On the same night that Kim Jong Grillin’ won the judges award at Eat Mobile, the owners were notified that the cart was on fire. Details are sketchy at the moment as to the cause, but this is truly a sad event for both the owners and those of us who love the carts. Han Li Hwang sent out the following regarding both Eat Mobile and the fire:
“To loyal patrons of Kim Jong Grillin’, we would like to once again thank you for your business over the past 10 months. As many of you know, KJG was fortunate enough to participate in Willamette Weeks Eat Mobile event this past weekend. We really enjoyed the experience, seeing many familiar faces and meeting many knew ones as well. And, to top things off, we were extremely honored and humbled to win the judges choice award for best food.
Portland is such a great food city, and to be recognized by our peers for doing what we love to do has made all the long days and nights of hard work seem so worth it. Thank you once again.
Unfortunately our celebration was cut short. Just a few hours after finishing up the Eat Mobile event, we received a call informing us that our cart was on fire. As you can imagine, this was heartbreaking news, and it really put a damper on what was probably our best day as a business yet. While we are collecting details, fire inspector reports and dealing with insurance, we will unfortunately not be able to open. There is substantial damage to the cart, and we are not currently sure if it is repairable. We do know this: Kim Jong Grillin’ will rise like a phoenix from these ashes and bring you even more of the food our loyal patrons have come to love, and our new found friends are so curious to try. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for updates as we hope to expedite this grueling process as quickly as possible.
Once again, thank you to all who have made this past year so worth it, and we look forward to serving you again as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Han Ly Hwang
Dana Fairweather
and the staff at Kim Jong Grillin’
Sad news. We know they will return and as we have done when other carts have challenges, I know the Portland food cart community will come together some how to help them out. We’ll keep you posted if we hear more.
Hat tip to Willamette Week for breaking this story.
This is so terrible! Please keep us posted on what we can do to help I hope they’re back up and running soon
Yes, please let us know what we can do to help!
I too would like to extend my help to Han Li (Kim Jong) please let me know what you might need, went by last night and took a look the out side looked fine i assume the damage was isolated to the inside.
kim Jong Grillin’ Facebook
UPDATE
Dear Everyone, Thank you for the well wishes and comments. We miss you all too! So, with that being said, I have news. The cart is gone and will not be coming back. Unfortunately the timing is what killed it…
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