Bringing street food to the forefront of California Culture, Kogi Bbq Tacos brought the completely original idea of fusing Korean barbeque with Mexican street tacos. It has become a worldwide hit, thanks in large part to their inventive use of Twitter and word of mouth. Caroline and Mark Manguera are the husband and wife duo behind the idea and concept of Kogi.

Where did this idea come from?

Mark: Do you want to hear the real deal or the...

The real deal of course!

Mark: Okay, her sister is a food writer in New York. She came up here to hang out with us and we go get trashed in Hollywood. We went to get some food at some near by taco trucks. She is passed out and I was like “wouldn’t it be great to have Korean barbeque in tacos?” Everyone was like “hahaha” and I really thought about it. A few days later it worked. A friend of mine owned all of the trucks in Los Angeles and loved the idea. He gave us one for free to try for a couple of months. Roy and I were good friends after we met at the Beverly Hilton and we kept in touch. Basically his menu was Rock Sugar’s menu. I always knew he had a lot of passion as a chef and we came together and the rest is history.

What made you want to start your own business?

Caroline: It is very gratifying because you put in ten hours, thirteen hours, at the end of the day you can call it yours. When you are working for some establishment you are working for someone else.

Mark: It is also the American Dream. My parents, her parents didn’t come here for nothing you know. They want you to build your own life, do your own thing. I was reaching the peak for my level. I am making good money but just like anybody you want to take a chance and start my own thing. I wouldn’t have been able to do it when I was forty. If it didn’t work out I would just get another job.

Does everyone know each other from before this?

Caroline: I hadn’t met Roy really until we were really thinking about the idea. We knew we couldn’t cook the tacos ourselves. We worked in the food industry, we worked in the kitchen. We knew we needed someone who could get creative. When I met him, I knew I really liked him. He has such a passion and is very spiritual about food.

Mark: Her sister is helping with the website and the food writing. Her brother is helping us out. His brother’s friend is helping us with the branding. No one is getting paid yet. It is a culmination of all these talents that make this work.

When did this start?

Caroline: Thanksgiving. We had our launch party November 20th. We came up of the idea at the end of September. Roy had to fly to San Francisco to do some consulting so he didn’t get back until mid October. We had a month to put this together. So it was like going 110 miles per hour.

Mark: We wanted to get it started by thanksgiving because that is when all the kids are back from college and everyone is in for the weekend.

Is this all financed by you guys?

Caroline: Yes, we took some from our savings. But to be honest our friend with the truck really helped us a lot because we didn’t have to pay that initial lease. Any business starting, the lease is what is going to kill you.

Do you all work full time still?

Caroline: I work at the four seasons and once I get off I head over to the truck.

Mark: We needed someone to be the front office and I had to be that person.

I think something that is different about this truck is the blogging and social networking. Was this a plan from the beginning?

Caroline: To be honest this wasn’t our plan. We wanted to get out there and we wanted low start up costs. We wanted to get out there and promote ourselves without spending a lot of money. My sister who is helping us from New York said that food bloggers would be a great way. All you would have to do is invite them and pay for their food. So we did that and that started this snowball effect. We got a Facebook, Myspace, and Eric’s friend who does branding. He said you should do Twitter and spread through social media and try it out. He wanted to see if it would work with Twitter.

Mark: I don’t know anything about that stuff. For me I am very tangible. I need to see the thing. I only know Myspace. We had no idea what Twitter was and we decided to just take a risk.

Caroline. I think it was the first food establishment to use twitter.

How do you choose your routes?

Caroline: The people tell us. First it was Hollywood and someone asked us to come to UCLA. We are everyday people as well and we want to connect on that level. If people want us to be somewhere we want to try it at least once. We want to let them know that we appreciate them.

Mark: In the beginning it was like guerrilla renegades, we were getting kicked out left and right. We put it on the people, if they want us to come out there they need to find a spot for us.

I think you address a need for a new type a cuisine in Los Angeles, a new street food?

Caroline: We thought that it would take about six months later before there would be a line. Our second week out there was already a line. We were like “what are we going to do?”

Mark: I remember buying one cabbage and three lettuces.

Caroline: Now we need multiple containers of cabbage and cases of lettuce. We go through like 90 pounds of meat. It is really humbling for us to come so fast. We talked to people who have been in the industry many years and they said that they haven’t seen anything like this catch on so fast.

What is your vision for the future?

Mark: Ultimately our vision is to bring street culture you see in Asia here.

Caroline: In Asia we have street vendors, plastic tables and chairs and one or two dollars for great food. It is so successful in Asian Countries and we wanted to bring it here.

Mark: We want to bring street food, but good quality food. You see Roy in the truck and it is a real great chef who brings his talent to the street. 

What in your career has helped you now?

Caroline: We all worked in kitchens, we know how restaurants work. We know how important it is to be good to the customers.

Mark: From Roy’s point of view. He has run all types of kitchens from small kitchens to large multimillion dollar ones. So he also brings that to the table. In order to open the business, we needed to all bring our backgrounds to it.

Any roadblocks so far?

Mark: The problem right now is keeping up, storage. Finding enough space.

How do you all get along?

Caroline: Everyone has such different strengths that we really never talk over it too much. We all have worked in a kitchen so we know how it works but we know that it is Roy’s deal so he does his thing. Mark is great at wheeling and dealing, building relationships. Roy and I could never do that so we let him handle that. We all talk things over and make decisions together. We work well together because we all respect each other and what we do.

Has it been fun?

Caroline: Yes, definitely. Fourteen hour days go by like nothing. The best part is finding someone who does not know what it is and tries it and loves it.

Visit Kogi here.

Photos taken by Kogi Photographer Eric Shin.