How JMT Korean Cuisine Laughed at Opening Delays

JMT Korean CuisineA restaurant that faced about two months of delays due to its move from downtown to Whyte Avenue kept its customers engaged throughout with videos poking fun at the situation.

JMT, which spun out of a restaurant called Nourishak K-Eatery Cafe at 10335 100 Avenue NW, reopened on June 27 despite a target of April. The transition was tougher and took much longer than co-founder Manseok Oh, who also goes by Owen, had anticipated. (Oh spoke through translation by JMT’s social media manager, Manuel Kong, who at times summarized Oh’s comments. Oh’s quotes have been edited for clarity.)

“We were trying to figure out the blueprint for this place,” Oh told Taproot. “We talked to engineers, we got these plans, but of course you have to go back and forth with the city (of Edmonton) to make sure it’s confirmed. But halfway through that process, the city (almost) went on strike. So it was hard to plan another setup for further confirmations and things like that.”

The lengthy delay wasn’t the end of the restaurant’s problems, either. Customers complained about wait times when JMT reopened, Oh said. The marketing may have been too effective for the fresh start.

“We’ve gotten a lot more people and a lot more attention than we expected,” Kong added. “We’re very grateful for that, but also a little bit sad… We’ve had meetings almost every day about how to please these people and deal with all that attention.”

But not all was bad for the JMT team. During their delays, they used TikTok and Instagram to update and entertain their customers.

“Of course we were stressed all the time,” Kong said. “We really wanted to let (our customers) know what was going on, but also in a way that wasn’t too depressing.”

The content is very Gen Z-centric, using popular TikTok sounds, overlaid text, trendy meme formats, and even a parody of the YEGWAVE microblogging brand. Clips include one asking a JMT owner not to cry about the delays, another joking about playing hardball with customers, and another imagining what Day 69 looks like for a customer waiting for the JMT to reopen.