New pizza concept brings together local restaurant royalty
Oklahoma City said goodbye to the pizza at Knucks Wheelhouse earlier this year, but on Monday it will welcome Wheelhouse Pizza Kitchen, 11109 N May Ave.
Before we get going, understand “wheelhouse” and “pizza” are the only two things the new concept has in common with the bygone Bricktown haunt.
In fact, Wheelhouse Pizza Kitchen brings together two local restaurant heavyweights.
The concept is the brainchild of Loc Le, whom might not sound familiar but you’ve probably heard of Jimmy’s Egg.
The managing partner is Michael Jones, who might sound familiar but it might be because you likely know either a Michael or a Jones if not a Michael Jones of your own. But this man with a common name was the founder and chef behind the uncommonly named Lottinvilles Wood Grille, which closed recently after a long run in Edmond, and Flatire Burgers.
Le was a successful businessman in his native Vietnam, raising a family on the merits of a fruit-canning factory and the construction industry. When Saigon fell in 1975, Le fled to the United States.
After buying a retail wig shop with his wife on N May Avenue, the couple heard a nearby breakfast diner was available. In early 1980, Le purchased the original Jimmy’s Egg at 1616 N May Ave., from its founder, Jim Newman. Two years later, they opened a second at 6004 S Western Ave.
Today the chain stretches from Killeen, Texas, to Des Moines, Iowa.
Jones will run the New York-style pizza-bythe-slice concept. If you’re wondering about his Italian chops, Michael started his career at Tony’s Via Roma, a legendary spot on NW Expressway for many years. He cooked there as a kid and eventually managed it. That led him many places, but most prominently to a job with Peter Holloway, whom he helped open Cafe 501. Jones is also among the venerable who toiled at Classen Grill and helped
north part of Oklahoma City, but Yukon could also be a possibility.”
If you live in neither of those places, take heart in the ambitions of Chang and the two Lees. If they get their way, Gogi Go will come to roost far and wide.
Local culture
Thanks to the enthusiasm of prominent chefs like David Chang and the popularity of Korean taco trucks from Los Angeles to New York, Korean cuisine has enjoyed an uptick in interest, but tradition in Oklahoma City is richer than you might think.
Korean House in Del City has been open for close to 30 years, serving the local Korean community the partners grew up in together.
But chef Lee said there were times growing up he was ashamed of the food in his family refrigerator.
“When my friends would ask if there was anything to eat, I would get embarrassed by what we had,” Lee said. “But now I’m so happy to share my culture, and to see the look on people’s faces when they get those flavors.”
Those flavors are a varying combination of heat, acid and umami commiserating on, and within, a bed of rice. In Korean homes, they’re served smorgasbord style and eaten leisurely.
At Gogi Go, you’ll find Korean flavors served a distinctively modern style, which includes the influence Lee has taken from years learning both classic French and Japanese techniques.
The result is a postmodern expression of Korean food as told by kids born and raised with Oklahoma sensibilities.
Multicultural approach
After you stroll past the striking Kris Kanaly original mural inside Gogi Go, the menu is posted on the west wall as you turn toward the counter.
There’s plenty on the menu, but on further inspection you’ll realize it is simply variations on the same theme.
Traditional Korean food is usually served with a selection of distinctive pickled vegetables, known generically as banchan, which sit at the table with you until the meal is complete. That style didn’t fit the model for Gogi Go so Kevin Lee moved it behind the counter.
“What makes Korean food unique is the banchan,” he said. “You have an option where every bite can be different. Order your main menu item and how you eat it with different sides makes it different.”
So after you’ve chosen between steamed rice, kimchi fried rice or japchae (glass noodles), added a protein and sauce, banchan awaits.
Whether it’s general manager Danh Do, assistant GM Dan Johnson or another crew member building your bowl or burrito, they will then invite you to choose from the banchan. Gogi Go offers a broad mix of authentic choices and others including avocado, Monterrey Jack cheese, butter corn and black beans that are good additions to any food regardless of cultural origin.
Besides those options, Gogi Go also offers traditional kimchi, cucumber kimchi, cabbage, picked red onions, pickled daikon radish, pickled hot peppers, green onions, fried shallots, soy bean powder, and crushed peanuts.
“We’re just introducing people to Korean food,” Lee said. “So the only crazy stuff, is really familiar to most people.”
For a final flourish, Gogi Go offers an optional soft-cooked egg. You want to opt in, trust me.
For those new to Korean cuisine, Gogi Go offers signature bowls to remove the guess work.
I’ve yet to have anything at Gogi Go I wouldn’t enthusiastically recommend, but I have to give the nod to the Spicy Pork signature bowl as my favorite. Both chef Lee and Johnson expressed a belief that pork best represents the soul of Korean cuisine.
That signature dish includes spicy pork, kimchi, pickled daikon, gogi pesto, toasted peanuts, cabbage and gogi sauce. Chef Lee also recommends the kimchi fried rice for the undercarriage, and I concur.
Signature bowls range $9 to $12. You can also build your own bowl starting at $9. In a show of assimilation, Gogi Go also offers burrito versions of everything.
“I know it’s not Korean, but they’re so easy,” Kevin Lee said. “And they’re really good, too.”
Lee’s attitude is refreshing and should be the beginning of the end of any heated discussion about the cultural appropriation of food.
If Gogi Go inspires you to further examination of it, find Taste of Korea, 5 S Western, or the newly rebuilt and reopened Korean House, 4716 SE 29.
And let Kevin Lee know, he’d be proud to hear it.