While Korean food has become trendy in major metropolitan areas, it’s still a novelty in Altoona, Pa., where Orlando and Sukye Bullock serve up Southern and Korean barbecue. Still, the husband and wife restaurateurs don’t mind breaking in local taste buds, especially when customers leave convinced of their motto: “Eating is heaven.”

 

Altoona, Pa., a former railroad town two hours east of Pittsburgh, is not the sort of place one would expect to find a small mom-and-pop restaurant specializing in authentic, made-to-order Southern and Korean barbeque.

First occupied by German, Irish and Italian settlers, Altoona today is home to just 1 percent of foreign-born residents. Its current population of 50,000 is 96 percent white, 2.5 percent African American, and less than 1 percent Asian. With such a small minority population, ethnic food is still a novelty here, limited to a couple Mexican eateries, a sprinkling of generic Chinese carryouts and more recently, a sushi restaurant or two.

The term “Korean food,” according to some familiar with the town, tends to draw quizzical glances from the locals. But being different is something Sukye’s owners — the tenacious husband and wife team of Orlando and Sukye Bullock — do not shy away from. Their combined Southern and Korean barbecue place is the only restaurant in the area to offer Korean food; The next closest is 45 miles away in State College, Pa., home to Penn State University.

Sukye’s, in its present-day spot — in a strip mall along a well-traveled, commercial thoroughfare near the exit to Interstate 99 — is the Bullocks’ second attempt at opening a Korean restaurant in the Altoona region. Their first, also named Sukye’s, opened in March 2006 and shut down five months later. Now, in a more central location, with a new landlord, some wiser business moves, and through “the grace of God,” the owners serve up Korean staples like bulgogi, kalbi, bibimbap and kimchi, in addition to more familiar Southern fare like smoky barbecue ribs and tangy pulled pork sandwiches.

“The people who live in this town never left this town, so they don’t know [about Korean food],” says 59-year-old Orlando Bullock, a lanky, reflective man whose long strides and quick movements allow him to chat with you at your table one moment and monitor the register at the counter the very next. “We’ve got to bring the kitchen to them.”

Inside the small, but immaculately clean space, there are personal touches such as traditional Korean porcelain dolls encased in a glass box and motifs of Korean country life hanging on the wall. Red plastic chairs, laminated photographs of Korean dishes posted on the walls with descriptions underneath, and a large walk-up counter offering a glimpse of the kitchen, give Sukye’s the feel of a homegrown establishment.

The modest restaurant’s two-page menu includes a Maryland cheesesteak (“Not Philly cheesesteak,” Orlando, a Baltimore native, is quick to point out), as well as brief descriptions of its Korean dishes. Also printed on the menu is a personal dedication to Sukye’s mother, Shin Gee Wol, from whom many of the recipes have been passed down, and the words: “Eating is heaven.”