Kelsey Seo grew up eating her father’s sticky pizza, which he brought home every night from his job at Pizza Hut in Seoul, Korea. Back then, every family member complained that he’d eaten his pizza loaded with bulgogi and mashed sweet potatoes so much that the freezer was crammed with unfinished leftovers. But after Kelsey moved to New York City from Seoul five years ago, she couldn’t find anything resembling her father’s creations and soon began begging her appa for a piece of home.
In 2022, her father now oversees the kitchen at Appas Pizza, a Korean pizza joint in the East Village. This new pizzeria opened earlier this month by chef Yong Seo and SungJin Park, and assisted by Linda Wang of Ume Hospitality (behind Ume, a sushi restaurant in Williamsburg). It offers outstanding bulgogi and kimchi bacon pies, sumptuous Korean-style fries and risotto, and a drink menu featuring strawberry milk and imaginative lattes.
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While pizza has a turbulent history in Italy and New York, it’s relatively new to Korea. When pizza first appeared, many thought of it as a luxury food reserved for special occasions. Now, thirty years later, Korean pizza is popular abroad. Chains in Seoul like Mr. Pizza, Pizza Inn, and smaller craft shops have embraced pizza. Backed by novelty toppings and mentions in popular K-Dramas like Answer 1988 And It’s okay not to be okay – with a famous pizza shop in Seoul – people find various reasons to flock to Appa’s Pizza and Manhattan for a taste.
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Opened in late April, Appas Pizza at 210 First Avenue, near 13th Street, is a gem offering original pizza toppings and dishes in a saturated pizza market. The 10- or 14-inch pies are slightly smaller but softer and sweeter than New York-style pizza, with a texture and flavor profile similar to their fast-food roots. The pies are made with melted cheese sticks, a mashed sweet potato known as “golden crust,” and meaty toppings like bulgogi, sausage and shrimp or rotisserie chicken. One pie even includes a base sauce of kimchi and thick-cut bacon, a popular combination that’s similar to samgyeopsal, or fatty pork belly and kimchi.
Before Appas, Manhattan didn’t have its own Korean pizza place. Others in New York have tried to highlight this regional food. Consider Mokja Chicken & Pizza in Astoria, which offers sweet potatoes and spicy gochujang chicken pies, or Pizza Maru in Bayside, a Korean-style kalbi-steak pizzeria that closed for good in 2020. But Appa’s Pizza stands out as a restaurant dedicated to Korean pizza, drawing on the experience and personal recipes of Chef Yong’s Pizza Hut.
Kelsey’s father, Chef Yong Seo, has spent twenty years honing his craft. Seo joined the ranks of Pizza Hut in Itaewon, a chain that first opened in Korea in 1985. (Domino’s and Mr. Pizza followed suit in 1990.) During his time at Pizza Hut, he worked his way through a variety of roles. He first trained as a prep chef, taught other chefs how to make pizza, and eventually began managing franchises and designing the menu. In 2016, he left his 18-year-old home as a pizza maker and moved to the United States to support Kelsey and her studies.
Jenn Bak, a food content creator named @jennerous_eats, first visited Appa’s Pizza two weeks ago and was touched by Yong’s story and the service. “The shrimp and sausage dish was my favorite because it reminded me of when I was in Korea for five weeks,” says Bak. “It’s a taste I miss.”
The opening of Appas Pizza was not without obstacles. Not every team member was initially convinced that Appa’s pizza was a good idea. And just as the restaurant was due to open in October 2022, Yong suffered a stroke and was paralyzed for four months. The family was devastated and considered postponing the project, but with his family’s support, Yong returned to the kitchen.
It’s only been a few weeks since it opened, but Appa’s Pizza has already attracted a steady stream of customers via social media, word of mouth, and foot traffic from passersby curious about its buttery yellow polka dot interior and loud K-pop soundtrack.
“I’m so lucky to have brought my childhood here and to share it with everyone in New York City,” says Kelsey. “This is something I never thought would happen.”
Jess Eng is a food and culture writer. She is a regular contributor to The Washington Post, Epicurious, Resy, Atlas Obscura and more, and has produced podcasts with the Southern Foodways Alliance. Follow her on Instagram @goudatalks.
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