In 2016 Peter Cho and Sun Young Park opened a restaurant in their Northeast Portland home out of necessity — they needed to keep their small children underfoot. The novelty of the intimate indoor/outdoor courtyard garden space at Han Oak — paired with exceptional food — attracted immediate national attention. Soon, Han Oak became one of Portland’s hottest restaurants, earning celebrity status and a half-dozen James Beard Award semifinalist nominations including Best New Restaurant, Best Chefs and Outstanding Hospitality. In 2024 they opened their latest venture, Jeju, in Southeast Portland as another labor of love: a buzzy, modern Korean wood-fired grill barbecue with late-night karaoke. Here are five questions with Peter about his passion for sharing his food and culture.
The interactive dining experience at Han Oak is very inspired, with set menus that change every few months, like DIY gimpap (Korean sushi) and hot pot. What’s your process for deciding what to do next?
The biggest part of the process is to just do. I’ve gotten stuck a lot trying to get it all set and organized, totally dialed in before launching. With these last two menus I had an idea and then I just changed it — and worked it out as we went along. It really helped with the creative process — fixing things as we needed to, adding to the experience as we found inspiration. Hot pot started in the post-Covid era with grills on each table so diners could enjoy their own spaces as a family. When we started it there was a whole other half of the experience I got to be part of, the tableside service. I really loved that. That’s the part I want to get back into little bit.
What can we look for this season (fall/winter)?
When hot pot started it was one set menu, but now I want to break it up so there’s a lot of options, for full pescatarians, full vegetarians or vegans, and an array of meats and options for broth so people can customize their experience.
Your new restaurant in is Jeju — a wood-fired, whole animal butchery that offers a customizable ssam experience, with beef, pork, lamb, seafood and locally sourced veggie fillings wrapped in leafy greens with various sauces and sides. What does whole-animal mean to you and why make this a focus?
Jeju has an amazing hearth and wood-fired oven. It has all the toys of a massive prep kitchen. Han Oak opened with a six-burner range and conventional oven. Sheer limitation kept us from being able to do everything, so we had to be creative. At Jeju we had to figure out a way to not have too many options, to narrow our scope and focus. I always wanted to work in whole-animal cooking. I did some in New York. It’s hard with the cost of meat to figure out a way to make it more sustainable — we source our protein from local Oregon ranches that focus on regenerative agriculture and sustainable practice. It requires a lot of labor, but it’s an amazing thing for us to be able to do.
There’s so much great Korean representation in the culinary world these days, from amazing restaurants and food carts to Oregon’s first Korean-owned winery and of course the rise of K-pop, K-dramas and Korean-directed movies. Any thoughts about this wave of popularity?
Yes! I think the previous generation of Korean Americans have been insular, kept to themselves. It’s been a giant shift in how I view myself. I see it as an intense change. It just took a new generation of Korean Americans who said “This is cool,” and shared it. I think it’s long overdue. Seeing kimchi on the grocery store shelves is wild.
It’s not just about your food at your restaurants. The vibe is a big part. Is this a conscious decision, or does it just evolve organically?
The vibe is definitely on our mind. People come in and adore the quirkiness of it. We work really hard. All we want is for people to come out, be nice, have a great time and think they got value for their money. For Portland and Oregon in general, we’re just so thankful for how small business-friendly the state of Oregon is.
