Dong Min Won always wanted to be an artist.

But a phone call 22 years ago changed his plans when he answered his parents’ call for help at their Portland restaurant.

He’s never looked back, and Tri-City Korean barbecue fans can be thankful for that.

Won — a restaurant entrepreneur who has owned and run Gangnam Style BBQ in Kennewick since 2017 — recently opened a second location, Gang Nam Korean BBQ & Table Top Grill, at 1275 Lee Blvd. in Richland.

The restaurants are named after a district in Seoul known for a certain culture and style of cooking.

Won said the time was right for a second restaurant.

“We were successful in the first one,” he said. “Once I opened the first one, I had always planned to open a second one in Richland.”

For more than four years, Won spent his spare time searching for the right spot — which turned out to be inside a former Key Bank building.

He bought the 17-year-old building in spring 2022 for $685,000.

“I took over this location two years ago, and it’s taken me this long to open it,” Won said.

He said it started with the design work. Construction took one-and-a-half years, and that included putting in a restaurant-quality fire system. The bank building basically needed to be gutted, he said.

The new restaurant is much bigger than the one in Kennewick. Richland features 4,500 square feet compared to 3,000 square feet in Kennewick.

In Kennewick, there are six tabletop grills that allow customers to cook their meat at their table. In Richland, Won has 20 tabletop grills, plus a table large enough to seat a party of 30.

Expansion plans

Won was a college student in 2002, majoring in art, when he got the call from his parents.

“My parents’ restaurant in Portland was in trouble, and my mom told me they needed me. So I quit school, and I started to become a chef,” he said.

In 2010, Won moved to the Tri-Cities and operated Sushi Ya.

He eventually sold the restaurant and opened his first Gangnam Style BBQ restaurant in Kennewick in 2017.

“My goal,” he said, “is to keep opening restaurants. I’d like to eventually build another of these in Pasco.”

For now, though, he and his staff need to get their legs under the new Richland store, which held a soft opening on July 23.

Won said that with the expansion comes more employees.

He now employs 30 people, many of whom he is still training. Many of those who aren’t new have been with Won for a long time.

“We’ve had a lot of employees working longer than five years here,” he said. “I credit it to being less greedy as an owner and caring about my employees.”

Though the Richland restaurant may be bigger, Won said the menu is smaller than what’s offered in Kennewick. He views the Richland location as more of a family dining place. He said the bibimbap pots are popular. Bibimbap is a Korean rice bowl dish.

Yet nothing beats barbecue for many of his customers, which is why he has the 20 tabletop grills, all with exhaust pipes to lift the smoke up and out through the roof.

“Everybody in America loves to barbecue,” he said, adding that first-timers who need help at their tables can press a button at the table to summon a server to help.

A creative project

Won is excited about his new location. “I love how I created this starting from nothing,” he said. “I’ve always been creative.”

He figured his creative days were gone when he dropped out of school and jumped into the restaurant business with his parents.

He was wrong.

Customers walking into the restaurant are immediately met with deep, dark wood designs tastefully displayed along the walls.

The artwork includes Korean cultural items, including a sword that Won himself made.

“I had a plan,” he said. “I wanted to make a museum of things. Some people don’t know Korean culture and art. They can ask me questions, and I can tell them about it.”

His food also features artistry.

“I realized that at my sushi restaurant, I was really proud to give to the customers this beautiful plate of sushi,” he said. “I looked at it, and I thought, ‘This is art.’ Once I jumped in and started making beautiful plates, I realized it was beautiful art. Same here. “This is art.”

Gang Nam Korean BBQ & Table Top Grill: 1275 Lee Blvd., Richland and 7903 W. Grandridge Blvd., Kennewick. Hours at both are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day.