Cultural cuisine with an urban twist; Urbanbelly menu rooted in family and tradition
CHICAGO (CBS) -- It's been 15 years of bending expectations around Asian cuisine at Urbanbelly in Wicker Park.
Digital journalist Jamaica Ponder caught up with the restaurant's founder, Chicago native chef Bill Kim, to see how he keeps the belly full.
The name Urbanbelly; the first part speaks for itself.
"We grew up urban. We didn't grow up in the suburbs. We grew up in Chicago," Bill said.
But the latter?
"The belly part is the most meaningful part, because everybody thinks it's pork belly," Bill said.
But that's too on the nose. It goes a bit further than that.
"It's from the mother's womb. No matter who you are, you come from the mother's womb, and my mom has been a huge influence on me about who she is," Bill said.
From its inception, Bill's restaurant has centered on family.
"It was our community, our neighborhood. Not a lot of our family members helped, and that's how we got launched," he said.
Bill and his wife, Yvonne, had left their fine dining job on the East Coast to start something of their own.
"It was about we want to control our own destiny," Bill said.
And they wanted to do it in their own community.
"The sweetest thing about our journey is we got to do it at home," Bill said. "And everybody was all hands on deck to help us grow."
Coming back to their roots.
"It was all about accessibility, affordability, and having something that's super flavorful that everybody want to eat," Bill said.
Fusing together Yvonne's Puerto Rican heritage with Bill's Korean background.
"The development of the menu was; it was always inspired by the blending of cultures, and destroying boundaries," Bill said.
And destroying expectations.
"We kind of meld it all together by doing a little salsa with the food, where there's a little dance and a rhythm," Bill said.
Telling a story of their partnership and the cultures.
"The lens of who we are as a couple is starting to see what's happening around the world, where it's multicultural," Bill said. "People always say, 'Oh, there are more differences than likes. I take it the other way."
With flavors that stay with you, long after the meal's done.
"Being able to see that you don't have to be one or the other. You could be both, and have the two things come together, and it's okay," Bill said.