{"id":430,"date":"2018-10-26T12:17:50","date_gmt":"2018-10-26T19:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/?p=999923618"},"modified":"2018-10-26T12:17:50","modified_gmt":"2018-10-26T19:17:50","slug":"seoulmate-closed-korean-fusion-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/food\/seoulmate-closed-korean-fusion-food","title":{"rendered":"Seoulmate to close Nov. 17 after serving up five years of Korean fusion food"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Seoulmate, the pink shack on Seventh Street that took over a tired Mosher&#8217;s, will close up shop on November 17 after serving Long Beach its Korean fusion creations for five years.<\/p>\n<p>The owners made the announcement via Facebook, claiming they will be looking for another spot but until that spot arrives, operations are no longer feasible:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FSeoulmateLBC%2Fposts%2F1070215043157443%3A0&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"638\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Opening in November of 2013, the tiny-but-mighty spot served up what some of the city&#8217;s first Asian fusion grub, creating offerings like beef bulgogi tacos (that almost compared to Kogi&#8217;s) and spicy pork belly burritos filled with kimchi and lime rice.<\/p>\n<p>On top of this, the place was affordable\u2014dishes never hit above $12\u2014and its cozy environment created a Long Beach-specific vibe:\u00a0Every dish was served to-go, even if patrons intended on eating right then and there. With no indoor seating, Seoulmate\u2019s kitchen sat behind an ordering window, overlooking the picket-fence patio of seven small tables.<\/p>\n<p>While owner Jason Kang has yet to return comment for this piece, his farewell&#8217;s odd sense of self-deprecation\u2014&#8221;I hope you guys know that although we might not have made everyone happy&#8230;&#8221;\u2014is paired with the fact that Kang just opened up his ramen spot, Mr. Makato at 2741 E. Fourth Street where Yummy Garden used to be.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, it remains unclear if Kang is simply burnt out\u2014understandable\u2014or focused on making Makato as successful as possible, or perhaps faced <a href=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/life\/food\/spot-cafe-belmont-shore-closes-rising-rents\/\">a similar situation to that of Spot Cafe<\/a>, being served with a rent hike that was unfeasible.<\/p>\n<p>Either way, Long Beach is definitely going to miss those burritos.<\/p>\n<p><em>Brian Addison is a columnist and editor for the Long Beach Post.\u00a0<\/em><em>Reach him at\u00a0brian@lbpost.com or on social media at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BrianAddisonLB\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/BrianAddisonLB\">Twitter<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.instagram.com\/BrianAddisonLB\">Instagram<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/brianaddison\/\">LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seoulmate, the pink shack on Seventh Street that took over a tired Mosher&#8217;s, will close up shop on Nov. 17 after serving Long Beach its Korean fusion creations for five years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":65955,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[139],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-restaurant-closure","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}