Rejected K-pop Star Built $100M Korean BBQ Empire

"With this kind of face, cannot succeed on TV," a talent manager told Chong Hun Song, crushing his dreams of becoming a K-pop star in Seoul. That brutal rejection would eventually lead him to build something far bigger than any music career could have offered.

Today, Song's CUPBOP—a Korean BBQ-in-a-cup concept born from a bright yellow food truck in Utah—operates 38 stores across America and 120 in Indonesia. What started as a desperate attempt to survive Utah's harsh winters has become a $100 million brand that appeared on Shark Tank and redefined what Asian restaurant hospitality could look like.

In this candid interview, Song reveals how a failed K-pop career, a struggling restaurant membership business, and the simple act of dancing while serving food transformed into one of America's most beloved fast-casual chains—and why he believes taking Korean BBQ "to the moon" is just the beginning.

Chong Hun Song: I'm from South Korea. I was a slacker. I never studied in my life, but my mom and my parents actually told me just be healthy. When I actually got into high school, I had about 10 best friends. They're all dancers, except me. I actually learned dance from each member. I always start a little late, but when I actually started breakdancing in Korea, I was pretty good because I worked so hard. I practiced like 8 hours every single day.

I was almost making my album with my teams. My talent manager actually came to me and said, 'Hey, Chong, I think you can be really popular, but not this way. With this kind of face, cannot succeed on TV. If you can do a little comedian, you can be super famous. Can you try it that way?' That night, I dropped everything.

My mom, my dad, they actually made a deal between them and me. If you can stay 6 months in the US, after that, you can do whatever you want. I really didn't want to go to the US because I don't speak English at all. That was when I was 26. I directly came to Utah, Salt Lake City.

Chong Hun Song: I just wanted to go back to Korea every single day. So I stayed in my room all day long, just listening to music, watching TV, that's all. I didn't want to ask for money from my parents. I was trying to get a job, so I went to a Korean restaurant because I didn't have to speak English well. But all the customers were American people.

I wanted to get some more tips. I had to open my mouth because as a waiter, they only paid me $2.50 per hour. Everything was about the tips. If I served nicely, they gave you more tips. I showed them magic tricks. I showed them taekwondo moves. When I shared my love, my extra things, they really liked it. So they actually asked me my schedule. When do you work? Then they'd come back. I got a lot of tips.

Wife: I was born in Gwangju, southwest part of Korea. I danced. I did ballet in middle and high school. I was good enough, I think. One day I thought that I had no confidence to become a top ballerina. Just a few people who studied abroad became really successful. I thought I would never have that opportunity.

In my junior year, I was in charge of the Asian festival in college. I was making choreography, mixing Korean traditional dance, hip hop and break dance, but I knew nothing about break dance. One of my friends said, 'I know one person who used to be a break dancer, so we can invite him to practice.'

I never expected that I would fall in love with him. When I got to see him again to get some help for break dancing, I was pretty impressed with his courtesy and kindness. He's a person who will always try to help others. A lot of people around him always followed my husband. He's a shining person wherever he goes because of his personality.

We got married in 2007. I already knew he didn't like studying. I had a belief that no matter what kind of job he gets, what kind of career he would eventually get, he would completely support his family with responsibility and dedication.

Chong Hun Song: I was working with my brother-in-law. He was a dental technician. After that, I had to sit like 8 hours every single day—that didn't fit my personality. So I asked him, 'Hey, can I do sales?' He said, 'Hey, I don't want you to go outside because you don't speak English at all.' I said, 'Give me one week. Let me show you what I got.' But after one week, I brought a lot of doctors, and he got shocked. 'What did you do?' I did massage. All the doctors really liked me.

One day, I decided I wanted to do my own business. All of my ideas, I wrote down in a little note, so I talked to my wife. 'What do you think about this idea?' She hated them all. The last idea was the Guerrilla VIP, it's a little discount card. So if I showed them my VIP card, I got a discount from the restaurant. That was my first business.

Wife: At that time we were really poor. Restaurant membership business required IT techniques like websites or apps—we knew nothing about it. We created a website and he started sales.

I remember one day waiting for my husband in a car with two children sleeping. It was late at night and we were driving together looking for restaurants. He went inside and I was waiting for about an hour and a half while he did sales. He came back showing this little check for $50—that was our very first client. I couldn't say anything but cried because I knew how much he tried to get that first client.

Chong Hun Song: One day I saw a food truck at University of Utah. At the same time, I was watching a documentary about Doryeong-jin area in Korea. That area, everybody doesn't have jobs. They're trying to go to academies to get good jobs. A lot of people have no time. A lot of people have no money. They want to grab Korean BBQ cup and go.

So I thought, oh, that might really work in the United States. It wasn't like it hit me—I don't need dishwashers, just a little paper cup. I can put everything in and grab and go. I like the food, but I don't want to wait 7-8 minutes. So I thought, if I want to do business, that's my style.

Wife: First of all, let me explain the overall situation in the food truck industry in Utah. There were only a few food trucks actively running at the time. When he first told me, 'Hey, I want to open a food truck with Korean barbecue,' I was like, 'Here in Utah? Food truck?' I'd never seen any type of food truck in Utah, especially Korean food. A lot of people didn't even know Korean restaurants existed in Utah.

Chong Hun Song: In 2013, we had three children and the last one was only about a year old. The first day we sold out, so I thought, 'Yeah!' The second day, not a lot of people actually came to me. I thought, 'Oh, what should I do? I thought this was gonna work really well, but it's not working.'

But I didn't want to just stand there waiting for customers, so I started playing some games with my partner—rock, paper, scissors, making spicy sauce. And then suddenly people were looking at us. 'What are you doing, those Asians? Why are they so happy? Why are they dancing?'

So I talked to my partner and said, 'Wow, they're looking at us.' So we started yelling. Suddenly people actually came to our food truck and made a line. People brought their phones and made videos of us. They put it on social media, so it brought a lot of followers to our social media page. That's how we started CUPBOP.

Customer: There were food trucks coming every week, once a week. There was this bright yellow truck and I was like, 'Whoa, that's really bright' and it was Korean barbecue in a cup. There were like no Koreans in Utah and so I was super excited when I first tried it.

The food itself may not work for Koreans because it's not catered for Koreans or Asians really, but for mainstream American taste buds, it works. Another thing that really impressed me, even more than the food, was the energy it had.

The stereotypical Asian restaurant—people think the food's really good, but the place is not very clean, customer service is subpar. CUPBOP turned that completely upside down. These Asians screaming, dancing, high-fiving, super loud—that's not the typical Asian restaurant feel. It was super impressive, and it was enjoyable just to go there to interact.

Chong Hun Song: When people talk about restaurants, they usually say, 'Oh, the food is delicious' or 'service is great.' But I've never seen people saying, 'You know what, that restaurant is really fun.' That's the brand identity we try to create.

Chong Hun Song: The food is important, but I think it's not the most important. A lot of people are asking me about our marketing, but I don't want to say that was a marketing purpose. Like, for example, if my best friend is making ramen, even though that ramen doesn't taste good, I'm OK, because my friend is making that ramen for me. We are super close, the customer and us. We remember each other's names.

We didn't have a lot of money, so we had to do something. If I had a lot of money, I could just go on TV and make commercials. But at that time, I had one trailer, two partners. Utah has 4 or 5 months of strong winter, so it was super hard to survive with food trucks. What should I do?

Our first idea was: if you follow us on social media like Facebook, Instagram, we select one person per month. We send our food truck to their house so they can invite 25 people for a private event. That first event was a hit. Five TV channels came to us to make videos. Since the very beginning, we never had a loss. We always had profits and the profit grew over time.

Chong Hun Song: Our finance was very strong. We had a lot of cash flow, and we were just growing over time. There are a lot of rich people in the world. There are so many rich people, and there are so many smart people out there, but guess what? There are not many honest people out there.

We got 38 stores in the United States. We got 120 stores in Indonesia. The CUPBOP goal is really simple: taking CUPBOP to space, to the moon. I want to take CUPBOP everywhere.