Jua Brings Wood-fired Korean Cuisine to Flatiron

Chef Hoyoung Kim is bringing the jua — joy — of Korean cooking to New York. “This is a gift to my first daughter Jua Kim,” says Kim, sitting in the dining room of his first solo restaurant project, Jua, in the Flatiron District. “She was named after the French word of joie.” His eatery, which opens Friday, is a similar intermeshing of French and American influences with Korean at its core. After spending eight (“wonderful,” he stresses) years at Jungsik restaurant, where he started as a line cook and worked his way up to executive chef, Kim decided the time was right for his own project. The restaurant is located on 22nd Street, and the chef points to the increasing culinary prestige of the Flatiron area — Eleven Madison Park, Cosme, Casa Mono — as a draw; Hand Hospitality’s Atomix and Atoboy are nearby, too, located less than 10 blocks north and run by chef Junghyun ‘JP’ Park, who Kim cooked with at Jungsik and considers one of his closest friends. Park has also become a mentor, offering guidance to opening a restaurant in New York. “When I decided to open my own restaurant, I was worried about everything because it is a

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