Online crowd-funding helped taco eatery open shop in Itaewon


For those who have not taken the moment to chat with the owners of Vatos Urban Tacos, it might be easy to chalk up the two-story brick-and-mortar establishment as another successful addition to Itaewon-dong’s ever-growing food scene.

Yet, Vatos is unique on two dimensions.

Certainly Vatos is not the first to bring Mexican food to Seoul, but its Californian-and-Korean spin on the taco is anything but stale. Even more fascinating is how co-owner Kenny Park went about accumulating cash to open the place.

Vatos, which, according to Park, means “homeboys” in Spanish, is an establishment that tapped a new business trend ― cyberspace crowd funding.
In the past, getting people to invest in a food venture was more limited, generally requiring generous friends, family members and face-to-face meetings with potential investors and the like.

Now, the Internet has opened up a new outlet for amassing finances, websites where entrepreneurs can post up projects that people can donate money to.

Park turned to Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com) as his crowd-funding site of choice. He posted his project as “Seoul Taco.”

With a relatively tight, three month-window to raise $12,500, the project went down to the wire, when just one week before Park’s deadline (if the goal is not met everything becomes moot), funds really started pouring in. 

Not only did Park raise $13,142, which was $642 over his target pledge and formed an approximate 15 percent chunk of all finances that went into the restaurant, he also found partner Juweon Kim, who came across Park’s Kickstarter video through a link, knew Park already, and jumped on board.

Kickstarter’s first successfully backed South Korea-based restaurant project, Vatos opened last November.

Though Kickstarter is based in New York City, of the 100 backers (a majority of whom Park knows) who donated to the enterprise, around 60 are located in South Korea, said Park.

In addition to showing gratitude to donors by offering small gifts like T-shirts and free meals, Park also posted updates and videos to keep supporters tuned into Vatos’ progress.

Now that Vatos has opened for business, the same sense of community that brought in funding has translated into the clientele. According to Park, “everyone that comes here knows someone.”

Hailing from southern California, Park wanted to bring the tacos he ate growing up in California to South Korea. Co-owner Kim wanted to bring his Texan background to the bar.

To keep the food and drinks fun and interesting, a Korean edge was added to several items, including the kimchi carnitas fries and the makgeolita.

Vatos tops their take on kimchi and fries (a combination of the two ingredients can also be found in Texas and Chicago) with seven-hour braised pork, sour cream, cilantro and onion. Aside from the kimchi carnitas fries, there is also a galbi short rib taco dressed in ssamjang aioli.

Vatos also serves seafood tacos, including a chili lime shrimp option that employs a chipotle mayonnaise dressing.

Park seems dedicated to maintaining an authentic spin on his tacos, which is probably why Vatos also offers traditional Mexican street versions and has the tortillas made in-house daily.

“We know what a taco should taste like,” he said.

By Jean Oh (oh_jean@heraldcorp.com)

Details

Vatos Urban Tacos is open Tuesdays to Fridays from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., and 5-10 p.m. (to 11 p.m. on Fridays), on Saturdays from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sundays from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. It is closed Mondays.

Two tacos cost 6,000-6,500 won, and three 8,000-9,000 won. Starters cost 2,500-7,500 won and drinks and beverages around 1,500-15,000 won. 

To get there go to Itaewon Subway Station Line 6, Exit 4. Walk up the hill to the first intersection and turn right. Walk straight for several blocks past The Wolfhound Irish pub. Vatos is the on the left on the second floor.

For more information call (02) 797-8226 or visit vatoskorea.com. Reservations recommended for dinner.