingredient offerings with sandwiches served on quality bread, coffee, and maybe sorbet or some other dessert stuff and I think that it could hold its own. For the locals just throw on the catch phrase "Creative Salad" (believe it or not "creative" sells as a catch phrase here) or "Well-Being" and boom, there you go.
It may not do well with the drunks, but the coffee and desserts will keep it going till midnight. Heck, have ready to go Chicken Caesar wraps if you want to catch the drunk crowd. Or Jimmy Johns-esqe subs.
Not everyone wants a Gordita or a street Kabob or Burger King late at night. Especially in the summer when its hot. |
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byrddogs
Joined: 19 Jun 2009
Location: Shanghai
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| Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Steelrails wrote: |
You wouldn't expect a place where you could get romaine lettuce, beets, artichokes, avocado, asparagus, kalamata olives, feta cheese, red onion, sundried tomato, and more to be popular?
Combine something that offered a full range of western salad ingredient offerings with sandwiches served on quality bread, coffee, and maybe sorbet or some other dessert stuff and I think that it could hold its own. For the locals just throw on the catch phrase "Creative Salad" (believe it or not "creative" sells as a catch phrase here) or "Well-Being" and boom, there you go.
It may not do well with the drunks, but the coffee and desserts will keep it going till midnight. Heck, have ready to go Chicken Caesar wraps if you want to catch the drunk crowd. Or Jimmy Johns-esqe subs.
Not everyone wants a Gordita or a street Kabob or Burger King late at night. Especially in the summer when its hot. |
Nope, I wouldn't think that would fly in Itaewon (especially on that prime real estate corner). Maybe you are onto something and should see about investing in that.
As to the last thing you said, most everyone wants just those things late at night there and not some romaine lettuce, beets, artichokes, avocado, asparagus, kalamata olives, feta cheese, red onion, sundried tomato salad. You realize many of those ingredients aren't readily available and would be expensive (therefore passing on that expense to the customer) right?
As far as coffee and desserts go, isn't/wasn't there a Coffee Bean or something like that already there? |
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hogwonguy1979
Joined: 22 Dec 2003
Location: the racoon den
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| Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2012 11:14 pm Post subject: |
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| byrddogs wrote: |
Btw, whatever happened to Pita Time? Are they still around Itaewon or Seoul? |
Pita Time was forced to move to HBC a couple of years ago where their business dried up and they went out of business around 6 months or so ago |
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rainman3277
Joined: 13 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 12:14 am Post subject: |
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| sojusucks wrote: |
| So, you're saying that the location is ideal for food people eat when drunk and when sober? What does that include? |
It's a sad state of affairs when a vacant spot is open and our immediate thought (myself included) is to fast food joints. Interesting social commentary I'd say. |
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dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 5:51 pm Post subject: |
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| rainman, it's not a good location for a club, and a fancier restaurant wouldn't bring in the volume of business needed to pay what is probably a sky-high rent. It would have to be something like fast food that is highly profitable and would benefit from the high volume cross traffic. That's why I brought up McDonalds earlier in this thread but McDonalds has no incentive to pay a higher rent when it is thriving in its current location. |
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IamBabo
Joined: 16 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 6:16 pm Post subject: The Corner |
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| Wendy's! |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 6:55 pm Post subject: |
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| byrddogs wrote: |
| Steelrails wrote: |
You wouldn't expect a place where you could get romaine lettuce, beets, artichokes, avocado, asparagus, kalamata olives, feta cheese, red onion, sundried tomato, and more to be popular?
Combine something that offered a full range of western salad ingredient offerings with sandwiches served on quality bread, coffee, and maybe sorbet or some other dessert stuff and I think that it could hold its own. For the locals just throw on the catch phrase "Creative Salad" (believe it or not "creative" sells as a catch phrase here) or "Well-Being" and boom, there you go.
It may not do well with the drunks, but the coffee and desserts will keep it going till midnight. Heck, have ready to go Chicken Caesar wraps if you want to catch the drunk crowd. Or Jimmy Johns-esqe subs.
Not everyone wants a Gordita or a street Kabob or Burger King late at night. Especially in the summer when its hot. |
Nope, I wouldn't think that would fly in Itaewon (especially on that prime real estate corner). Maybe you are onto something and should see about investing in that.
As to the last thing you said, most everyone wants just those things late at night there and not some romaine lettuce, beets, artichokes, avocado, asparagus, kalamata olives, feta cheese, red onion, sundried tomato salad. You realize many of those ingredients aren't readily available and would be expensive (therefore passing on that expense to the customer) right?
As far as coffee and desserts go, isn't/wasn't there a Coffee Bean or something like that already there? |
I think there is plenty of room on the Itaewon strip for one place like I described. You don't have to orient your business around excessively wasted juvenile drunks. There's also tourists and white collar workers and such who frequent Itaewon and I think a quick-service casual place like a Chop't would do fine.
People would certainly pay a premium and be willing to venture to find a salad bar that offered the comforts of home. Vegetarians tend to be rather committed to vegetarian-friendly restaurants. OF course with sandwiches and stuff you'd get everyday folks as well.
And as I recall, Jimmy Johns was one of the most popular places for the drunk crowd back home. I can see a place that in addition to salads, coffee, and desserts, offered you subs made in about 1 minute being pretty popular, even at late night.
| Quote: |
| As far as coffee and desserts go, isn't/wasn't there a Coffee Bean or something like that already there? |
All under one roof with a sub shop and salad bar?
Another McDonald's makes as much sense as building another Samgyupsal joint or cell phone store. |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 7:06 pm Post subject: |
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This topic sure has generated a lot of interest. So why not think big?
Cheesecake Factory. |
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tardisrider
Joined: 13 Mar 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2012 11:58 am Post subject: Re: The Corner |
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I can remember when there was a Wendy's in Itaewon. I imagine that it wouldn't be a huge leap for them to return. |
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HarryMorgan
Joined: 02 May 2011
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| Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 8:33 am Post subject: |
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| Just for the record, an "Italian" joint recently opened up between the Taco Bell and Quiznos. I believe the spot was a Japanese place before (?). The name is Rotolo, "organic pride," as it says on the business card, and I ate there earlier this week. I can't really comment on the overall quality, but I got a pepperoni roll that was pretty good, under 6k, though fairly small proportion wise, mostly a snack. But, for whatever reason, they gave me a small pepperoni pizza alongside for free. Pretty good deal for 5,800 won. I'm curious about their actual pizzas, have to save that for another time. But, I think it might be a place worth checking out. Way better than taco bell, which was what I was planning to grub down on before I gave Rotolo the shot. |
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nora
Joined: 14 Apr 2012
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| Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 9:10 am Post subject: |
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| Steelrails wrote: |
| byrddogs wrote: |
| Steelrails wrote: |
How about a nice fresh salad bar type place like a Chop't? There's enough processed greasy crap. How about something that leaves one feeling refreshed?
And Coldstone just needs to be voided from existence and back to the depths that spawned it, Comcast, Doritos, Mountain Dew, and fish cake. |
Ummm...let's see. People aren't exactly looking to eat veggies at all times (especially accompanied with livations) when they can eat that every single day by eating local. Haven't you heard (ad-nauseum) how healthy local food is?
Seriously though, there are many healthy options there when going to "real" restaurants. I wouldn't expect a place like you mentioned to be popular/succesful as a fast food option in Itaewon. |
You wouldn't expect a place where you could get romaine lettuce, beets, artichokes, avocado, asparagus, kalamata olives, feta cheese, red onion, sundried tomato, and more to be popular?
Combine something that offered a full range of western salad ingredient offerings with sandwiches served on quality bread, coffee, and maybe sorbet or some other dessert stuff and I think that it could hold its own. For the locals just throw on the catch phrase "Creative Salad" (believe it or not "creative" sells as a catch phrase here) or "Well-Being" and boom, there you go.
It may not do well with the drunks, but the coffee and desserts will keep it going till midnight. Heck, have ready to go Chicken Caesar wraps if you want to catch the drunk crowd. Or Jimmy Johns-esqe subs.
Not everyone wants a Gordita or a street Kabob or Burger King late at night. Especially in the summer when its hot. |
I wouldn't go to a salad bar only place. I don't like salads only. You'd have to have SOMETHING else with it. If I had a choice of a place that I could get an AWESOME salad WITH my soup/sandwich/steak/whatever, sure, I'd go there, but salad only - I just can't see that beyond a place to stop for a light lunch. I'm not saying others wouldn't like it, but you have to be realistic - a place that has a narrow clientele isn't going to be able to make the rent.
I think a place that served some great soup along with the salads, as well as other light stuff - chicken breast, club sandwiches, etc - and that could go over quite well. |
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