Member-only story
My Favorite Korean Restaurant Was One of the Only Ties to My Heritage
Now it’s closed
I opened my phone’s browser app, prepared to dial in a pickup order for Saturday night. A busy day of adulting around Overland Park, Kansas, left me with zero energy for grocery shopping or cooking, but the growling in my stomach warned me I had little time to stave off an irritable mood.
My thumb drew a haphazard path across the screen, typing in the name of my favorite Korean restaurant. When “Sobahn” appeared at the top of the search results, I clicked, eager to recite my usual order and hear the familiar, “See you in 10–15 minutes,” on the other end.
Instead of the menu and phone number, though, I saw a large banner with big bold letters. “Thank you for your support! We are permanently closed.”
My mood sank as my stomach grumbled in protest. Sobahn is just another name added to the long list of small businesses and family-operated restaurants that couldn’t weather the Covid-19 storm.
I mentally kicked myself for not dialing in an order sooner — after all, they had just closed a few days prior and the pain of missing out by such a small margin added insult to injury. I thought of the family that owned the restaurant. From the matriarch multi-tasking in the kitchen to the energetic older man…
