Right Up Your Alley: The First Alleyway’s Chefs

Words by Kate Jarocki and Eddie Hackworthy

Photos by Joe Wabe and First Alleyway

To many foreigners in Gwangju, The First Alleyway is a culinary gem. From the ritzy establishments inside Gwangju’s finest hotels to the local McDonald’s, no other restaurant in the province provides such an authentic and varied North American dining experience.

“I actually had a guy come here last Sunday with his family,” said Tim Whitman, owner and head chef of The First Alleyway. “And he came to talk to me. He said, “It doesn’t feel like Korea in here.”

Whitman has now spent five years cultivating his business as an oasis for lovers of Western cuisine. He originally crossed the Pacific to teach English, though. “I had just lost my job at the bank that year. I was doing construction at the time. That’s when my two friends came back – one came back from Korea and one came back from Japan – and we just sat down and talked and asked, ‘What are we going to do with our lives?’ Next thing we know we’re all on our way to Korea.”

Whitman later met fellow Canadian Michael Simning, to whom he commented that Gwangju needed a mart for foreign foods. Simning later asked if Whitman was serious and The Underground Grocers was born. For six years, their little shop offered a more diverse selection of imported food than Korea’s big-box stores.

For Whitman, however, it was starting The First Alleyway that offered him a sense of fulfillment he had only found piecemeal in his other jobs. “Teaching is all mental. I was in the Army, I was in construction, which is all physical. And the restaurant is both. It’s the challenge of how I can put things together into something people will want to buy, but also making it.”

He has never received training. “No licensing or training – just do. Mike and I talked about it one time… I talked about going to NAIT [the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, which has a culinary program] but in the end, he said “That’s stupid, just stay here and play in the kitchen.””

Partners

The First Alleyway originally started in a much smaller space at the end of a narrow alley, from which the restaurant takes its name. For its first three years, from 2010 to 2012, The First Alleyway cultivated a boutique kitchen approach that took longer to make meals and served only a limited number of guests. Since relocating in 2013, the new First Alleyway has aimed for the opposite. Along with expanding the space, the co-owners trio of Whitman, Simning and James Green expanded the number of items available and decreased the waiting time.

2014 saw changes no one predicted. In February, Michael Simning passed away from medical complications related to cancer. At the end of the year, James Green ended his partnership in order to spend more time with his family. Now Whitman is the sole owner.

Which is not to say he has no help. As head chef, he works with two other full time cooks and three part-time cooks. Fellow chefs Na Jihui and Jang “Bobo” Boin have been working with The First Alleyway for several years. Na received her culinary education largely from her trade school, where she focused on hotel food preparation. Jang, a former English student of Whitman’s, learned culinary fundamentals from her high school and worked in both Canada and Australia.

“They work so well together, and they’re such hard workers,” said Whitman.

The appreciation is mutual, assured Na. “I am really lucky to work for Tim. Bosses can be really hard … But Tim is like my friend. So gentle and nice.”

“He’s really charming. I love him,” agreed Jang.

Even after years of working at The First Alleyway, Jang said she still enjoys eating at the restaurant everyday. Na only half-agreed. “At first it was heaven: pizza and burgers,” said Na laughing. “Two years later, I need rice and kimchi.”

The Process

One of The First Alleyway’s strengths is its constantly changing menu; Whitman loves experimenting with new food. “I do watch some cooking shows, I do look at stuff online. I’m always trying to find new ideas.”

Many of his ideas for new dishes come from his international clientele. Whenever he hears someone wish aloud for a certain meal from back home, Whitman writes out an ingredient list and checks to see if everything on it is accessible. Therein often lies the first snag.

“Most of my ingredients for non-alcoholic stuff come from four suppliers,” he explained. “That’s it. And to put that in perspective, when we ran the grocery, we were using 20 different suppliers.”

The problem is that key differences exist between most Korean and Western ingredients, for example in sugar content. “I’ve had to deflect a lot of supplies from my suppliers because they’re sweet. Like pizza sauces that were sweet, really sweet. It’s funny, the cheese we use on our pizzas, our suppliers tried to change it on us three times. Their argument is, ‘The other restaurants are using it.’ I say, ‘I don’t care.’”

If a supplier can offer what he needs, the next step is insuring that the dish can be prepared quickly. Can parts of the dish be prepared ahead of time? Does it have to be made to order? “Part of choosing the food we make is finding overlap with the things we make already. If we’re using something on only one food, that becomes a problem.” And is there enough space on the steam line – the water-heated table in the kitchen that keeps certain ingredients hot –for the necessary items? If the answer to this last question is no, Whitman evaluates sales of other items to see if he can make the space. “We keep a point-of-sale list in the kitchen to track sales of orders. Getting rid of one slow item allows room for others.”

The last phase in a new dish’s journey from idea to reality, of course, is the taste test. Whitman is more than serious about this step. “We dumped twenty liters of hot sauce last week… That’s almost eight kilos of pepper.”

Items which have recently passed all these obstacles, or are undergoing them, include food as diverse as lasagna, cold sub sandwiches, pork belly reubens, pierogies, shepherd’s pie, scalloped potatoes, chicken parmesan and chicken cordon bleu. One thing you will never see at The First Alleyway, however, is spaghetti. On this point the owner is adamant. “Mike [Simning] used to say, ‘If you want noodles, there are 25 noodle shops over there where you can get noodles.’”

The Future

So what does 2015 have in store for The First Alleyway?

“I really want to try and hit the projects that we started a year or a year and a half ago that got sidelined for one reason or another. Like new glasses,” he said, holding up a brandy-filled glass with a smile. “The direction the restaurant went in was more ‘restaurant’ and we want to be more ‘diner,’ more casual, more relaxed.”

And while Whitman appreciates the business of native English speakers, he is brainstorming ways to increase Korean traffic. He has considered introducing a menu written in Korean. “I see where it would have a value. It would certainly make it easier for the servers.”

But he is dedicated to maintaining the unique environment that has made this restaurant a success in the Gwangju community.

“I think that’s part of the appeal,” Whitman mused. “We’ve created a different atmosphere.”