Michael Manning, a bond trader, might never have gotten into the restaurant business if it hadn’t been for his sister. Lesli Doughty, known as Poni, worked in bars and restaurants, and about three years ago she convinced him that they should open a Korean place together.
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Doughty, who’d tended bar at Crobar and Smart Bar among other places, was well-known on the local club scene and acted in local productions as well, having majored in theater at Columbia College. In 1993 she married Alan Doughty of Jesus Jones and the Waco Brothers. But she suffered from a congenital heart condition. “She was born with a hole in the ventricle of her heart,” Manning explains. “The doctor who delivered her said she had a death sentence of about 30 years. She was so proud that she never used her condition as a crutch in life.”
Manning never planned on a career in cooking, though while attending prep school in Colorado he “apprenticed as a table chef in a Japanese joint and learned how to cook quickly for 20.” Instead, he says, “I always wanted to make big bucks.” Nevertheless he moved into the role of chef temporarily. With help from their mother, Manning and Doughty cooked up the modest menu–28 items in all. “We picked the all-stars, making sure that these wouldn’t be too far-out for non-Korean palates,” says Manning. They used family friends as guinea pigs. Much of Korean cuisine reflects the country’s geography–it’s a peninsula with mountains in the north and streams and sea coasts abundant with fish in the south–and the ingenuity of a people who learned to cope with the harsh winters and waves of famine. Kimchi, the national dish of cabbage pickled with peppers, ginger, and garlic, shows a typical way of preserving fresh produce (and meat) for the cold months. Koreans’ love for dumplings and pancakes–mandu and bindae duk on Soju’s menu–mirrors the predilection of their Chinese neighbors for food that can be steamed or fried, then dipped in flavorful sauces. Kimbop is a con-cession to the taste of the Japanese, who colonized the peninsula in the first half of the century. And of course Koreans are noted for their fondness for beef: Soju has its versions of kalbi (barbecued short ribs) and bulgogi (grilled sirloin strips). Another well-known dish, de rigueur at pan-Asian eateries these days, is bibimbop, a rice and vegetable medley topped with a fried egg, served cold at Soju. Manning has included several tofu dishes as well, the most pungent of which is suun-dubu, hot enough to wow even the taste buds of jalapeno fans.
