Once we decided that the space that housed Noodle Bar was going to turn into Ko, we needed to figure out what that meant exactly.
Noodle Bar was a mess that turned into a success; it went from a failing ramen bar to a place so busy we needed to triple its size to keep it from imploding. And at Ssäm Bar, we put more thought into where we’d put the over-sized John McEnroe poster in the dining room than into who would want to dine on what we were serving in that room. Turning that around meant turning the restaurant’s concept on its head.