Mark Choe

Age: 51

Occupation: Owner of Mark’s Kitchen

How did you end up in Maryland? I first came to New York in 1985 when I arrived in the United States, but after a short time, a friend of mine told me that he had a job outside Washington, D.C., and he asked me if I would like to accompany him. Since I had lived my whole life in Seoul, it seemed perfectly natural to live near another capital. I then started working at a cafeteria owned by a cousin of mine who lived in the Maryland suburbs, and I have been here ever since. In 1987 I opened my own grocery store, sold that and opened my restaurant, Mark’s Kitchen. I run the restaurant while my wife stays at home with our 4-year-old son.

Where do you get your Korean food and groceries? My wife and I shop in some Korean grocery stores in northern Virginia and the Maryland suburbs for food for home. I buy specialty Korean food for my restaurant from different Korean food distributors who are located in the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

Do you get many Korean customers at your restaurant? We occasionally get Korean customers who live in the Takoma Park neighborhood, and these are usually Koreans who are married to Americans, students who are attending the University of Maryland, which is located fairly close to Takoma Park, or opera singers who are part of the Washington National Opera, which has its rehearsal facilities here in Takoma Park. We also have some Korean adoptees whose parents bring them to my restaurant for some exposure to Korean food. The overwhelming majority of our customers are, of course, not Korean. When I first started, 99 percent of our customers were white. Now it’s maybe 90 percent white, 8 percent black and 2 percent of others, including Koreans. I have five Koreans on staff, so I speak Korean to them, but mostly I speak English here, even though my English is not good enough.

How has the local community responded to the Korean food at your restaurant? Takoma Park is a very progressive community, full of people interested in trying new things and having new experiences, and they love the Korean dishes on my menu. This is probably the only community in the United States where whole generations of young people think of mandu and bibimbap as comfort food in the same way they think of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or macaroni and cheese. The Korean food has been very popular with the Takoma Park community, but I’m known for my healthy American food. When I first opened this business, I didn’t know this neighborhood had a lot of vegetarians. But at the time, this was the headquarters of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which promotes vegetarianism. I changed the menu after a month. I tried organic and healthier food, vegan food, too. It has been a success, and I do very well. Because I’m Korean, they call my restaurant a Korean restaurant, and we do have bulgogi, kalbi, jabchae, kimchi and other Korean dishes, but they’re different. For example, we do have bibimbap, but we use brown rice. Koreans who come here though are a little bit disappointed because we don’t have, like, a type of soup that they want.