Edward Lee to open new Korean venue

First on Courier Journal: Louisville chef Edward Lee to open new Korean venue


3 hours ago — After nearly 30 years in the restaurant world, Louisville chef Edward Lee is finally opening a Korean restaurant right here in Louisville.

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After nearly 30 years in the restaurant world, Louisville chef Edward Lee is finally opening a Korean restaurant right here in Louisville.

"The restaurant business is sometimes about timing," Lee said, "and a hunch tells me the timing is right in Louisville."

The new restaurant, "Nami," is set to open in a brand-new six-story retail and apartment complex near downtown Louisville at 835 E. Main St. Lee said he aims to open the restaurant in March 2023.

The famed James Beard Award-nominated Korean-American chef, owner of 610 Magnolia and Whiskey Dry in Louisville and culinary director of Succotash in Washington, D.C., hand-picked a chef for Nami from his own staff.

Breanna Baker, who began at 610 Magnolia as an intern and worked her way up to sous chef, will become the executive chef at Nami. Yeon-Hee Chung, a Korean chef who previously ran Charim Korean Restaurant, will also serve on the chef staff.

The 6,000-square-foot, two-story restaurant will have a traditional, refined restaurant space downstairs and Korean grill tables upstairs, Lee said, as well as a private karaoke room. Lee said the restaurant menu is still in development but will be "progressive Korean food."

Celebrity chef Edward Lee owns 610 Magnolia in Louisville at 610 Magnolia Ave., among other restaurants.
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And he is supremely confident in his chef team.

"Breanna was a graduate of the Lee Initiative and has been doing incredible work," Lee said. "She really has a fire inside her and it's been nice to see her blossom. With Yeon-He, we struck up a friendship during COVID and did a Korean pop-up for over a month. She'll do the more traditional flavors and Breonna will lead the more cutting-edge things ... and hopefully my vision in the middle kind of guides it all."

감사합니다 (Thanks You) Chef Lee!

I’ve long missed Charim, glad to see she has found what sounds like a great opportunity. Also smart of Chef Lee to tap her experience with traditional Korean fare. I look forward to this place.

Super exciting! My wife has been looking for a place with tteokbokki, so I'll be excited to see a menu when things get further along!

Was honored to attend the soft opening of Nami last Saturday, and what a true treat it was. Virtually every dish was a solid hit, and the few weak spots should be easy to correct. The cocktail program from Stacie Stewart was an inventive standout, in particular.

A sampling of the dishes tasted: Shrimp dumplings with Korean chili sauce packed plenty of wallop for this spice wuss, while the variety of kim chi (including beet and fennel) was pleasantly varied, dimensional in flavor, and distinctive without scaring me away. A salmon handroll was the stuff of dreams. Crispy snapper was truly fantastic, possibly my favorite of all the dishes. A noodle dish with a medley of seafood (forgive the last week's impact on my ability to recall specific names) was a hit with the entire table: flavorful, ample and fresh seafood, and toothsome noodles would bring me back in a heartbeat. My tofu kimbap was certainly delicious, but couldn't compare with how wonderful the noodles and the snapper were. (Note that may have been due to user error, as I was so lost in conversation and the experience that I neglected to add any of the varied banchan elements to the dish!) A vegetarian offering of eggplant and mushroom had pleasant flavor but some executional challenges. While not an absolute no, I would be hard pressed to order it again soon with so much menu to explore. I'd be interested to re-try it once they've worked the kinks out, though. Of the desserts, the chocolate bread was memorably perfect, rich and complex enough to be satisfying when shared, in the very best of "a little goes a long way."

I wish I had thought to snap photos of food and menu, but I was honestly so excited to be there I just stayed present in the moment and drank it all in. Highly recommend exploring it yourself for your next adventurous night out.

[Robin Garr]

Laura, thanks for the review! Mmm, sounds goood.