Del Seoul Expanding Next Door; Adding Menu Items

Come May, Lincoln Parkers will get twice as much Del Seoul. The Korean BBQ street food joint received construction permits over the weekend from the city and will start work this week building out the recently vacated storefront next door. The work will take about two months, according to owner Irene Jeon.

Eventually, Del Seoul will close for about a week or so to knock down the wall between the two spaces and expand their dining room. They currently can seat about 20 to 25 diners and that number may double to 50. Depending on how long the work takes, Del Seoul may be closed longer, Jeon said. In addition to the dining room expansion, she said they're getting much-needed kitchen prep space, more refrigeration and overall more assembly space for their dishes.

"We definitely need more kitchen space and can benefit from having more tables for dine-in customers," Jeon said. "It's a small restaurant now. It's a good opportunity and it may have been the only opportunity to do this. We tried to seize it while we could."

Del Seoul will also add new menu items, which are currently under development. Jeon they're focusing on adding more sharable dishes, but aren't exactly sure what the final products will be. But will Del Seoul become BYOB? "If I can help it, no," Jeon said. "Considering it's such a low price, casual eatery, BYO would bring ... we'd have to make a lot of menu changes due to low turnover. It doesn't go along with our casual street food concept."

Del Seoul [Photo: Uncouthed]