Minhwa is the Korean word for folk art, the paintings that belonged to everyday households rather than only the upper class. It’s a fitting name for what Ming-Han Chung and James Kim are building.
The two Atlanta-born Georgia Tech grads opened Minhwa Spirits in Doraville in 2024, and its tasting room became a place where local chefs tried out ideas through pop-ups and collaborations. Early next year, the restaurant and bar side of the business moves to the former Aziza space at Westside Provisions District, a roughly 4,000-square-foot venue with an open kitchen, a lounge, a patio, and a corner for DJs.
The expansion has been a long time coming. “While we started by making soju in bottles to really experience our ethos, we knew from day one that we always wanted a space where we could have guests come in to try our products and share in our journey,” the co-founders said.
Chung and Kim are also betting on a neighborhood some diners have soured on. “Despite what all the comments about West Midtown might paint, we really believe in the future of the neighborhood and the businesses there,” they said, adding that the free validated parking next door was “a definite deciding factor.”
Head chef Jess Kim, most recently of Aria, will run the main kitchen with small plates and dishes made for sharing, much of it cooked over wood fire. The dish she points to first is the Minhwa King Galbi: a short rib off the fire, surrounded by roasted bone marrow, mushroom relish, black garlic ssamjang, lettuces, and pickles for building your own wraps. “It’s not just something you eat; it’s something you participate in and share,” she said.
Kim wants the food to taste familiar to anyone who grew up eating Korean cooking and still feel approachable to first-timers. “I’m more interested in respecting the foundation while giving myself room to reinterpret it.”
On your way into the Junho Choi-designed dining room, you’ll likely pass something more casual. Chef Lino Yi is reviving TKO (The Korean One), the Korean American street-food spot he once ran at Southern Feedstore in East Atlanta Village, as a counter-service stall of its own. “I thought that chapter of my life was done,” he said. “It’s amazing to see people still interested and wanting it to come back. With all the support, how could I say no to this amazing opportunity?”
The KFC (Korean fried chicken) sandwich, smash burger, and Cheesy Kimchi Fried Rice are all coming back, joined by grilled Korean taquitos and a Hot Honey KFC Sandwich. Yi plans to keep TKO quick and affordable, with late-night hours on weekends.
Behind the bar, beverage director James Sung, most recently of Palo Santo and Umi, wants to change how Atlanta drinks soju. Most people know it as the fruit-flavored green bottle, if they know it at all, usually drunk straight or knocked back as a shot. Minhwa’s Yong Original Soju is made from rice and nuruk (a traditional fermentation starter) with no added sweeteners. Sung calls it a cocktail soju: good on its own, even better in a drink.
Sung thinks soju is where tequila once was, unfamiliar to most drinkers until enough bartenders started to incorporate it. “I can go to any number of Italian restaurants and get a margarita, but no one really bats an eye that you’re mixing Italian cuisine with a Mexican spirit,” he says. “However, I’ve yet to go to an Italian restaurant that has a soju cocktail on the menu, but there really is no reason why there couldn’t be.”
Expect clarified drinks, tea pairings, and foams. For a first round, Sung suggests Mom’s Backyard Garden, which splits its base between Yong and Minhwa’s Queen Huh Gin and adds cucumber-lime cordial, perilla, and yuja, or the Simple and Clean, a clarified lychee martini topped with a seasonal foam. You really can’t go wrong at the bar—Minhwa’s soju has the hardware to back it up, including a 2025 Best in Class at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
In the background, expect a soundtrack featuring artists from across the Asian diaspora, with local DJs spinning live sets, at a mindful volume where tables can still talk. “As much as I miss Club Row on Crescent Ave back in the day, we’re not trying to bring back Vision or Opera,” Sung said.
Sung sees Minhwa as part of a shift that’s already underway. Most of metro Atlanta’s Korean restaurants are run by first-generation immigrants who excel at traditional cooking, he said, and only now are second-generation and Korean American owners starting to open places built on more contemporary flavors and methods.
Ten years down the line, Sung would like Minhwa to be part of the conversation about who brought modern Korean hospitality to Atlanta. The first milestone is opening day, which licensing, construction, and permitting will decide. Current plans call for dinner Tuesday through Sunday at 1170 Howell Mill Road, with weekend brunch to follow once the kitchen finds its rhythm.
Whatever you’re craving—a late-night KFC sandwich at the counter or a long galbi dinner with soju—Chung and Kim want the new space to be somewhere people come to gather and connect. Minhwa, after all, means art for everyday people.
