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    Catching Up With Kenny Kim: fRESHsTREET Returns for the Weekend

    fRESHsTREET, the husband-wife duo famous for one of the first noteworthy food truck/pop-up ventures in Columbus, will be back in town this weekend following a three year absence from the city.

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    Sadly, they’re not here to stay, but the masterminds behind Foodie Cart and Section 8 Yakitorium will be setting up shop at The Commissary July 24 – 26, with three consecutive culinary events. We caught up with Kenny Kim to see what he and wife Misako Ohba have been doing, and what their current future beholds.

    What have you and Misako been up to lately? Seems from your Instagram you’ve been traveling all over the place.

    We’ve been spending time enjoying each other’s company. We’ve also been trying to see as much of the world as possible and working in different kitchens to make ends meet. We wanted to travel a bit before we were too old to party. We currently live in the Hillcrest District in San Diego. It’s 30 minutes from Tijuana and two hours from Los Angeles. We just came back from a culinary adventure in Japan while visiting Misako’s family that she hadn’t seen for seven years, and I just had my wisdom tooth removed right before a taco tour in Mexico. So we’ve been in three very different countries in the last month or so.

    Tell me a little more about what you have planned for this weekend. Are you excited to be back at The Commissary for a bit?

    This weekend started off being a dinner for Commissary kickstarter pledgers and has evolved into something quite special. We had over 20 local chefs, food bloggers, and foodies volunteer to help us out, and it’s becoming this unique string of events that is becoming more of a collaboration. We want to have some of these local chefs put their own spin on some of our menu selections and see what happens. We will be running three consecutive events with three different themes.

    The first event is Friday, July 24 from 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. This will be our Japanese Backyard BBQ Party. This event will have a family bbq vibe and will be filled with items like salty caramel corn on the cob, lobster with béchamel sauce, grilled whole scallop, loaded okonomiyaki baked potatoes, and lots of other yummy stuff. The second event is Saturday, July 25 from 6pm-9pm. This event is our Japanese taco shop dinner.  This dinner will consist of yakitori and kushiage (fried skewers), tacos, teppanyaki burritos, BBQ eel rice burgers, and other fun foods.

    The last event is a Japanese-American diner brunch held from 11 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. The first seating is between 11 a.m. – 1 p.m., and the second seating is 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.. This event will have a lot of your American breakfast staples with a Japanese twist. Like pork char Sui hash, miso jalapeño hash browns, azuki mascarpone French toast, Japanese custard pancakes, teriyaki steak & eggs and other items similar to this. Familiar, but different as well.

    Any plans to resurrect any of your old favorite dishes this weekend?

    Our menu is designed around what we know so far about the facility at the commissary so most of our old staples will not be made there. All new stuff for the most part. Same flavor tho.

    Do you two have any plans to open another food cart or restaurant in the future? 

    As for new business ventures, we are testing these pop-up events as potential ideas to open so we’ll have a better idea after this weekend. We are definitely going to open another business. We have learned a lot from our experiences with food carts, pop-ups/residencies and we’re ready to do some next level shit. We also choose what concept we want to open based on the layout of the real estate so it’s hard to say exactly what we will want to open until we find a specific piece of property.

    Tickets for each event can be purchased at www.thecommissarycolumbus.com.

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    Rebecca Wagner
    Rebecca Wagnerhttps://columbusunderground.com
    Rebecca Wagner is a former staff writer at Columbus Underground who reported on local food and restaurant news. She's a graduate of Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism.
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