Sometimes you have to subtract in order to add, or so says local entrepreneur Munsok So.
So is the founder of So Hospitality Group, which includes the Drunken Fish restaurants, located in the Central West End and Westport Plaza—and, until last week, at Ballpark Village and in Kansas City’s Power & Light District.
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So also owns Kimchi Guys, a Korean fried chicken concept that he launched on Laclede’s Landing two years ago inside the Cutlery Building, which he owns (a second Kimchi Guys opened near Wash U. in October). His event venue, 612North Event Space + Catering, is located in the same building.
This weekend, despite having to stay atop the rash of four-course “Drunken Love” Valentine’s Weekend dinners, So revealed plans about a new project in Edwardsville that will include a new Drunken Fish location and a third location of Kimchi Guys. The building is situated across Highway 157 from Southern Illinois University–Edwardsville, in a new development called Trace on The Parkway, in the same plaza as a handful of other restaurants, including Doc’s BBQ, Goshen Coffee, Oaxaca, the relocated 1818 Chophouse, and Mike Del Pietro’s Blue Violet, slated to open in May. Nearby is the relocated Peel Wood Fired Pizza, which opened last week.
So says he’s excited to own and design the 11,000-square-foot building. Rather than having to retrofit an existing space, “I can build both restaurants [Drunken Fish and Kimchi Guys] exactly the way I want and need, including having an enclosed patio for [Drunken] Fish,” he says. “Despite the Edwardsville area being on fire,” he adds, “there aren’t that many Asian concepts near us.” Both restaurants are slated to open in mid-2023.
Regarding the recent Drunken Fish closures, So notes that the Ballpark Village location closed a week after the pandemic hit. With downtown offices remaining idle and baseball crowds nonexistent in 2020, So chose not to reopen. With limited baseball attendance in 2021, the situation “did not improve that much,” he says. “The landlord here also controlled our lease at the Power & Light District, where we were doing well, but there was also pressure to open at BPV, when it didn’t make sense to do so.”
So decided to let go of the Power & Light location and not reopen at Ballpark Village. “I’ll miss the KC location for sure,” he says, “but having a store 25 minutes away [in Edwardsville] is far better than having one four hours away.”
