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A look at the latest in local food, dining and drinking news

A wildly popular LA-based Korean BBQ restaurant expands to Sacramento

By Tori Masucci Cummins

Photo courtesy of Gen Korean BBQ

March 5, 2019 Update: Gen Korean BBQ will open at Arden Fair at 6 p.m. tonight. Hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 11 a.m.-11 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m.-11 p.m.

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Arden Fair will be firing up the grill for Gen Korean BBQ, which is scheduled to open in early August in the space that formerly housed Maggiano's Little Italy.

This will be the first Sacramento area location of the popular LA-based Korean cuisine chain, which has locations in Southern California and the Bay Area, as well as in cities like Las Vegas, and is known for its extensive all-you-can-eat menu (in traditional Korean barbecue style, guests select their meats, seafood, vegetables and garnishes and cook them on tabletop grills). Lunch will be $16.99 per person and dinner will $24.99 per person.

The menu will feature staples like marinated beef bulgogi and beef galbi (short ribs), as well as more daring options like gobchang (cow intestine) and beef tongue. It will also include items cooked in the kitchen, such as jap chae (stir-fried glass noodles), Korean fried chicken, spicy soft tofu stew. The bar will serve up wine, beer, sake and soju in flavors like lychee and green apple.

Nathan Spradlin, Arden Fair’s senior marketing manager, says the 7,800-square-foot space will seat almost 300 diners and will be revamped with a modern ambience featuring blue lighting and spacious leather booths to move away from the Tuscan style of its former inhabitant Maggiano's, which closed in summer 2016.

The shopping center will also welcome Fruit-a-land, a Mexican dessert shop that whips up frozen fruit concoctions like mangonadas and raspadas, and is filling a spot in the mall’s food court previously occupied by Cold Stone Creamery. Just in time for Sacramento heat waves, Fruit-a-land is pegged for a June opening.

Elsewhere at Arden Fair, visitors can expect to see several changes in retail spaces over the coming months. G-Star Raw, an international designer denim company co-owned by Pharrell Williams with locations in cities like Paris and Shanghai, is set to move in next to the Apple store in early April. Morphe, a popular cosmetics company born out of Los Angeles—and a favorite among YouTube stars and makeup vloggers like Jaclyn Hill—is opening its first Sacramento location with a projected June launch. In August, Garage, an upscale juniors clothing store headquartered in Montreal, is slated to open its doors. Spradlin also adds that shops like Pandora and MAC Cosmetics will soon undergo renovations at Arden Fair.

Arden Fair. 1689 Arden Way. 916-920-1167. ardenfair.com.

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