Roy Choi is the unrivaled culinary native son of Los Angeles and ultimate multi-hyphenate: chef, trendsetter, Twitter mastermind. Roy single-handedly ushered in the era of the food truck in 2008 with Kogi BBQ, his fleet of Korean taco trucks that continues to gather crowds across SoCal, and he has playfully reinvented the Los Angeles food scene ever since––from Chinatown's rice bowl heaven-house Chego to Culver City's Hawaiian-inspired A-Frame (located inside a former IHOP).
POT is Roy's newest venture, a Korean-inspired restaurant in the heart of Koreatown at the Line Hotel. It's also a wild combination of all things LA: hip-hop, weed, the immigrant experience, and, of course, delicious laid-back food such as Kalbi, the Korean-barbecue staple. "On the weekends [growing up] we would all get together, go to the park, barbecue, and just kind of chill and be ourselves," he told us when we interviewed him about POT's version of the dish. "Kalbi represents that for me." In line with the summer-party vibe is POT's music, a cocktail of '90s R&B classics like Boyz II Men, R. Kelly, Aaliyah, and, of course, Mariah. In Roy's words: "You're eating a Kalbi, slurping crab, and Mariah Carey comes on? Girls go fucking crazy!" Which OC-favorite jam from '96 was the original inspiration for POT? Watch the video to find out.