Researching BCD Tofu House’s history was rather difficult. There was only one article I stumbled upon from 2008 in the New York Times database that discussed the franchise’s extension to Manhattan and the kinds of food it serves. So, rather than focusing on BCD Tofu House itself, I centered my research on the history of Koreatown, the enclave in which the restaurant is located.
To begin writing about how K-Town came about, I decided to look at immigration of Koreans throughout the United States in the past several decades. It wasn’t until relatively recently that the number of Koreans grew exponentially. In 1970, 69,000 Korean immigrants were accounted for by the Census Bureau in the United States. Through the early 1970s, each year approximately 30,000 Korean immigrants came to America. In a collection of essays called “One Out of Three: Immigrant New York in the 21st Century” edited by Nancy Foner, the reasons given as for why the population size of Koreans in the United States increased are lack of employment opportunities, marriage between Korean women and American military servicemen, competitive and expensive Korean college education, military dictatorship and fear of another war with North Korea.
Why America though? Well, the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s had led to the approval of the Immigration Act of 1965, allowing a maximum of 170,000 Eastern Hemisphere immigrants to enter the United States per year with the intention of reunifying families. Yet, with this act any Koreans could enter and thus, they took advantage. According to Asian American studies scholar Hyeyoung Kwon, “many new Korean immigrants were highly skilled professionals from urban areas,” coming with families and entering the “service or technology sectors instead of going into manufacturing and agricultural sectors like earlier immigrants.” Medical doctors came to New York and New Jersey especially because of the demand for professional doctors in these areas. Along with them came young students from universities who intended to use their degrees to find managerial jobs or create businesses.
The number of Korean immigrants swarming into America started to decline by 1976, when Americans grew fearful that Korean doctors would take away their jobs. Medical doctors were restricted from entering the states while the South Korean government restricted wealthy and high ranking military servicemen from leaving.
By the late 1980s, a dramatic drop was found in the number of Korean immigrants coming to America. It was primarily because the economy was better after the coup finally ended, but also because of the hardships in adjusting to American society due to language barriers, racial discrimination, and non-transferability of Korean degrees. As a result, the Koreans in America turned to the idea of capitalism: they became self-employed and created small businesses, and they did it all in closed-off, minority neighborhoods.
K-town was in fact a consequence of a bunch of Koreans coming to America in the last few decades, wishing to start anew and create their own businesses. Many second and third generation Jewish Americans moved out of the inner cities in the 1960s to go on to white collar jobs. This left a large demand from prior consumers of the Jewish businesses. Hence, Korean immigrants started to collect within these urban areas. In New York City, Seoul House opened in 1972 in midtown Manhattan, New York Gomtang House opened on 27th Street in 1979 , moving to 32nd Street in 1982, Koryo Book Store opened in 1980, and the Stanford Hotel opened in 1986. Along 32nd Street many Korean restaurants, retail stores, optometrists’ offices and beauty salons gathered in hopes to make profit. Reading Wendy Lu’s article “Secrets of Koreatown,” I found out that they didn’t fare too well due to the “presence of the “welfare hotel…until it closed in 1989.” Apparently, it was rumored to be the most notorious of hotels.
Once the hotel closed, K-Town grew more attention. By 2000, K-Pop culture had swayed the hearts of many Asian Americans to visit K-Town and thereby leaving Koreans with incentive to establish more businesses like karaoke bars and filling up their pockets with money.
As second and third generations Koreans grew older, many also introduced their friends and romantic partners to Korean culture through K-Town while Korean parents kept the culture alive by taking these very same younger generation children there. Eventually, people of other backgrounds flocked to K-Town on their own for the food and their love for K-Pop culture.
BCD Tofu House originated in Los Angeles, another city densely populated with Koreans, and in fact was started up by Korean immigrants over in California. Even though the BCD Tofu House my partner Melissa and I interviewed is on Korea Way in New York City, it is very easy now to see why the owners expanded from one Korean ethnic enclave to the one right here in Manhattan known as Koreatown.
