A restaurateur with several recent hits under his belt has teamed up with a chef with SF fine dining cred to open a new Oakland restaurant focused on Korean comfort food and home-style cooking.
The restaurant will be called Ajae, and restaurateur Min Park — of SF’s Itria and Menlo Park’s acclaimed Yeobo, Darling — and chef Brian Shin are aiming for a late 2026 opening at an undisclosed address on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, as the Chronicle reports.
Shin is an alum of Benu and the former In Situ at SFMOMA, both led by Executive Chef Corey Lee. And as the Chronicle notes, he’ll be following in the path of other Benu alums James Yeun Leong Parry, who opened the acclaimed Happy Crane last year, and Alan Hsu, who along with partner Sarah Cooper opened Sun Moon Studio in West Oakland, earning a Michelin star and a rave from the Chronicle that named it the best new restaurant of the year in 2024…