Like so many other people in the spring of 2020 — right as COVID-19 was becoming a pandemic — KFire co-owners Ben Kim and Eddie Hwang didn’t imagine it would take longer than a couple of weeks to go “back to normal.”
“They handed us the keys to start construction in March and at that time, no one really knew what the pandemic was, so Eddie and I were like, oh it’ll probably be over in two weeks, right?” Kim said with a laugh. “We asked our landlord ‘hey, is this something we should be worried about — a lot of people are just halting opening businesses.’ But everyone said ‘No, this will be over in a month.’”
Kim and Hwang proceeded to open their Logan Square fast-casual restaurant specializing in authentic traditional Korean BBQ in July 2020 — while many existing restaurants were in the throes of pivoting their entire business model.
They’ve now hit the five-year mark and are one of the many pandemic-born restaurants in Chicago being honored by Grubhub’s Established 2020 program for reaching the milestone.
“This program is our way of saying thank you to the entrepreneurs who took a big risk during the pandemic and created something meaningful,” said Lisa Belot, director of corporate affairs at Grubhub. “Their stories show that resilience isn’t just about getting through tough times, it’s about building something even stronger.”
The inaugural award recognizes 31 small business restaurants from 25 different neighborhoods across Chicago. So far, Grubhub is rolling out Established 2020 in Chicago only, with no public plans to explore the program in other cities.
Belot said the program was designed to be inclusive, with as few hurdles as possible for the restaurant owners interested in submitting their story for a chance to win $2,500.
“If the Chicago restaurant scene is doing well, we see that as a sign of success for Grubhub. So we want everybody — whether a restaurant is on our platform or not — to be able to participate,” Belot said. “It was open to any small business, restaurant in Chicago who opened a physical location in 2020, and is still open today. That was really it.”
Grubhub asked businesses for proof of a business license in 2020 and that they paid taxes on their business in 2024. More importantly, organizers with the online food ordering platform wanted to know how restaurant owners would use the financial awards.
Belot said most of the award recipients plan to reinvest in their operation by hiring more staff, upgrading kitchen equipment, refreshing dining spaces and expanding marketing efforts to attract more clientele.
Kim and Hwang are among four restaurant owners who will receive $5,000 to invest back into their businesses, in part because of their partnership and help in rolling out the Established 2020 award with Grubhub, Belot said.
For Kim and Hwang, one thing that played in their favor during the pandemic was that KFire’s concept was heavily based on a quicker way to have Korean BBQ, but take-out only wasn’t the ideal way to introduce it to a new clientele.
“Our biggest struggle was we were a brand new concept. We weren’t pizza, fried chicken or cheeseburgers,” Hwang said. “It was Korean barbecue — 1% of the world knows what that is. Us trying to be like, ‘Hey, can you come eat us instead of all the cheeseburger and pizza places you guys have to order from,’ was more of a struggle for us right away.”
Other issues such as staffing and social distancing requirements exacerbated the challenges of operating a new business, Kim added.
“When COVID was going around, you didn’t know if people were going to be able to make it to work — whether they had symptoms or were exposed — everyone was scared,” Kim said. “There was also a lot of uncertainty around interacting with customers.”
Kim, who has more than 30 years of restaurant experience, said running a business during those volatile times was new for everyone.
“It didn’t really matter how much experience you had in the industry — it was a totally different game,” he said.
Korean BBQ restaurant KFire seen on June 2, 2025. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)Hwang said they tried to home in on things that were especially important to the overall eating experience — such as plating food quickly while it’s hot and trying to keep the food warm as long as possible, which meant reevaluating take-out containers and packaging techniques.
And learning how to work together in a highly stressful environment was invaluable, he said. In 2023, Kim and Hwang opened the second KFire location in Old Town.
“For the last five years, every other week was something different, like one day you’re all ‘Oh, I think it’s gonna be good.’ And then, Tuesday comes — you’re like, just kidding. That has been on repeat since we opened,” Kim said. “We’ve definitely figured out that both of us have very strong wills and the adaptability between us has definitely helped us come to where we are now.”
The full list of Established 2020 Award restaurant recipients includes:
- 10Q Chicken — Evanston
- 14 Parish Restaurant and Rhum Bar — Hyde Park
- Afro Joe’s Coffee & Tea — Beverly
- Alynia Zushi & Karaoke Lounge — Bridgeport
- Basant Modern Indian — North Center
- Beautiful Rind — Logan Square
- Big League Burgers — Irving Park
- CheSa’s Bistro & Bar — Avondale
- Dirty Tiff’s Cafe — Bronzeville
- Doma — Near North
- Doughboy’s Chicago — Bronzeville
- Eathai — Logan Square
- Evette’s — Lincoln Park
- Flippin Flavors — Beverly
- Ground Up Cafe — River North
- Kapitan — Lincoln Park
- KFire — Logan Square
- Khepri Cafe — Albany Park
- Kimberli Sushi and Thai Cuisine — Lincoln Square
- La Parrilla Latin Food — Dunning
- Lexington Betty Smoke House — Pullman
- Monkey King Jianbing — Skokie
- Musashiya Ramen — Lakeview East
- Pastores and Brunch — Roscoe Village
- Polombia — The Loop
- Side Practice Coffee — Ravenswood
- Silk Road of Chicago — The Loop
- Similan Thai and Sushi Restaurant — Edgewater
- Tamales Rebe — West Lawn
- Tastee Rolls 2 — Chatham
- Thai Pastry Restaurant — Uptown
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