What happens when you cross Korean barbecue, Mexican food and tweeting? Aside from me in food heaven, you’d get the Kogi BBQ truck: a tasty marriage of Korean barbecue meat packaged in soft tortilla shells, served from a taco truck and dubbed by Newsweek as “America’s First Viral Eatery.”
Kogi’s two trucks, nicknamed Verde and Roja, roam the streets of Los Angeles serving hungry patrons such unique offerings as Kimchi quesadillas, Kogi dogs and a choice of short rib, spicy pork or tofu tacos. But it’s not just the menu that makes the Kogi BBQ truck unique, it’s also the way Angeleans with a craving for Korean and Mexican food find them: Twitter. The trucks broadcast their locations (“@The Brig on Venice and Palms between 10pm-2am” or “@Buena Park between 2pm-5pm”) on Twitter and upon arrival, literally hundreds of hungry Tweeters are in line waiting to order. Kogi is, essentially, the answer to those late night hunger pangs that you crave but aren’t sure where to go.
Launched last November, the Kogi BBQ truck (@kogibbq) is the brain child of Mark Manguera and Chef Roy Choi, and in a few short months, has become an LA phenomenon, with two-hour-long waits for food at all hours of the day, nearly 20,000 followers on Twitter, a dedicated Kogi blog, a YouTube video Is it really worth the wait and the trouble? (“Chasing the Dragon (the Kogi BBQ Adventure)”) and its own unique “Kogi Kulture:” where Kogi fanatics have named the two taco trucks, designed t-shirts and posted fan photos and videos of their experience.
“It’s delicious,” my foodie friend texts me. “I follow them on Twitter so I know where they are at all times.” (Thanks for not taking me there when I visited last month, by the way.)
Foodies have long used the Internet to share their own views of the latest and greatest in food. Yelp and Chowhound are two examples of social media sites where users can post their own reviews of restaurants, raving about appetizers or critiquing the wait staff. The success in Yelp lies in the power of word-of-mouth marketing and social networking: most people would rather trust the word of their friends and/or their networks rather than the generic campaigns and targeted marketing or advertising that businesses put out. However, those businesses find the site a one-way street: restaurant owners who receive negative reviews and one-star ratings rarely have the chance to answer their critics. Some have tried to combat the criticism by inviting Yelpers back for a free meal or offer to host Yelp parties in order to up their ratings. Still, they can only read what those parties have to say.
But with Twitter, Kogi can speak to its customers with real-time updates that can reach hundreds of people within seconds. For example, if the cops tell a truck to move on, tweeters would suggest another location. If they’re stuck in traffic, they can post a tweet - “Roja is currently crawling on 101. See you ASAP(10 min?)! Thx once again!” - to reassure their hungry patrons they’re still coming. They can announce promotions – “The day we reach 20000 followers, Chef Roy will buy 2 tacos for first 20 people @ each truck locations” – or answer questions – “Must go into Alibi to order” – or respond to a first time Kogi BBQ-er – “hopefully the experience was both bitter and sweet. Or at the very least, meaty….drools.”
It’s what restaurateurs, and marketers, crave – the chance to interact with their customers, find out first hand what they like and what they want, and respond to it. Kogi gives a more personal touch to “street meat,” which customers appreciate as well.
The tweeting taco truck concept has taken off. Copy cats have popped up in Seattle, New York and even right here in DC – you can follow the location of The Fojol Bros (@fojolbros) if ever you’re craving curry or mango pop. In fact, I think they’re rollin’ through Georgetown right now….