Hong Suk Chun Shares Thoughts About Having To Close Itaewon Restaurant For 1st Time In 12 Years Due To Coronavirus Outbreak

Mar 16, 2020

Hong Suk Chun will be closing his restaurant due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

On March 16, the TV personality shared photos of his empty restaurant on Instagram along with a statement about halting operations.

He wrote, “It’s been about 12 years since My Chelsea opened in Itaewon and it’s a store that I’ve run without resting for a single day. It’s temporarily shut down since last week due to COVID-19. I’m tearing up. The monthly rent alone is 9.35 million won (approximately $7,600). I’m taking this time to rest and it gave me a thought. If there is anyone who wants to use this space, is overflowing with passion, and makes good content, please contact me. I think we could have fun together, whether it be food, a flea market, filming for YouTube, or distributing specialty products in connection with the local government [laughter]. It can also be content that I’m planning to share online.”

He continued, “I’ll pay the rent. Please contact me if you have a pop-up store in the main area of Itaewon in Seoul and have items you want to introduce to customers. You can contact me via direct message. When the economy is poor like this, I think the answer is to gather ideas and passion to help each other. Let’s have a new start. I will not sit still and be destroyed by COVID-19. Let’s try to gain strength. Good luck to the city of Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province. To those who are self-employed, please gain strength. Small businesses, I hope all of you will gain strength. Everyone working to stop the outbreak, please hang in there. Let’s keep our chin up, South Korea.”