He got his groove back, as he puts it, with a managerial role at a friend’s restaurant. “I ended up putting everything on hold for a year and a half,” Ahn recalls. Ahn says that he’s inspired by the multicultural influences he soaked up living in LA until he moved to DC after college to work on the Hill.Īfter nearly a decade in government, he was already transitioning to the private sector when a health crisis pushed him to change paths. Though Ahn was born in Korea (since opening the restaurant, he learned that his parents shared their first home together in the city of Incheon), his family moved to the Los Angeles area when he was a year old. Why don’t we all just become beige? That’s how I cook.” Chef Justin Ahn’s cuisine goes beyond borders. “I’m a big proponent of being beige,” he continues.

“I happen to be cooking Korean food right now,” he’ll correct customers. I’m talking about Incheon Restaurant, the fusion eatery that has sprung from the imagination of 34-year-old chef Justin Ahn.Īhn may have named his restaurant with managing partner Brandon Kim after the city that’s host to Korea’s biggest airport, but don’t mistake Incheon for a Korean restaurant. But it’s in an Annandale strip mall with ample parking. In this economic climate? If anything, it sounds like big-city stuff, the type of meal you might luck into in an undiscovered corner of Los Angeles. Picture this: a tasting-menu restaurant where you get seven courses for $60.

Korean restaurant town cheesy ribs