Axios Finish Line

July 01, 2025
Welcome back! Axios' Carly Mallenbaum is at the helm, reporting on the rise of Korean cuisine in America's fine dining and street food scenes.
- Smart Brevity™ count: 382 words … 1½ mins. Copy edited by Amy Stern.
1 big thing: Korean food sweeps America
Korean food — ranging from the fine cuisine that wins chefs James Beard awards to the gooey corn dog cheese pulls trending on TikTok — is surging in popularity across America.
- The big picture: Although most Asian restaurants in America serve Chinese, Japanese or Thai food, there's clearly an appetite for more Korean restaurants, Carly Mallenbaum writes.
🇰🇷 Catch up quick: First came Korean fried chicken. Then, kimchi turned into a go-to condiment, and ready-to-use Korean barbecue sauces hit shelves, says Tim Fires, president of global food service at market research firm Circana. "The spicy and sweet flavor profile really resonates."
- Now you can buy Korean corn dogs at Costco. "That's when you know it's hit mainstream."
By the numbers: In 2024, there was a 10% increase in the number of Korean restaurants in the U.S., per Circana data.
- And the number of fast food chains that offer Korean fried chicken and corn dogs has increased by about 15% each from last year.
- Meanwhile, Korean fine dining establishments are also taking off.
📈 Zoom in: Two Hands Corn Dogs is one of the biggest Korean food chains in the U.S.
- It opened its first store in California in 2019, and now has more than 70 national locations.
"Before the increased popularity of Korean culture in the U.S., I wanted to introduce urbanized Korean street food to friends and colleagues in America," CEO Paul Yoo tells Axios.
- "For me, (eating a Korean corn dog) invokes ... the good old days of earning allowances from parents for a quick bite with friends at the local fair after school," he says.
🍽️ What we're watching: As Korean cuisine gains traction in more U.S. cities, expect to see more inventive fusion flavors on the menu, like the crawfish fried rice at a Creole-tinged Korean spot in New Orleans, and Korean beef tacos at a Korean Mexican restaurant in Detroit.
⛰️ Parting shot!

This shot of Pyramid Lake in Jasper, Alberta, Canada, was snapped by reader Steve Ward while on vacation last week.
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