Born Curious

Click here for a unique story of a booming small business that is becoming a cultural force.

Roy Choi is the poster boy for 2010.
Bold ethnic flavors combined with a beloved classic – check.
Giving fans information via social networking sites – check.
Building a sense of discovery and adventure into a $2 expenditure – check – and SO smart.
Open to big brand opportunities but willing to walk away from some in order to stay true to your vision – check.

Have you tried one of these? Do your friends in LA talk about these tacos incessantly?

Roy Choi has achieved unlikely success before: He turned “Korean tacos,” served from a truck, into one of the most talked-about food trends of last year. Now, the 39-year-old, Tupac Shakur-quoting chef is aiming to prove that his street-food success was no fluke and that his unique culinary persona—part flavor-fusion visionary, part classically trained chef, part street rebel—can change the future of food.

Mr. Choi’s company, Kogi, started in late 2008 as one mobile food truck that parked outside nightclubs on Sunset Boulevard late at night, selling Mexican tacos stuffed with Korean-style meat. Within three months, it began drawing crowds of hundreds and soon added more trucks. The company used Twitter to alert customers to trucks’ locations.

Today Kogi, with four trucks and one outlet in an L.A.-area nightclub, has nearly 52,000 Twitter followers. Scion, a division of Toyota, recently paid $90,000 to custom-build Kogi a car outfitted with a grill, sink and refrigerator. Mr. Choi says he will use it to cook “amuse bouches,” or hors d’oeuvres, for people waiting in line for Kogi.

The new, still unnamed restaurant won’t use the Kogi name, Mr. Choi says, and he doesn’t plan to serve the taco. Instead he will try to update the rice bowl. The food, he says, will be inexpensive enough that people who normally eat McDonald’s can afford it.