Experience

Sourcing ingredients predominantly from Japan, Chef Brian Baik utilizes the world’s finest seafood ingredients in crafting a 10-11 course tasting menu that balances bold to subtle flavors, modern flourishes, and an intent to bring out the essence of each individual ingredient.

Chef Brian Baik

Chef Brian Baik hails from a rich culinary background—in 1983, his parents established Kobawoo House, an acclaimed restaurant in Koreatown, Los Angeles, featuring bossam and other Korean delicacies, that has thrived for over four decades. While, throughout his early years, the family business remained close to his mind, Chef Baik first obtained a degree in Business Administration at the University of Southern California and subsequently embarked on a career in commercial real estate finance. After moving to New York, Chef Baik ultimately found his way back to his original passion for cooking and hospitality and enrolled at the prestigious International Culinary Center while simultaneously cutting his teeth at Bouley Restaurant. This initial exposure to world-class ingredients, including seafood transported directly from Japan, learning classic as well as contemporary culinary techniques, and cooking alongside the legendary Chef David Bouley, started Chef Baik on an eclectic journey that led to formative experiences at Michelin-starred restaurants including Eleven Madison Park, The Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare, and Sushi Noz.

Within the confines of fine dining, Chef Baik has found himself consumed by his relationship to seafood—how to most ideally work with it by utilizing the best techniques to age, maximize peak flavor, cure, and source ingredients that are second to none. The combination of Chef Baik's critical role as part of the Sushi Noz opening team coupled with his years of working with the highest quality seafood ingredients in New York, as well as his French technique-based cooking background, all coalesce together into a truly unique skill set for a fine dining chef. Having returned to his native Los Angeles, Chef Baik’s has introduced a novel dining experience to his hometown by applying his range of knowledge and experiences to the execution of a distinct tasting menu that celebrates his vision of elevated cuisine.

Origins

The first incarnation of Corridor 109, begun in 2021, took shape as a series of Monday night dinners at Kobawoo House, the acclaimed restaurant of Chef Brian Baik’s parents in Koreatown. A staple in the community since it opened in the early 1980s, Kobawoo House provided Chef Baik with a weekly venue to begin developing the nascent 109 concept in both form and experience. 

In early 2023, Chef Baik opened his Test Kitchen in the Far East Plaza in Chinatown. With dinner service three nights a week, Chef Baik was able to utilize this space to continue refining the greater 109 concept and the infrastructure necessary to support its development. After two years of operation, the Test Kitchen closed in December of 2024 in anticipation of the Summer 2025 opening of the third incarnation of Corridor 109—the full restaurant and bar in Melrose Hill.