Things are starting to get cooking at Anaheim\u2019s OCVibe. The $4-billion, 100-acre redevelopment project, backed by Henry and Susan Samueli, recently announced chef, restaurateur and author Debbie Lee will open two new culinary concepts at the mixed-use space\u2019s food hall.<\/p>\n
Based in Orange County, Lee was a Season 5 \u201cNext Food Network Star\u201d finalist and the author of \u201cSeoultown Kitchen,\u201d which showcases her modern Korean gastro-pub cooking. Her two concepts, Pado and Mokja, will open within the ambitious entertainment and housing project\u2019s 50,000-square-foot market hall. Lee is the first culinary partner revealed to be involved with the food hall.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s something electric about being the first chef invited to help define a district like OCVibe,\u201d Lee said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Pado will be a Korean-inspired seafood and raw bar serving crudo, sashimi and coastal small plates that blend Lee\u2019s Korean cuisine with fresh California produce, while Mokja will specialize in Korean street food, breakfast sandwiches and specialty coffee beverages.<\/p>\n
\u201cPado and Mokja each carry pieces of my heritage, and to bring both concepts to a place as thoughtfully imagined as OCVibe feels incredibly special,\u201d said Lee. \u201cI\u2019m thrilled to be part of its foundation and share Korean cuisine with the countless visitors and locals who will help make Anaheim a true culinary destination.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A rendering of OCVibe\u2019s 50,000-square-foot market hall in Anaheim. <\/p>\n
(Courtesy of OCVibe)<\/p>\n
Rather than implementing a traditional landlord-tenant structure, OCVibe has created a culinary partnership model that aims to remove financial and operational barriers that prevent restaurant ownership for small business.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost chefs spend half their time fighting battles with leases, construction, equipment, marketing and operations before they ever get to focus on cooking, but at OCVibe those hurdles are lifted,\u201d said Lee, who operated Ahn-Joo, a Korean street food kiosk, at the Americana at Brand in Glendale from 2011 to 2012.<\/p>\n
The market hall will be deigned to receive foot traffic with a connection to OCVibe\u2019s larger plaza as well as the Urban Park and the Weave, a mixed-use mass timber office building.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur vision for the market hall is one of partnership, not tenancy,\u201d said Morell Marean, chief operating officer of OCVibe, in a statement. \u201cBy eliminating financial barriers and providing the critical infrastructure, we\u2019re empowering chefs like Debbie Lee to take creative leaps that might not be possible elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s \u2018OCVibe Unveiled\u2019 <\/a>event in September announced the addition of A Restaurant<\/a>, a dining concept from River Jetty Restaurant Group partners, Joseph \u201cMcG\u201d Nichol and Jordan Otterbein to OCVibe\u2019s Restaurant Row, as well as the revival of the iconic Orange County music venue, the Golden Bear. The culinary destination and late night entertainment venue will be among the 21 chef-driven concepts and six bars in the works at OCVibe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Things are starting to get cooking at Anaheim\u2019s OCVibe. The $4-billion, 100-acre redevelopment project, backed by Henry and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,8566,9789,40509,40513,14300,40516,40514,21437,40512,40511,10111,40510,40517,40515,3025],"class_list":["post-68302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-chef","tag-concept","tag-cookbook-author-debbie-lee","tag-culinary-concept","tag-equipment","tag-korean-cuisine","tag-korean-street-food","tag-lee","tag-market-hall","tag-mokja","tag-ocvibe","tag-pado","tag-raw-bar","tag-restaurant-ownership","tag-statement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}